February 19, 2009

Hollings to Speak at SC Book Festival

On Sat., Feb. 28th, at 10am at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in the Vista, Senator Fritz Hollings will speak about his career and his book, Making Government Work, published by the USC Press in 2008. Jack Bass will serve as interviewer, much as he did for Hollings' talk and book signing at the State Museum last fall. Afterwards, Hollings will sign copies of Making Government Work in the Exhibit Hall.

The above candid shot of Hollings with fellow Senators Frank Lautenberg and James Exon during Budget Committee hearings, c.1987, is one of many photos in the book.

Staff from SCPC will be exhibiting documents, photographs, and memorabilia from the Hollings Papers at the USC Press Booth #101 in the Exhibit Hall on Saturday and Sunday. Stop by and take a look!

The Book Festival is the latest in a series of events promoting the Senator's book. Following the rousing success of the first book signing at Thomas Cooper Library last June, Hollings signed in Washington, D.C., at The Citadel in Charleston, the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville, DeBordieu Colony Country Club in Georgetown, the Florence County Public Library, and the SC State Museum.

February 3, 2009

Civil Rights Resources

In honor of Black History Month, we would like to throw the spotlight on our Civil Rights research guide webpage. From the SCPC home page, this guide can be found by following the left-hand "Resources" navigational link and then clicking on "Supplementary Resources." This page is intended to present researchers and more casual browsers with auxiliary material concerning the issues we document and the nature of the material we collect.

Currently on the Supplementary Resources page, we have a link to a selection of Articles relating to our collections and a link to our new Research Topics. The topical pages suggest SCPC collections (and, when applicable, some at USC's Caroliniana Library) that might be of interest to those working in particular subject areas. The suggestions are not meant to be exhaustive, but should prove helpful to researchers who are interested in particular subject areas such as civil rights.

There will be more of these resources as we develop them, and we plan on a topical page for women's history in the near future. We sincerely hope these new resources will prove useful to the researcher and of general interest to the casual browser.

February 2, 2009

Fritz Hollings: In His Own Words

We're proud to announce the completion of “Fritz Hollings: In His Own Words,” a digitized collection of 200 items chosen from the Papers of Senator Ernest F. Hollings, representing his service to South Carolina as Lt. Governor, Governor, and U.S. Senator.

Speeches, letters-to-the-editor, newsletters, and newspaper and magazine articles are supplemented by 11 audio excerpts and numerous photographs of the Senator at press conferences, on the Senate floor, and in Senate committee meetings and hearings (like the one above of the Senator talking at a crowded Senate Finance Committee hearing, July 17, 1985).

Through these items, those unfamiliar with Hollings’ career and accomplishments can discover his intellect, unflinching honesty, and sense of humor – qualities that often captivated his colleagues, the press, and his constituents…whether they agreed with him or not.

Visitors may search through the material in a number of ways. They may do a keyword search of all the items OR pull up a list of all items from a specific decade OR pull up all documents of a certain type (like articles or letters or audio excerpts). They can also visit a page with over 200 subject terms. You want to know if any of the 200 items talks about NOAA or footwear or Voodoo Economics? Well, the subjects page will tell you.

To view these items, visit: http://sc.edu/library/digital/collections/hollings.html.