Time Period: The Antebellum South (1816 - 1860)

Robert B. Ariail Collection of Historical Astronomy

In 2011 Robert B. Ariail donated an extraordinary collection of historical astronomy to the University of South Carolina and the South Carolina State Museum. Over the past half-century, Mr. Ariail built a collection that encompassed both historic telescopes and astronomical instruments, now at the State Museum, and more than 5,000 rare books and other published …


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Rare Books and Special Collections Pamphlet Collection

This collection of pamphlets is from the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections includes three pamphlets ranging in date from 1838-1927. The topics include an oration on sexual ethics, athletic dance for men and boys and the Proceedings of the Mississippi State Colonization Society.


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Samuel Lander Papers

Samuel Lander, Jr. was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, of Irish parents who had immigrated to America in 1818. He devoted his life to education and the ministry.  He graduated as valedictorian from Randolph-Macon College (then in Boydton, VA) in 1852. For a short time he practiced civil engineering and studied law. In December of …


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Russell Maxey Photograph Collection

The Russell Maxey Photograph Collection at Richland Library includes over 7000 negatives, including images taken by Maxey and earlier photographers. Russell Maxey’s photographs allow researchers a glimpse into a southern city undergoing dramatic shifts in its economic, physical and social landscape. The negatives are housed in the Walker Local and Family History Center.


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Scottish Literature Digital Projects

The University of South Carolina libraries have been acquiring works by Scottish authors since the early nineteenth century. With the addition of the extensive G. Ross Roy Collection in 1989, South Carolina now has major research holdings across a wide range of Scottish writing. Indeed, in the words of one recent visitor, it is “the …


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South Carolina Artifact Documentation Project

Divers have been exploring the rivers and coastal waters of South Carolina since the early 1960’s when SCUBA as a sport was in its infancy. The South Carolina State Legislature first enacted an Underwater Antiquities Bill in 1968 which was intended to protect historic shipwrecks and other submerged cultural resources.  In 1974 a Hobby Diver …


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South Carolina and the Civil War

A collection of photographs, manuscripts, books, and maps from the Civil War era from the University of South Carolina Libraries with essays from Dr. Thomas J. Brown and Dr. Dorothy Pratt. This collection will continue to have materials added to it.


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Small-Whaley Family Papers, 1796-1994

The Diary of a Voyage to China, 1850-1851, the private diary of Captain Thomas Small, reveals the intense loneliness of command and details the longing he feels for the wife and newborn son he left behind. He comments on marriage, child-rearing, and religion, and frequently expresses his desire to find employment “ashore” to better provide …


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University of South Carolina Buildings and Grounds

These images, dating from the 1920s to the 1950s, document the evolution of the University’s physical structures.


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Thomas Jones Davies Bible Records, 1830-1865

The Bible and its inserts, owned by Thomas Jones Davies, contain vital statistics of enslaved African Americans living on Davies’ plantations located throughout Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The plantations mentioned in the records include: Malvern and Gardner’s Swamp, of Beech Island, SC; Swamp Place, near Hamburg, SC; Cherry Hill and Waldburg of Burke County, …


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