South Caroliniana Library

09/08/2026

"This quilt was inspired by a photograph taken circa 1930 by
photographer Richard S. Roberts (1880-1936). I was drawn to
the expression on the boy’s face and the quiet confidence of a
child posing with his rooster.

As I worked, I found myself thinking about the countless
ordinary people whose names and stories are often lost to
history. The parquet wood border recalls the floors of earlier
generations and serves as a frame for a moment that might
otherwise have been forgotten.

Through fabric, stitching, color, and texture, this piece honors
the beauty, dignity, and presence of a young boy whose
expression was originally captured by Richard S. Roberts’
camera, and carried forward through cloth."

Barbara Gathers wrote these words on the label of the extraordinary quilt she created from the iconic photo of Walter Adams with his rooster. The quilt, originally named "Rooster Boy" is 36"x47" and made with fabric, thread, quilting and mixed media textile techniques. Barbara changed the name of the quilt to "Walter's Rooster" after learning Walter's name. She also added a second label to the quilt which has a photo of adult Walter and information from his obituary. She is working on a second quilt inspired by another photo in the Roberts collection.

The Richard Samuel Roberts Collection is fully digitized and available to view at the link below: https://digital.library.sc.edu/collections/richard-samuel-roberts-photograph-collection/

09/03/2026

to Drayton Hall in the late 19th century!

This photo is from the George LaGrange Cook Photography Collection which features photos from Summerville and Charleston in the 1880s and 90s. There are many important plates of various residences in Charleston and Summerville. Drayton Hall with its two outbuildings is one of these plates; it shows a building which no longer exists and for which no other visual evidence is known.

09/03/2026

Yesterday we had the immense pleasure of welcoming Judge Richard Roberts and his sister Antoinette Smith, grandchildren of photographer Richard Samuel Roberts, to the Library to view some of their grandfather's glass plate negatives.

Public Historian Rachel Young from the University of South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History & Research, and Kordell Bonds, a student worker who helped digitize the photos, were there to provide context on the process of how the photographs were taken and edited, as well as insight into the identification process that took place during the digitization of the photographs.

The Richard Samuel Roberts Photograph collection can be viewed in its entirety at the link below: https://digital.library.sc.edu/collections/richard-samuel-roberts-photograph-collection/

09/02/2026

We are excited to be a part of this important effort to preserve university history!

Honors College anthropology students were able to glimpse at what life was like on campus during the 19th century.

09/01/2026

As the school year begins to ramp up, we wanted to look back on a monumental landmark for female athletes and students.

The Fifty Years of Title IX at USC oral history collection was created by students in a class taught in 2022 by Professor Christian Anderson, University of South Carolina College of Education, who partnered with the Department of Oral History to process and preserve the materials and present them online.

The class interviewed twenty-two women who experienced the impact of Title IX on athletics. The narrators described their experiences prior to Title IX, during the early years of implementation and shared their perspectives, decades later, on gains made for female athletes. Many of the interviews were comprised of the first eighteen female students to receive athletic scholarships at USC and described newly formed women’s sports teams in softball, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball and tennis.

Visit the link below to see the digital exhibit and listen to the oral histories!
The image below is from the exhibit panels in the digital exhibit.

https://digital.library.sc.edu/exhibits/title-ix/

08/31/2026

that you can view some of our collections from anywhere, at any time, through our Digital Collections?

Digital Collections, like the recently digitized South Carolina Council on Human Relations Collection, make collections accessible to those who may not be able to travel to the Library to view the materials in person. They are a great resource for all kinds of researchers from seasoned academics to casual history lovers.

The South Carolina Council on Human Relations (SCCHR) emerged from in*******al organizing in the state. It grew out of the South Carolina Committee on In*******al Cooperation, formed in 1919, and became the South Carolina arm of the Southern Regional Council. In 1957, it changed its name to the South Carolina Council on Human Relations. The organization worked to promote civil and human rights for African Americans in the state, as well as hoping to improve race relations. You can see the digital exhibit and collection at the link below!

https://digital.library.sc.edu/exhibits/scchr/

08/28/2026

Many of us enjoy cooler days in the mountains during the hot summer months. In July 1894, decades before creation of the Appalachian Trail, John D. Muller penned a letter to his mother at home in Charleston, which we have in our collection, describing his extended hike from Hendersonville (NC) to Greenville (SC), which on the roads of today rates as a 55-mile journey.

An 1890 graduate of the College of Charleston, John D. Muller (1872-1953) describes his trip with a friend via train from Sullivan's Island to Spartanburg (where he comments on the large number of bicycles seen in town), and then on to Hendersonville (N.C.), where they left the station to begin their walk in the woods south to Caesar's Head and Greenville (S.C.).

Although it was not a dark and stormy night, Muller describes a somewhat gothic encounter at a run-down former hotel in Transylvania County (NC), a destination once known as the Buck Forest Hotel. Muller describes the former hunting lodge as "a rather forlorn looking building, ornamented with many antlers of various deer which had be[en] killed during the past forty or fifty years.... The proprietor no longer bothers himself about possible guests. He tried to put us off... but we used a little persuasion and so obtained a bed... His name is Carson, and he is a distant relative of the famous frontiersman, Indian scout, trapper & hunter Kit Carson".

Pictured is a postcard showing Ceaser's Head from our South Carolina Postcard Collection.

08/27/2026

Calling all history and calligraphy lovers!

Join University Libraries inaugural Zooniverse crowdsourcing project to transcribe a set of letters from the American Revolution! Reverand Oliver Hart (1723–1795) was an influential Baptist minister, educator, and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina.

Hart was instrumental in garnering support for the Revolution among farmers in the backcountry, and he also played a key role in the development of early Baptist institutions in the South and was part of a broader network of religious leaders whose ideas helped shape social and cultural life in the colonial and Revolutionary periods. The Oliver Hart Papers features manuscripts, journals, and sermon notes from the Revolutionary Era, and they are all ready to be transcribed!

Transcribing is easy! Follow the instructions on the website to help the libraries add typed transcriptions from handwritten letters to their digital collections. These transcriptions will allow researchers to more easily read the documents and conduct full-text searching to further their understanding of the past. And it is completely free!
Head to the link below to get started!

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/digicoll/usc-transcribes-together

08/26/2026

Today is National Dog Day!

Enjoy these photos of furry friends from our collections. Which one is your favorite?

This post includes photos from the newly digitized Richard Samuel Roberts Collection, the John Shaw Billings Photograph Albums, the Berkley County Photograph Collection, the John Henry McCray Papers, and our South Carolina Political Collections.

08/25/2026

that the South Caroliniana Library is home to the Department of Oral History?

The Department of Oral History records the memories and descriptions of daily lives, communities, families, and notable events that shaped South Carolina and continue to do so and makes those stories freely available to a wide audience. You can browse hundreds of oral history interviews with South Carolinians through the University Libraries' website, linked below!

The Department of Oral History records the memories and descriptions of daily lives, communities, families, and notable events that shaped South Carolina and continue to do so, and to make those stories freely available to a wide audience.