Let’s Get Social!

By Kimberly McClure, Archivist, South Carolina Department of Archives and History

For almost 20 years, the South Carolina Archival Association has been bringing together archives professionals and others interested in the preservation of the state’s records.  Every year, we offer workshops and the annual conference where we can come together and learn from our peers.  But the annual Summer Social offers us the unique chance to let our hair down, have a little fun, and enjoy a day of connecting with our colleagues from across the state.  And it’s for a good cause too!

In 2002, the executive board established the Darrick L. Hart Scholarship Fund to honor a SCAA charter member and Conservation Specialists at the University of South Carolina Conservation Lab who passed away that year.  Funds raised from the Summer Social are designated for these scholarships which are awarded to current SCAA members to help offset the costs associated with attending professional meetings and workshops.

This year’s Summer Social was held in beautiful Conway, South Carolina.  Our group met for lunch at Rivertown Bistro where we caught up with our colleagues and discussed some of the major issues we were each facing at our respective institutions.

 

After a pleasant meal, we headed to the Horry County Museum for a tour led by Education Specialist, Marion Haynes.  In addition to the well-crafted exhibits and the famous fish tank, we had the opportunity to tour the storage spaces, processing rooms, exhibit preparation areas, and of course, the archives.  Marion offered an interesting perspective on working in a small archive and the challenges that brings – primarily the handling of donations that don’t fit their scope of collections and the lack of sufficient storage space.

 

 

Bad weather prevented a trip to the L.W. Paul Living History Farm, a part of the Horry County Museum, but our spirits weren’t dampened.  All in all, the day was a success and I, for one, left with a store of knowledge to put to use in my own agency.  A special thanks to Walter Hill and Marion Haynes of the Horry County Museum for graciously hosting us this year.

If you are interested in applying for the scholarship, visit the Hart Endowment page on the SCAA website for more information.

A Message from Your New Blog Editor

Hello, I'm Jim Cross from Clemson University's Special Collections & Archives and I am SCAA's new blog editor. I am encouraging you to send me news, announcements , mini-research pieces, etc. for the blog to share with other members of SCAA. I'm hoping to post at least one blog entry a month, although more is certainly better! You can send items to me at jcross@clemson.edu; if you would like to talk to me about a potential post call me at (864) 656-5182 or contact me via email. I look forward to working with you all!

"Clemson Bound 1893" Online Exhibit at Clemson's Special Collections & Archives

 

 

As thousands of new Clemson students visit campus this summer for Orientation, Clemson Libraries Special Collections and Archives has a new online exhibit -- “Clemson Bound 1893” ( https://spark.adobe.com/page/atdPcRAEZUd30/  ) -- that looks back 125 years to the first Clemson students.   Clemson College opened its doors for the first time on July 6, 1893 for a shortened 5 ½ month session.  Approximately 300 students were on campus that day, but over a hundred more continued to arrive before the Board of Trustees voted to close new enrollment over a month later.

 

“Clemson Bound 1893” looks at the students, the curriculum and the campus during that first year.  It includes historic images and documents drawn from the holdings of Special Collections and Archives including the J.C. Littlejohn Collection, The Williston Wightman Klugh Papers, The Richard Wright Simpson Papers, and Board of Trustees Records.  Images also include an original 1890s uniform in the collection. 

Fall Conference Call for Proposals

 

Call for Proposals

SCAA 2018 Fall Conference and Annual Meeting

University of South Carolina – Aiken

Gregg-Graniteville Library

Friday, October 19, 2018

9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

 

 

Do you know how to salvage a molded, pestilence infected collection?

 

Are you familiar with a new software that could help museums and archives digitize and share collections?

 

Have you had a successful year in fundraising, and want to share your story with institutions that could benefit from your tactics and expertise?

 

Then join us for this year’s SCAA conference entitled, “How do I ...?”!

 

Our theme covers a wide array of topics, including digitization, processing, preservation, outreach ... all of the major subjects that archivists and cultural resource professionals deal with on a recurring basis! 

 

We’re looking for presenters who can share innovative ideas, remind us of tried and true methods, and offer advice on how to be most effective at our work.

 

The conference will feature two presentation options and a poster session for participants to share their knowledge and innovation:

 

1. 30 minute presentations
2. 10 minute lightning rounds
3. Poster sessions to showcase accomplishments and special projects of South Carolina archivists and allied professionals and students.

 

We hope that this year’s conference can offer you useful tips and tools, and we look forward to hearing how you meet archival demands.

 

To submit a proposal, please fill out the form located at https://goo.gl/RhKN8U

 

The deadline for submission is August 17, 2018.

 

Early bird registration August 31-October 10

 

$35 members

$50 non-members (includes membership for one year)

$15 students

 

 

Regular registration after October 10

 

$45 members

$60 non-members (includes membership for one year)

$25 students

“A Surprising Discovery” in the Salzburger Collection

By Scott Reeves, Archivist, Crumley Archives

 

The Salzburger collection, an accession of 160 books which once belonged to the German speaking immigrant community who came to of Ebenezer, Georgia in 1733, consistently rewards us with new surprises as we continue our cataloging and research work on it. One particularly interesting piece in the collection was a certificate that had been placed in protective plastic sheeting. We knew by the top-center placement in large bold fractur of the name of the community’s first pastor, Johann Martin Boltzius, along with the central placement of King George II of England, that this was a document of some significance.

Dr. Russell Kleckley, the translator of The Letters of Johann Martin Boltzius and keynote speaker for the Archives’ Reformation Reception, has been kind enough to advise us in our research efforts. He recently translated the document; it proved to be a farewell greeting from the faculty and students of the school connected to the Francke Foundation in the pietist center of Halle from whence Boltzius had accepted the call to lead the displaced emigrants from Salzburg. According to the conservationist who recently evaluated key volumes from the collection, the farewell document had initially been “tipped in” (specially bound in front of the title page) to the front of the book The Soul’s Treasures by Christian Scriver, which was evidently given as a departing gift to Boltzius.

More intriguing still, Dr. Kleckley wrote to an archivist colleague in Halle, Jürgen Gröschl, and included an image of the document. Mr. Gröschl expressed genuine interest in the collection, noting that he had already heard of our cataloguing efforts. Furthermore, he offered help in identifying rare titles. Of the Boltzius farewell document he stated:

The farewell greetings for Boltzius are really a surprising discovery, and we have not known of their existence so far, i.e. we do not possess another copy of this document. As it was printed, one could assume that the students of Boltzius’ class received a copy, but there is no copy in our archives. Many of these students are in our database as they became teachers or inspectors in the schools of the orphanage themselves and/or pastors in their own communities later.

I think the book by Scriver was a normally printed copy. Usually such books were sold unbound. In this case, the students added their print sheet with the greetings and had them bound together with the book by a professional bookbinder.

 

Mr. Gröschl has not been the only scholar to express interest in the collection; the work on the Salzburger collection has created some excitement in a broader scholarly circle, and we have been blessed with assistance not only from Dr. Kleckley but also of Dr. Scott Hendrix, professor emeritus of Reformation history and Princeton as well as Dr. Patrick Scott, former director of rare books at USC. In fact, Dr. Scott has invested a great deal of time and effort in assisting with the publication of a printed version of the collection’s bibliographic catalogue, The Salzburger Collection, which is now available for purchase with proceeds benefitting the work of the Archives. Sandy Leach of Lineberger Library and Shannon Smith our head archivist presented at a gathering of the SC Library Association (SCLA) about the process of transferring the collection from the library to the archives back in November, and an accompanying article is set for publication in the next edition of the SCLA journal. We have hopes that as our work continues the Boltzius farewell greeting will not be the last “surprising discovery.”