2009...A Year In Review

Look what happened at SCPC this year...

Rapid progress in construction of the Hollings Special Collections Library
We should move in April. Cross your fingers! Soon, we will be only a short walk across an enclosed bridge to Thomas Cooper Library, our library colleagues, and potential researchers (in the form of the thousands of undergrad students who inhabit Cooper Library each day)! Check out more pictures.

Processing
For our fine and valued researchers, we put online many new or revised finding aids, including the papers of Lester Bates, Barbara Moxon, Charles Appleby, Robert Hemphill, and Bruce Littlejohn. Counting the collections brought in this year, we are incredibly close to that magic number of 100 collections.

Researchers
We welcomed researchers from far and wide. Along with researchers from our own university and from universities around the Southeast, we had students from England for extended stays and two political scientists from California State University, Channel Islands who were awarded the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Research Award. Of course, we also helped many folks via phone and email.

Student Assistants
We love our student assistants (funded through endowed support), and SCPC would not function well without them. This year, they helped with researchers, research requests, arrangement and description of collections, and many more tasks, always with great attitudes all around. Our students in 2009 were:

*Graduate students Debbie Todd, Gabrielle Dudley, Virginia Blake, Julie Milo, and Allison Hughes. -- We said goodbye to Allison (pictured above with Herb Hartsook, SCPC boss) and Julie (pictured below with Debbie in their workroom) in the summer. They graduated with an MLIS and took positions in Atlanta and Florida, respectively. We get to keep Debbie, Gabby, and Virginia at the start of 2010 as they continue working toward their degrees.

*Undergrad Mai Nguyen graduated in December and is off to do great things like attending law school. Our last undergrad went off to law school, as well. Go pre-law students!

*Graduate intern Katie Thompson of Long Island University received our 2009 Schuyler L. and Yvonne Moore Summer Internship. She spent six weeks here, processing the papers of Mary Kelly, a leading figure in the SC League of Women Voters.

Pictured here in July at Julie and Katie's farewell party, from L-R: Lori, Mai, Katie, Debbie, Julie, and Dorothy

Exhibits
We put up many exhibits in our gallery at Thomas Cooper Library, including:

• A nod to the changing administration in Washington led us to set up an exhibit based on material from the collections of Ambassadors John West and David Wilkins and cabinet officers Jim Edwards and Dick Riley.
• We celebrated the centennial of the NAACP by displaying material from the papers of Modjeska Simkins and I. DeQuincey Newman.
• We enlightened folks about SCPC's Oral History Program.
• We filled a case with memoirs and biographies written by our donors.
• Holiday cards...this year's cards were sent and received by Joe Wilson.

In February, we displayed material from the Fritz Hollings Papers at the SC Book Festival in conjunction with a talk between Jack Bass and Sen. Hollings. It was one of the last of many events promoting Hollings' new book, Making Government Work. Also this year, we digitized 200 documents and audio records from the Hollings Papers and placed them online in "Fritz Hollings: In His Own Words."

Oral History
Oral History helps fill gaps in the documentary record and enriches many research experiences. This year, SCPC completed a major oral history with Jim Edwards, began a project with Joe Wilson, and continued a project with former Butler Derrick staffer John Gregory.

That completes our journey through 2009. Those were merely some of the highlights. On to 2010 and all the progress it will bring!

Holiday Schedule

Please take note: SCPC will be closed for Christmas and New Year's from December 23rd through January 3rd. We will reopen on January 4th.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please take note that SCPC will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and Friday, November 26-27.

We will reopen on Monday, November 30.


We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A New Look at the Hemphill Papers

Check out the updated finding aid for the Robert W. Hemphill collection. It highlights Hemphill's long judicial career and offers a glimpse into his 8 years in Congress. Some of his personal pursuits are also captured here, such as his involvement in the Civil Air Patrol and the Purity Presbyterian Church of Chester.

Hemphill represented South Carolina’s Fifth District in Congress from 1957 to 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Hemphill to a federal judgeship in April 1964. A distinguished jurist noted for his keen opinions and strong work ethic, Hemphill took senior status in 1980, and continued to hear cases until he suffered a massive heart attack in July 1983. He returned to work shortly before a second attack took his life on Christmas night, 1983.

Hemphill's public papers cover his seven-year tenure in Congress and his seventeen years as a federal judge. His judicial materials include his court schedules from 1964 until 1982, which provide insight into his heavy workload, and eight volumes of judicial opinions, 1969-1974, that showcase the wisdom and fairness he was known for in his courtroom.

His personal papers relate to his long involvement with the Civil Air Patrol, leadership in the Purity Presbyterian Church of Chester, and his life before embarking on a legal career in 1945. The materials from his early life consist of letters to international pen-pals, high school report cards, and invitations to organizations and other events during his collegiate years.

At the time of Hemphill's death, Chief U.S. District Judge Charles E. Simons, Jr. characterized him as “an outstanding judge of great judicial temperament, and he was one of the hardest-working people I have ever known.”

--Contributed by Gabrielle M. Dudley

Bon appétit from SCPC

Fall weather is soup weather. Following is the recipe for the U.S. Senate's famous Bean Soup as provided to one of Senator Olin D. Johnston's constituents by Senate Dining Room Head Waiter Paul C. Johnson.

"Take three pounds of small Navy Pea Beans, wash and run through hot water until Beans are white again, put on the fire with four quarts of hot water - - then take one and one-half pounds of Smoked Ham Hocks, boil for two and one-half hours, braise one onion chopped in a little butter, and when light brown, put in Bean Soup. Season with salt and pepper, then serve. Do not add salt until ready to serve. (eight persons)"

Bon appetit.