Public Records & A Giant Novelty Check

Who doesn’t love a giant novelty check? How about with your name on it?

On October 22 and 23, the Archives hosted the 2009 South Carolina Public Records Association (SCPRA) Conference at our facilities on Parklane Road. The theme for this year’s conference was “Dealing with Change in Records Management,” and SCDAH Records Management staff members did a stellar job as both hosts and participants.

The featured speaker on Thursday was South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, who made a number of kind comments regarding SCDAH and its mission (whoo-hoo!).

In gratitude for the agency’s past contributions, the SCPRA generously contributed a large novelty check to SCDAH for the purchase of a new microfilm reader to be placed in the research room. (Then, because SCPRA is far too kind for cruel illusions, the actual check followed.)



Says the big E: “We are grateful to SCPRA for the “big check” and to the staff of SCDAH for all of their hard work. Once again you hit it out of the park.”

Afternoon Tea, or What Not To Do During A Fire Alarm

The creatures emerged slowly from the darkness, blinking in the sunlight, trailing slowly from the hulking building and straggling over to the Grassy Knoll,* squinting, stumbling, stalling, and eventually forming a loose conglomerate that in ancient Nordic lands would be called a Thing - a meeting of minds on a great hill.

And that's what it looks like when fifty or some-odd archive employees have to evacuate the building for an unannounced fire drill. Darlin' Patrick, looking sporty in his jacket. Elaine from reference, her hair gleaming prettily in the sun. Paul being chatty, Red congenially waving, Eric dapper as usual. All we needed was afternoon tea.

For the record, here's what NOT to do:
- Note the faint buzzing (different from the buzz of printers, lights, etc) filtering in over the music you're listening to while you work.
- Decide that the flickering light isn't the same flickering fluorescent light you always see, but coming from a new source, henceforth identified as the fire alarm.
- Stand there and try to decide if it could be a drill or a real fire.
- Realize there's probably no viable way to determine if there's a fire in one side of the building from the other.
- Try to gauge the flame susceptibility of your location, and in this case, bet whether the walls would be fireproof enough if there's concrete in their construction. Maybe you could keep working? There's a sprinkler head above your chair.
- Wonder if the sprinklers would go off if it was real, and if so, would it be acceptable to try and save your computer's back-up hard drive?
- Realize you haven't saved the file you were working on; save file.
- Check email, looking for a missed notice of an upcoming fire drill.
- Stick head in hallway, see no one.
- Wonder if everyone is outside.
- Wonder if everyone is managing to ignore the alarm.
- Wonder if you go out the closest door, if you'll be all by yourself.
- Wonder if the security system has an auto-lockdown feature in the event of emergencies, and could you be locked outside for the day?
- Wrap up ipod, pack up bag.
- Close down files on computer just in case.
- Stare at fire alarm in case it stops blinking. Hear a door slamming somewhere.
- Stick head back out in hallway. See person putting on jacket, heading outside. Decide to leave with said person, because at least you won't be the only lame duck in the event it's a joke.

Yep. Not advisable in the event of a real fire. If, that is, you believe it's a real fire, and not a drill.


(*yes, that Grassy Knoll - we have our own, you know). -AL

The Return of "Big Red?"

No, we are not writing about the Cornell University football team, which beat Yale 14 to 12 last weekend in a game noteworthy for the quality of the caviar and Scotch being consumed by tailgaters. We also are not referring to the cinnamon-flavored gum first introduced by Wrigley in the year of our nation's bicentennial. We definitely are not referring to the soda of the same name, which has been produced in Texas since 1937.

This “Big Red” is the historic banner upon which The Citadel based its current “spirit flag” and an important symbol for the school. According to historical sources, “Big Red” flew over an artillery battery on Morris Island, which was manned by Citadel cadets. These same cadets fired the first shots of “The War” on January 9, 1861, when they fired upon the Union re-supply ship Star of the West and prevented it from reaching Fort Sumter. An account of the incident can be found in the Journals of the South Carolina Executive Council for 1861, which are located at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

Historians at The Citadel believe that they have located “Big Red” at the State Historical Society of Iowa, where it has been stored since being donated by a Union veteran in 1919. Other Civil War flag experts, including a staff member at SCDAH who conducted research on the banner, are somewhat skeptical that the flag located in Iowa is the same flag that flew over Morris Island. Regardless, The Citadel hopes to receive the flag from Iowa on long-term loan. The episode makes for a great story that ties the past to the present. You can read more about the flag at www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/02/historic-find-in-a-storage-closet/. Enjoy the article and remember that nothing excites/inspires/provokes/angers/incites South Carolinians more than a flag related to “The War.”

Building Great Schools (For All the Wrong Reasons)

Sung to the tune of Johnny Lee’s Country classic “Looking for Love”

Pop Quiz: Which Southern state passed its first sales tax (3%) and spent $124 million dollars on new schools and buses between 1951 and 1956 with the expressed purpose of keeping the state’s children segregated?

A. Georgia
B. Mississippi
C. South Carolina
D. Maryland
E. All of the above

If you answered C, you are correct. If you answered A or B, you get partial credit, since Georgia and Mississippi enacted similar programs. If you answered D, you, like many of that state’s residents, are under the delusion that Maryland is still considered a “Southern” state.

In 1951 South Carolina passed its first general sales tax in order to fund a statewide program of school construction in response to Briggs v. Elliott, a lawsuit based in Clarendon County, which challenged the state’s constitutional “separate but equal” education provision. This “equalization” program was intended to construct new African American elementary and high schools across South Carolina to circumvent a potential desegregation ruling by the Supreme Court. The multi-million dollar school building campaign utilized modern school design, materials, and architecture to build new rural, urban, black, and white schools in communities throughout the state.

SCDAH staffer Rebekah Dobrasko has done an outstanding job of documenting this fascinating, bizarre, shameful, and yet beneficial period in our state’s history through her research and the creation of a website entitled South Carolina’s Equalization Schools, 1951-1960 at http://scequalization.schools.officelive.com. The site is an example of the stimulating research being conducted by members of our busy and intellectually curious staff. Take a look at the website; you won’t be disappointed.

Teaching American History (Instead of "Sports 101")

“History is like an amusement park. Except instead of rides, you have dates to memorize.”

Marjorie Bouvier Simpson


Flash back to the 11th or 12th grade, and you and your classmates are sitting before your high school's assistant football coach. On this day, he is your “history teacher,” and he is supposed to lecture on the causes of World War I. You have read Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August to prepare for the lecture. Your “history teacher,” however, is so excited about Friday’s game that he breaks out the projector and shows grainy film footage of a night, ten years before, when he blew out his knee. He rewinds the film again and again to show the exact moment a white helmet crashed into his leg and negated a scholarship offer from a “big time college program” (if you can call Mars Hill a “big time college program”). The bell rings and you stumble to your next class wondering if Austria-Hungary would have been better served by an emperor with the attention span of your history teacher/coach.

Sound familiar? Well there is a program designed to ensure that budding young historians do not suffer at the hands of poorly-prepared teachers. For the past three years, SCDAH has been a co-sponsor of the Teaching American History in South Carolina program, which provides professional development support to teachers by offering a series of 10-day summer institutes, which take place in the Pee Dee, Upstate, and Midlands. A history professor, or master scholar, leads the course, and provides content instruction in American history. Participants also take part in master teacher workshops and cultural institution presentations. Classes are held at local museums, libraries, and historic sites across South Carolina, and all activities utilize local primary source materials or objects relating to the periods or themes being studied. Participants conduct primary-source research and create original lesson plans.

The program’s goal is to ensure that our state’s history teachers offer accurate and engaging curriculum to their students, instead of regaling them with tales about how they “won the big game” (which is more than Kaiser Wilhelm II could say). For more information about Teaching American History in South Carolina, please contact Don Stewart at stewart@scdah.state.sc.us or 803-896-6224, or visit the website at www.teachingushistory.org.

This Day in SC History: September to Remember

May you find what you are looking for. Chinese proverb (curse)

Charleston, September 15, 1752-South Carolina is suffering through the hottest (and driest) summer in memory, with temperatures consistently over ninety and often over one hundred degrees. Conditions are so severe that Governor James Glen declares July 24, 1752, a day of “fasting humiliation and prayer” with the hope that God “may be graciously pleased to send rain for the preservation of the Earth” (see the Wednesday, September 2, 2009 blog for the complete prayer).

On September 14 Charlestonians witness high clouds forming overhead and increasing winds, both signs that the drought will end soon. On September 15 the city is battered by the most devastating hurricane of the colonial period, with the worst of the storm taking place between eight and eleven in the morning. The storm surge is nine feet above record high tides, and Charlestonians flee to the upper floors of their homes, which were quickly engulfed in water. Fortunately for the city’s residents, the winds shift three hours before high tide, thus saving Charleston, and its frightened inhabitants, from even further destruction.

Charleston, and the coastal regions of the colony, are devastated (think Hugo, but without the 24-hour news coverage). The colony is in political and financial turmoil for months afterwards. Governor Glen, no doubt remembering the wildly successful day of “fasting, humiliation and prayer,” declares “a day of general and Public Thanksgiving,” this time thanking God for not destroying the city with the rain for which the colony has so diligently prayed.

By his Excellency James Glen Esq.r Govern.r in Chief and Captain General in and over his Majestys said Prov.e

A Proclamation

Whereas it pleased Almighty God at whose Command the winds blow and lift up the Waves of the Sea for the Punishment of our Manifold Transgressions lately to visit this Province with a terrible tempest and inundation yet of his infinite Goodness in the midst of deserved wrath to turn from the fierceness of his Anger And to remember mercy by Rebuking the Winds and the Seas and Stilling the rage thereof and thereby saving us from imminent and otherwise unavoidable distruction And whereas it hath pleased him to continue to be gracious to us by send.g favorable Weather since for ripening and gathering in the remaining fruits of the Earth and also by Blessing the Inhabitants with a greater share of Health than they usually enjoy at this Season of the Year and as all Persons in General must have been sinsible of the visible interposition of Providence in our Deliverance and of Gods Great mercies towards us it is the Duty of all to make their general and grateful acknowledgements for the same by paying the Tribute of their joint and just Praises and by offering up the Sacrifices of a General and Public thanksgiving to Almighty God for his Goodness I have therefore thought fit by the advice of His Majestys Council to Issue this my Proclamation for appointing a day of general and Public Thanksgiving to Almighty God throughout this Province And I do hereby appoint Thursday the 23.d Instant for that purpose Willing and Strictly requiring that all manner of Persons to observe the same in the most Solemn and religious manner as they tender the Divine favour and Protection and as they would avoid such Punishment as may be Lawfully inflicted upon all who refuse or neglect to do so.
Given under my Hand and the Great seal of His Majestys said Province at the Council Chamber in Charles Town this 15 day of Nov.r in the 26.th Year of His Majestys Reign.

By His Excellencys Command
W.m Pinckney Dep Sec.y James (L S) Glen

Meet Tracy Power, Story-Teller Emeritus

That’s Power, not Powers, for as he says, “I joke that we were too poor --- we came to America from Ireland not long before the Revolution --- to afford the extra letter.”

Tracy Power has worked at the archives for nearly 24 years, and he’s got a lot of stories to show for it. In fact, he’ll tell you up front that he probably talks too much, but he’s just being modest.

His interest in the Civil War began early – he was five years old when President Kennedy was assassinated. His kindergarten teacher used the experience to relate the students to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and from there, he fell into the Civil War, never to return. Fast forward a bit, and you’ll learn that Tracy got his doctorate in only seven years, while working full-time, which may not sound impressive until you realize the average time to completion for a history PhD is eight years for a full-time student. If he wasn’t working here, he’d be a professor.

Mr. Power’s official title is Staff Historian of the State Historic Preservation Office. Says Tracy, “My main duties are serving as co-coordinator of the National Register of Historic Places program in the state, coordinator of the Historical Marker Program, and staff liaison to the South Carolina Hall of Fame.” It’s a unique position which combines Tracy’s love of history with, among other things, his love of sports – he and his wife are season ticket holders for USC’s football, basketball, and baseball games.

Still, there’s more to Tracy than that. His most unusual job? “Probably weeding the parking lot at Jack's Hamburgers in Metro Atlanta, in the summer of 1976.” His very first job? “Reshelving books at the Lanier Lake Regional Library in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 1973, at the age of 15.” Tracy dreams of going back to Rome some day. He feels the defining moment of Beatles history was the day they announced their breakup in the spring of 1970. And in the event of a total suspension of reality, Mr. Power’s backup career plan is to be a clown in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

So when you see him, say hi to Tracy, or maybe just honk your big red clown nose.