The Palmetto State's Memory
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THE PALMETTO STATE’S MEMORY THE PA L M E T TO STATE’S MEMORY i A History of the South Carolina Department of Archives & History, 1905-1960 by Charles H. Lesser A HISTORY OF THE SCDAH, 1905-1960 © 2009 South Carolina Department of Archives & History 8301 Parklane Road Columbia, South Carolina 29223 http://scdah.sc.gov Book design by Tim Belshaw, SCDAH ii THE PALMETTO STATE’S MEMORY TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ................................................................................................................................................................... v Part I: The Salley Years ................................................................................................................................. 1 Beginnings ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Confederate and Revolutionary War Records and Documentary Editing in the Salley Years ........... 10 Salley vs. Blease and a Reorganized Commission ..................................................................................... 18 The World War Memorial Building ............................................................................................................ 21 A.S. Salley: A Beleaguered But Proud Man ............................................................................................... 25 Early Skirmishes in a Historical Battle ....................................................................................................... 31 Records Work in the 1930s and 1940s ........................................................................................................ 37 The Battle Renewed ....................................................................................................................................... 45 Part II: The Easterby Years ...................................................................................................................... 57 Planning a New Program ............................................................................................................................. 57 A New Publications Program ....................................................................................................................... 62 A Modern Archival Program ........................................................................................................................ 68 The Long Crusade for a New Building ........................................................................................................ 85 An End and a Beginning ............................................................................................................................... 97 Part III: Epilogue, 1961-2009 .............................................................................................................. 101 Publications of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History ............ 105 iii Documentary Editions ................................................................................................................................ 105 Legislative, Constitutional, and Executive Journals .................................................................... 105 Other Government Records of the Proprietary Era ................................................................... 108 Documents Relating to the American Revolution ...................................................................... 108 Documents Relating to Native Americans ................................................................................... 109 Marriage and Death Notices and Other Non-governmental Records ..................................... 110 The Papers of John C. Calhoun ....................................................................................................... 110 Confederate Rosters ..................................................................................................................................... 111 Bulletins of the Historical Commission of South Carolina .................................................................... 111 Similar Free Booklets .................................................................................................................................. 112 Microfilm Editions ....................................................................................................................................... 112 South Carolina Bibliographies ................................................................................................................... 113 Basic Documents of South Carolina History ........................................................................................... 113 Illustrated Topics of South Carolina History ........................................................................................... 113 Topics in African American History .......................................................................................................... 113 Booklets for a Broad Audience .................................................................................................................. 113 Monographs ................................................................................................................................................. 114 Facsimile Portfolios ..................................................................................................................................... 115 Guides to the Holdings ................................................................................................................................ 115 Historical Marker Guides ........................................................................................................................... 115 Document Packets ........................................................................................................................................ 115 A HISTORY OF THE SCDAH, 1905-1960 iv THE PALMETTO STATE’S MEMORY Preface In my more than thirty years at the Department Limitations on my time and the difficulty of Archives and History I often used the analogy of being objective about scenes in which one that the department was like the cobbler whose was a participant have forced this book to children had no shoes. It wasn’t that we didn’t have stop in 1960. The Epilogue briefly summarizes the agency’s own records of permanent value, but the department’s more recent past. The they were unarranged or poorly arranged, and bibliography of the department’s documentary formal histories of the department were limited and monographic publications at the end of this to brief overviews. With the publication of The book, however, comes forward to the present. Palmetto State’s Memory, this situation is at least Records management and historic preservation partially rectified. manuals, handbooks, technical leaflets, and similar The early history of the department is closely materials have not been included. Mounting of a entwined with the political history of South PDF version of this history on our website will at Carolina. For many years it is largely the story least partially substitute for the lack of an index. of one man, Alexander Samuel Salley, Jr. When I As I write this preface the agency’s fifth director, v came to South Carolina, the long fight to force him Rodger E. Stroup, has just retired and a search is to retire was whispered about at the same time on for his replacement. I thank Rodger not only that the staff still almost reverentially referred to for being supportive of this history but also for him as “Mr. Salley.” The battle between Salley and many years of friendship as we have labored in the his opponents is an epic story that almost seems vineyards of this state’s history. unreal in 2009, and Salley’s successor, J. Harold Charles H. Lesser Easterby, comes across as a heroic figure. March 2009 A number of staff members and former staff members have long been interested in the agency’s history. My debt to them is much greater than the references to their work in my footnotes might indicate. My colleagues at the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina and at other South Carolina repositories have also been extremely helpful. Tom Simmons, a faithful volunteer worker here at the department, painstakingly arranged most of the department’s early records. Tom, I promise I won’t find any Following Page: The grillwork over the main more Salley papers for you to interfile! entrance to the Archives Building constructed in 1959. A HISTORY OF THE SCDAH, 1905-1960 vi THE PALMETTO STATE’S MEMORY Part I: The Salley Years Beginnings On March 29, 1905, in the Supreme Court room had no assistants, for fifteen more a stenographer in the State House, the Historical Commission of and for the last three years one other assistant.”2 South Carolina elected a full-time secretary. The The South Carolina Department of Archives and General Assembly had passed a law a little more History has had only five directors since these than a month earlier reorganizing the commission, modest beginnings in 1905. Starting in but two a moribund collecting organization with no staff rooms in the State House, it is now housed in whose holdings were deposited with the secretary its own modern building, built eleven years ago of state. The reorganized commission and its at a cost of twenty and a half million dollars. new secretary were to take charge of the state’s Despite draconian budget