The Herald-Journal Willis Collection is the centerpiece of the Spartanburg County Public Libraries’ visual arts holdings. The collection of over 400 historical photographs was donated by the Herald-Journal in 1999. Most of the photographs were taken by Alfred Tennyson Willis, a Spartanburg commercial photographer, and date from the early 1900s to the 1940s. Alfred’s son …
This Civil War-era photograph album contains cartes-de-visite photographs of members of the S. C. Secession Convention, Confederate and U.S. Governments, officers of the Confederate and U.S. Armies, S.C. governors, and officers of the South Carolina Volunteers 1st Regiment of Rifles. It also includes unidentified Heyward family and friends and 19th century pictures. Many photographs were …
The Historical Commission of South Carolina pamphlet collection is comprised of 45 artificially bound volumes of separately published South Carolina imprints from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Topics covered include: agriculture, Civil War regimental histories, education and schools, geology, industry, medicine, Native American tribes, nature, nullification, the Revolutionary War, the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877), and …
These forty South Carolina soil survey maps from the early Nineteen Hundreds were prepared with booklets to explain the soil classifications on the county level. They include information that do not appear on updated survey maps, such as old rail lines, schools, churches and other structures as well as entire towns that no longer exist.
The 1825 publication of Robert Mills’ Atlas of the State of South Carolina marked an American cartographic first. This volume is the first systematic atlas of any state in the union. Remarkably, too, no other state atlas of South Carolina was published for the next century and a half.
The Negro Travelers’ Green Book was a travel guide series published from 1936 to 1964 by Victor H. Green. It was intended to provide African American motorists and tourists with the information necessary to board, dine, and sightsee comfortably and safely during the era of segregation.
Charles Crosland (1845-1918), who served in the 19th South Carolina Cavalry Battalion, with Company H of the Confederate Army’s Hampton Legion, recounts his combat experiences, his father’s death, and the destruction of the Crosland family plantation in Bennetsville. He also references the sinking of the USS Housatonic by the Confederate submarine, the H.L. Hunley. Lula …
Originally conceived in the late 18th Century, fire insurance maps provided structural and urban environmental information necessary for insurance underwriters. Founded in 1867 in the United States, the Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau systematically produced ascetically appealing, but also efficient, maps nationwide. This New York firm expanded and grew immensely, finally emerging as the Sanborn …
The photographs by Randy Bradford from this collection of historical Spartanburg images are from the decade of the 1940s. Bradford recorded important events, political leaders, and visiting celebrities. His photographs also depict the everyday life and interests of Spartans from this era. Randolph B. (Randy) Bradford attended Spartanburg, South Carolina schools and graduated from Wofford …
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Henry Willis, Jr., son of Robert Henry and Jessie Willis, was born in Williston, South Carolina in 1886. He was the first honor graduate of the Citadel in 1908. Henry Willis became interested in aviation in 1912 and learned to fly in San Diego, California. In December 1913 he received a Military …