Latest
- SC National History Day Students Participate at the Top Level
For Immediate Release: Contact: Mary Katherine Marshall
June 20, 2011 mmarshall@scdah.state.sc.us/803-896-6124
“We are incredibly proud of our students for all of the time and effort they put in to their projects,” said SC NHD State Coordinator, Mary Katherine Marshall. “These students have not only deepened their understanding of their chosen topics, but have also been energized by learning. This program truly brings history to life for students.”
Representing the Palmetto State at this year’s national competition were sixty-three middle and high school students who each developed entries based on this year’s theme: Debate & Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, Consequences. Entries included group and individual projects in all categories and at both the Junior and Senior Levels in performance, exhibits, documentaries, historic paper and website.
NHD is a year-long academic organization for elementary and secondary school students focused on the teaching and learning of history. A recent study by Rockman, et al found students who participate in NHD develop a range of college and career-ready skills, and outperform their peers on state standardized tests in multiple subjects, including reading, science, math and social studies.
The program annually engages more than half a million students across the nation. Students research history topics of their choice related to an annual theme and create exhibits, documentaries, performances, and papers, which they may enter in competitions at the district, state, and national levels.
More than 300 historians and other education professionals evaluate the work of over 2,000 students at the NHD contest. Over $250,000 in scholarships and cash prizes were awarded at the awards ceremony this year.
The South Carolina Archives and History Foundation is pleased to have given more than $5,000 in scholarships to SC students thanks to the program’s generous sponsors including: The Lipscomb Family Foundation, Humanities Council SC, The SC Archives and History Foundation, Wells Fargo, NHD, BCBS of SC and many more.
For more information on NHD, visit www.nhd.org.
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About National History Day
National History Day (NHD) is a year-long academic organization for elementary and secondary school students. Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring, at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in a national competition each June held at the
Visit www.nhd.org.
- Foundation Officer Elections Unanimous
For more information, contact:
Mary Katherine Marshall, Executive Director
803.896.6124
mmarshall@scdah.state.sc.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 25, 2011
SC Archives and History Foundation Elects New Slate of Officers
COLUMBIA, SC–The South Carolina Archives and History Foundation would like to welcome their newly elected officers to the Executive Committee: Chairman—X. Willard Polk of Camden; Vice-Chairman—Eric Wm. Ruschky of Columbia; Treasurer—Wm. Frank Lee of Lugoff; Secretary—Ruth “Lady” Hodges of Edgefield; At Large Members are—The Honorable Gary E. Clary of Central, and Charles P. Boyd of Atlanta.
Officer Elections were held last Monday, July 18 at the SC Archives and History Center on Parklane Road in Columbia at the quarterly board meeting with unanimous approval by the Foundation’s Board of Directors.The South Carolina Archives and History Foundation’s full Board of Directors includes: Frank Beattie of Georgetown, Curtis Campbell of Orangeburg, Kathryn D. Durham of Columbia, Walter Edgar of Columbia, Eric Wm. Emerson of Columbia, A. V. Huff of Greenville, Phil Noble of Charleston, and Rodger E. Stroup of Columbia.
The South Carolina Archives & History Foundation supports the efforts of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. It is the caretaker of the South Carolina Archives, a collection of more than 325 years of historical documents recording the rich and diverse history of the people and government of South Carolina. In addition to preserving the documentary and cultural history of the Palmetto State, the Department also administers a variety of programs through the State Historic Preservation Office that help identify, recognize and preserve the state's architectural and archaeological heritage.
For more information on how you can support the SCHAF, please call 803.896.6124 or visit www.palmettohistorysc.org.
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- Remembering Secession Ordinance Signers, provided by The State 12/6/2010
Monday, Dec. 06, 2010
Civil War: Remembering Secession Ordinance signers
Amid Old South nostalgia on 150th anniversary, some acknowledge signers unleashed war
By CAROLYN CLICK - cclick@thestate.comThe great-great-grandsons and great-great-granddaughters of the signers of the Ordinance of Secession, along with at least one cousin “four-times removed,” gathered Sunday to honor their ancestors and remember the 1860 convention in Columbia and Charleston that sparked the Civil War.
The United Daughters of Confederacy sponsored the memorial event, held at the S.C. Department of Archives and History, which displayed the historic document for the 200 or so spectators. There was a wreath, a roll call of signers, ladies in period costume, salutes to the U.S., South Carolina and Confederate States of America flag, and a rousing chorus of “Dixie” at the conclusion.
But amid the Old South nostalgia was some acknowledgement that the signers — mostly powerful, wealthy, slaveholding men — had unleashed a bloody war that would leave the South devastated and destitute for generations.
“This was an act which carried with it a great price,” said David Rutledge, a descendant of the secession convention’s president David F. Jamison. “D.F. Jamison and men like him would sow the winds of war but it would be his wife, his children and his children’s children who would reap the whirlwind.”
Jamison himself would die during the war and his sons suffer. His family plantation, Burwood, was destroyed by Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, leaving Jamison’s wife, Elizabeth, and minor children in abject poverty, Rutledge, a Greenville attorney, told the gathering.
Another signer, John Saunders Palmer, lost two sons in the war. When a locket worn by his son James Palmer was returned to him, along with the bullet which killed him, John Saunders Palmer told his wife: “You take the locket, I’ll take the bullet — I’m the one who put it in him,” Rutledge recounted.
Everyone, it seemed, had a story to tell and at the reception following, many shared family stories handed down from generation to generation. Carol Perrin Cobb of Greenville and Jean Perrin Derrick of Lexington, great-great-grand-nieces of signer Thomas Charles Perrin, of Abbeville, had slightly different versions of the tale of their ancestor allegedly throwing the great seal of South Carolina into the Savannah River.
Cobb said she has never felt anything but pride in her ancestor’s participation in the secession convention and gets perturbed when others suggest their cause was tainted by the Confederates’ fierce adherence to slavery.
“They don’t realize that we were fighting the Revolutionary War again,” she said.
But Rutledge noted that the “good names of the signers have been sullied” over the last 50 years, a development he regrets.
Over those years, historians have delved more deeply into the causes and impact of the war and the federal Reconstruction period that followed, probed the lives of slaves and their descendants, and drawn connections to the civil rights era and 21st century politics.
As the sesquicentennial is marked in the state, Eric Emerson, executive director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History, hopes that people will develop “a deeper level of understanding” of secession and war that goes beyond the nostalgia and gets at the heart of one of the most turbulent and talked about periods in South Carolina history.
Rutledge said he would hope that that the “the names of our ancestors will be continued to be honored — by ourselves, by our children and by our children’s children.”
But he said his own children, in their 20s, have no interest in the Civil War.
About 75 descendants were among the 200 who attended the afternoon event, said Nita Keisler, registrar of the Mary Boykin Chesnut chapter of the UDC.
Most were graying, but there was at least one young descendant, who was a great-great-great-great-grandson of one of the signers.
SCAHF Photos
PalmettoHistorySC.org
Give the Gift of Education This Holiday Season
Give the Gift of Education This Holiday Season
This holiday season, SCAHF invites you to remember us in your holiday cheer and memories by supporting the National History Day Program. The program is an exciting educational opportunity that encourages students to study history and expand their knowledge. At all levels of competition students have the opportunity to meet participants from other schools, exchange ideas, and demonstrate the results of their work. A student's success in researching and producing a National History Day entry may even take him or her to the national contest held each June at the University of Maryland at College Park. Just click the DONATE button at the left of this page and make your online donation.
Here's what some of the past particpants had to say about their NHD experience:
“I attended the national competition last year and I am looking forward to going again this year. I feel honored to represent my home state of SC.”—Michael B.
“Because of NHD I am no longer scared to talk to people. Before NHD I hadn’t ever won anything, now I can say I am a winner too.”—Ashley G.
"The NHD Program has taught me to plan for the future and not to doubt myself.” —Robyn C.
"I am no longer overwhelmed with my assignments because of the strategies that I learned through NHD. Without your financial support I would not have been able to participate. It was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. ” —McKenna B.
“NHD has definitely impacted my life and I am no longer afraid of public speaking.” —Kelley D.
“Thank you sponsors for making this possible.” —Shani M.
Lunch and Learn
Join us on Tuesday, February 21st at NOON for Lunch and Learn
Author Edward Pattillio will be here to talk about his recently published book Carolina Planters on the Alabama Frontier. Other upcoming presentations include:
March 20th Krissy Dunn Johnson from the Confederate Relic Room, on her book No Holier Spot of Ground--Confederate Monuments & Cemeteries of SC
April 17th Presentation by Historic Columbia on their Garden Restoration Initiative
May 15th Tracy Power, SC Historic Preservation Office, on his award winning book Lee's Miserables
Just bring yourself, your lunch, your colleagues and your friends for an educational and engaging experience!
Contact the SC Archives and History Foundation at 803-896-6124 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with questions.
Genealogy Workshop Series Starts Back in 2012
Celebrate African American History Month with SCAHF in February. Steve Tuttle, Director of Archival Services at the SC Department of Archives and History, will help you get started with resources and provide support for those more seasoned researchers with in-depth information about their history.
March 24th 9 am to 12 pm
Elain Rohr, part of the Archival Research Staff at the SC Department of Archives and History will provide a deeper look into researchign your Revolutionary War Family!
For more information email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. 
The South Carolina Archives & History Foundation is a private, 501 (c) 3 organization that supports the South Carolina Archives and History Department's mission to preserve and promote the documentary and cultural history of the Palmetto State through education and public programming and events.
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Letter From the Chairman of the Board
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the South Carolina Archives & History Foundation website. As the private non-profit support organization for the South Carolina Department of Archives & History we are dedicated to providing resources to assist the agency in fulfilling its statewide mission of preserving the documentary and cultural history of the state. Founded in the early 1990’s our initial challenge was to raise $2 million to equip the Archives and History Center with document storage and audiovisual equipment.
Since the opening of the Archives & History Center in 1998 the Foundation has solicited private funds to support the educational programs that enhance the outreach of the agency. Because of the budget cuts incurred over the past 10 years the Department of Archives & History depends heavily on the Foundation to maintain its public programs.
From the Civil War Symposium in the fall to the Landmark Preservation Conference each spring the Foundation works closely with the agency staff to insure the programs are meeting the needs of our patrons. Our bus tours to locations across the state enable the state’s many communities to share their special places with others.
Again, because of dwindling state funding, the Foundation’s support for the National History Day program is crucial to its survival. Reaching over 9,000 students across the state National History Day challenges students to conduct primary research on historical topics and present their conclusions as historical papers, performances, exhibits, documentaries or websites. The students with the best entries in each category represent South Carolina at the national competition each summer at the University of Maryland at College Park.
We invite you to join our membership program and support the preservation of the state’s historical resources while you will have the opportunity to participate in our educational offerings each year.
Warm regards,
Dr. Rodger E. Stroup
Chairman, SCAHF Board of Directors
Letter from the Executive Director
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the South Carolina Archives and History Foundation’s reconstructed website. As you peruse these pages, I hope that you will be captivated with the richness of the Palmetto State’s history.
You will find that there are many wonderful programs and events that will bring South Carolina’s history to you in a fresh way and share with you the stories of our past.
Right now, as the budgets for state programs continue to be cut, the Foundation is working to provide for the continued programming that has brought these events to you for so many years.
It is through your support that we are able to provide the highest level of educational programs and events for our members. Please consider making a gift that is meaningful to you.
By supporting the South Carolina Archives and History Foundation, you are helping us ensure that these treasures will remain available for the education of our future.
I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming programs and events this year.
Warmest regards,Mary Katherine Marshall
Executive Director