Recent Stories

Stevie Malenowski combs through a box of papers and images in Thomas Cooper Library.

USC students bring untold history of Sumter, S.C., to the public

January 31, 2024, Laura Erskine

Public history student Stevie Malenowski spent his summer digitizing images from boxes of archival materials, uncovering the history of the Williams Furniture Company, a staple of Sumter, South Carolina, for decades, alongside specialists at University Libraries. The archival materials are a key resource for a traveling exhibit coming in 2024.

USC Cocky Statue

ICYMI: Ten big things happening at the university

August 30, 2023, Lauryn Jiles

The university never sleeps, but it does slow down a bit during the summer. With the start of the fall semester, here’s a reminder of some recent happenings that you might have missed, plus a heads up about some major upcoming events.

A MIRC image of a Marine doing sit-ups.

Donors help USC bring Marine Corps history to life

April 19, 2023, Megan Sexton

University of South Carolina Libraries took something of a leap of faith when it partnered with the Marine Corps on a massive project to digitize 19,000 cans of film, documenting the operational history of the Corps throughout the 20th century. Thanks to donors Richard and Novelle Smith of Columbia, the effort to catalogue, store and digitize more than 2,000 hours of film received a significant boost.

Doctoral Candidate, Constance Caddell goes through SC NAACP records.

New age treasure hunters reveal lost stories of Black life in South Carolina

February 14, 2023, Alexis Watts

New age treasure hunters, part of the South Carolina Digital Newspaper Program, are saving crucial historical information buried in old publications that are being preserved and presented online. The newspapers reveal stories from the state’s Black residents and rural communities, often overlooked by larger news outlets. 

Medics giving medical attention to a patient during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

75 years later, film collection enriches history of WWII

February 13, 2023, Carol J.G. Ward

The University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections in a partnership with the History Division of the Marine Corps is digitizing films shot by more than 50 Marine combat cameramen during the Battle of Iwo Jima, which began Feb. 19, 1945. The goal is to provide public access to the video and expand historical understanding.

Booker T. Washington alumni look at display

New agreement with National Park Service advances UofSC's role in telling civil rights history

September 28, 2022, Alexis Watts

Under a five-year agreement with the National Park Service, the center will receive $3.4 million to expand the center’s existing work in civil rights education and scholarly research, including support for exhibits and programming at South Carolina sites in the African American Civil Rights Network. The center will help to grow the network in South Carolina by serving as a resource to property owners, community leaders and organizations interested in joining the network.

Letters in air mail envelopes from Otto Frank to Cara Wilson-Granat spread on a table.

Letters from Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank, donated to UofSC Anne Frank Center

June 08, 2022, Alexis Watts

The Anne Frank Center located at the University of South Carolina is now home to 100 letters and cards written by Otto Frank, the father of Holocaust victim and world-renowned diarist Anne Frank. The donation comes as the world honors her life and legacy on the 75th anniversary of the publication of her diary and her birthday on June 12.

QR code abstract

The Best of Times?

April 25, 2022, Craig Brandhorst

A lot happens over the course of an academic year, and there’s absolutely no way to highlight everything. So, no, don’t think of this as a Best Of list. This is merely a smattering of the achievements and memorable moments that defined 2021-22, a small taste of the year that was. Trust us, there’s plenty more where this came from — and plenty more to come.

Kelly Adams on the UofSC Horseshoe

UofSC alumna guides employer's gift to Center for Civil Rights History and Research

April 12, 2022, Megan Sexton

Alumna Kelly Adams, managing director of state government and regulatory affairs for the energy infrastructure company Williams, was instrumental in her employer’s gift of $1.5 million to the university's Center for Civil Rights History and Research.

a Black man holds signs protesting segregation

UofSC to expand civil rights education with $1.5 million gift from Williams to fund civil rights exhibits, programs and collections

February 15, 2022, Peggy Binette

A $1.5 million gift from Williams, an energy infrastructure company, will enhance the University of South Carolina’s Center for Civil Rights History and Research’s ability to share South Carolina’s important role in the broader national movement.

photo of title page of Shakespeare's third portfolio with a sketch of william shakespeare on one side and the title on the other

Gift of rare Third Folio enhances UofSC's Shakespeare collection

December 14, 2021, Carol J.G. Ward

Third Folio of Shakespeare’s plays printed in 1664 has a permanent home at University of South Carolina Libraries. The book, a gift from Chicago attorney Jeffery Leving, along with the university’s copies of the Second and Fourth folios, will provide a rare opportunity for students, faculty and other researchers.

Nate Johnson at Rose Hill Plantation

Putting history to work in the world

September 16, 2021, Page Ivey

UofSC's public history graduates apply their knowledge and love of history to encourage civic engagement by making the past more understandable and accessible to the general public. They also are helping to refine our understanding of our past through new scholarship to tell a more inclusive history.

Friendship 9 students who protested against racial discrimination and were put in prison, Rock Hill, South Carolina, February 1961

'Our ultimate choice is desegregation or disintegration' - recovering the lost words of a jailed civil rights strategist

April 13, 2021, Bobby J. Donaldson and Christopher Frear

In 1961, a group that would come to be known as the “Friendship Nine” hoped to reinvigorate the sit-in movement with a “Jail, No Bail” strategy to push the costs of enforcing segregation onto the city, rather than onto civil rights supporters, who paid substantial bail fees every time students were arrested. Bobby Donaldson, history professor and director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, writes about the strategy and a 60-year-old letter by activist Thomas Gaither – arrested with the Friendship Nine during a sit-in in Rock Hill, South Carolina – deep in a records box in the South Caroliniana Library.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Books before buildings

March 22, 2021, Chris Horn

From its founding in the early 19th century, the University of South Carolina was keenly interested in building a library collection to properly educate its students. Since then, the library's holdings have become a treasure trove that includes rare books and special collections that attract scholars from around the world.

man with red tie, black coat, baseball cap standing with granite marker

UofSC civil rights center unveils historical marker commemorating landmark protest

March 02, 2021, Carol J.G. Ward

The Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina unveiled a historical marker on March 2 to commemorate the courage of hundreds of students who marched on the South Carolina State House 60 years ago. Many of the students were arrested, and the appeal of their convictions eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, leading to a legal precedent protecting the rights of protesters.

Maxcy Monument on the Historic Horseshoe with sunlight streaming through the trees.
detail of Richard Greener statue

Presidential Commission re-examines university's complex history

September 18, 2020, Chris Horn

When President Bob Caslen established the Presidential Commission on University History last year, he tasked it with leading a research effort “into the complex history of the university.” That task is every bit as challenging as one might expect for an institution whose nearly 220-year history was shaped first by the antebellum South, the Civil War and decades of state-sponsored racial segregation.

Mary Gordon Ellis portrait

100 years of suffrage: After the vote, comes an era of 'firsts'

August 20, 2020, Page Ivey

South Carolina’s few but dedicated suffragists were no doubt disappointed that the state was not among the first 36 to ratify the 19th amendment, but they almost immediately set about the business of turning their suffrage organizations into education and advocacy groups. In the process, these bold women kicked off the era of “firsts.”

woman sits in front of computer screen

New library system makes it easier for users to find, access resources

August 14, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward

University of South Carolina Libraries partnered with more than 50 other academic libraries in South Carolina to launch a new shared library services platform this summer. The transition to the new system is an example of a trend in academic libraries nationwide to leverage technology, work more collaboratively and strategically, improve the user experience, and maximize the benefits of collections and limited resources.

women with banners stand by a monument in Washington D.C. in 1918 to advocate for women's suffrage

100 years of suffrage

August 06, 2020, Page Ivey

The month of August marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote in the United States. South Carolina women were a part of the fight for suffrage that started here in the years after the Civil War. Historians and librarians at the University of South Carolina have played a major role in documenting and preserving their stories.

1960s civil rights protestor carries signs denouncing segregation

Carving a path toward justice: Part 3

June 05, 2020, Chris Horn

Bobby Donaldson is an associate professor of history and African American Studies and director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina. In a three-part question-and-answer series, Donaldson presents both his scholarly insights and his personal perspective as they relate to protests over the death of George Floyd.

Bobby Donaldson

Carving a path toward justice: Part 2

June 05, 2020, Chris Horn

Bobby Donaldson is an associate professor of history and African American Studies and director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina. In a three-part question-and-answer series, Donaldson presents both his scholarly insights and his personal perspective as they relate to protests over the death of George Floyd.

Martin Luther King speaks in Charleston in 1967

Carving a path toward justice: Part 1

June 05, 2020, Chris Horn

Bobby Donaldson is an associate professor of history and African American Studies and director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina. In a three-part question-and-answer series, Donaldson presents both his scholarly insights and his personal perspective as they relate to protests over the death of George Floyd.

collage with historic image and newspaper clippings

Podcast Episode 7: Co-ed campus

April 28, 2020

For the past 40 years, women have outnumbered men in the University of South Carolina's student body. But the history of women on campus goes back to the institution's beginning, long before women were even allowed to attend. 

Close up of several gardening pots with vibrant green sprouts.

Staying green while staying apart

April 16, 2020, Caleigh McDaniel

Prior to campus’s closure, the Student Council on Sustainability, a representative body of all sustainability leaders in several student organizations, were planning a week full of programming for Earth Day on Greene Street called Green on Greene Week. Now, the council has adjusted their plans to create Virtual Green Week.

artwork depicting various campus pranks including a turkey and a green horse

Podcast Episode 6: 19th century campus pranks

April 14, 2020

Painting the college president's horse green, removing wooden steps from the only building on campus, serenading professors with tin pans — those were just some of the pranks that students pulled at South Carolina College in the 19th century. Campus archivist Elizabeth West explains why those free-spirited students often rebelled against the puritanical rules imported from New England colleges.

booker t washington auditorium building

Popular UofSC civil rights exhibit will have a permanent home

April 09, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward

The university will continue rehabilitation and preservation of the Booker T. Washington Auditorium Building to create a permanent space for the Center for Civil Rights History and Research’s exhibit “Justice for All: South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement.” Funded with a $500,000 grant from the National Park Service, the restoration will advance efforts to create a destination for people to learn the history of Columbia and of the school.

artwork depicting historic images of campus

Podcast Episode 5: Looking for Jack

March 31, 2020, Chris Horn

The history of enslaved people at South Carolina College — the precursor of today's University of South Carolina — is a difficult one to tell. But research has brought to light the names of many of those individuals, and the university is acknowledging the vital role they played in the college's early days. Here's the story of one of those enslaved workers — a man named Jack.

artwork depicting historic admissions requirements

Podcast Episode 4: Getting in, admission standards then and now

March 17, 2020, Chris Horn

How difficult was it to get admitted to the University of South Carolina in 1897? At that time, regrettably, only white students were admitted. Students also had to know grammar, geography, algebra, history — and Latin and Greek! Admission standards at the university have varied in the past two centuries. The bar for admission is a lot different than it was in 1897, but it guarantees that those who get in are ready to succeed.

newspaper clippings showing the historical images of the wall being built around the horseshoe

Podcast Episode 2: The Great Wall of Carolina

February 18, 2020, Chris Horn

It's nearly seven feet tall, 3,000 feet long and is made of 160,000 bricks. And it's older than half of the buildings on the University of South Carolina's historic Horseshoe. It's the campus wall, a structure that never succeeded in its original purpose — keeping mischievous 19th century students on campus. But during one tumultuous night in 1865, the wall very likely saved the campus from a fire that consumed one-third of the surrounding city.

research collaboration-mirc

Working across disciplines, university researchers pursue fresh perspectives

February 17, 2020, Communications and Public Affairs staff

UofSC's research office offers internal grant funding up to $100,000 for proposals that include faculty members from three or more disciplines. Heather Heckman, Beth Bilderback, Fabio Matta and Paul Ziehl are working to preserve the university's extensive collection of old films.

newspaper clippings

Podcast Episode 1: Why are we Gamecocks?

February 04, 2020, Chris Horn

Of all the mascots the University of South Carolina might have chosen, how did the gamecock — a feisty bird that relishes a scuffle — get the nod? It all goes back to the aftermath of a football game in 1902 in which Carolina students nearly came to deadly blows with their in-state rival.

women's soccer celebrating with the SEC championship trophy
James Ellroy

Student lands interview with acclaimed crime writer

October 29, 2019, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

In October, crime novelist James Ellroy visited the University of South Carolina for the 2019 Fall Literary Festival, sponsored by University Libraries and the English department. On his last day on campus, Ellroy sat down with junior English and theater major Susan Swavely for an interview at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications’ Kennedy Greenhouse Studio.

Skyline with the USC smoke stack and downtown Columbia buildings

Campus, city thrive together through decades of change

October 22, 2019, Communications and Public Affairs staff

From growth and innovation on campus to an increasingly bustling city life, the university and the city are thriving together in a symbiotic relationship. In many cases, it’s South Carolina alumni themselves who are leading change in the city as entrepreneurs and community leaders.

Joyce Hansen

Award-winning SC author Joyce Hansen featured at Fall Literary Festival

October 10, 2019, Annika Dahlgren

When Joyce Hansen, an award-winning young adult author, was learning to read, she and her mother picked up "Alice and Wonderland" and read it over and over again. Those early reading experiences inspired her passion for storytelling, a joy that turned into a career. Hansen is among a trio of authors coming to campus for this month's Fall Literary Festival.

Wonder Woman

Telling the American story -- through comics

September 30, 2019, Carol J.G. Ward and Joshua Burrack

With a massive donation of comics from Gary Lee Watson in the spring of 2019, the University of South Carolina is becoming an intellectual center for the study of 20th century popular culture. “The acquisition has made the Irvin department one of the nation's top public repositories of comic books, positioning the University of South Carolina as a premier institution for comics studies,” says Elizabeth Sudduth, associate dean for special collections in University Libraries.

portrait of Allen Stokes at work

The Long Run: Allen Stokes

May 29, 2019, Page Ivey

They arrived in the 1970s, some after serving in Vietnam, some fresh out of high school or college. More than 40 years later, they still come to work at the University of South Carolina — some after officially “retiring.” TIMES spoke with a few of these long-term employees to see what keeps them coming back to work on campus, long after they could have settled into that place in the mountains or that home by the sea.

scholars studying medieval manuscripts

Unlocking a mystery

March 28, 2019, Annika Dahlgren

For the past eight years, people from around the world have gathered at the University of South Carolina’s Hollings Library to experience the wonder of medieval manuscripts, and this year is no different. The ninth annual Medieval Manuscripts Symposium will take place April 1-2. “Understanding the Medieval Book,” is a two-day seminar dedicated to learning about the care, keeping, and understanding of medieval manuscripts.

New music explores Confederate monuments

'Red Hot Sun Turning Over'

March 26, 2019, Megan Sexton

A new composition, "Red Hot Sun Turning Over," by School of Music assistant professor David Garner uses music, sounds and images from the Civil War era and the early 20th century to explore the story of Confederate monuments. It will be premiered Sunday (March 31) at the Koger Center.

USC Press

Turning the page

January 07, 2019, Chris Horn

The University of South Carolina Press celebrates 75 years of publishing in 2019, which is a pretty big deal in itself, but there’s more going on than a diamond anniversary. A new director, a new acquisitions editor and a more tightly focused editorial direction promise dynamic changes at one of the country’s foremost academic presses.

Bobby Donaldson

Telling the untold

October 24, 2018, Megan Sexton

As he conducted research for the civil rights history project Columbia SC 63, history professor Bobby Donaldson started discovering largely untold stories about the struggle as it played out in Columbia. The material he and his students unearthed and the people he met helped guide the formation of the South Carolina Center for Civil Rights History and Research.

frankenstein

Celebrating 200 years of 'Frankenstein'

October 23, 2018, Page Ivey and Joshua Burrack

“Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley’s tale of a scientist pushing the boundaries of knowledge and ethics to reanimate lifeless flesh, turns 200 this year, and the University of South Carolina is celebrating the anniversary by reaching into its rare books collection and tapping faculty expertise to tell the story of Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein and the creature that has spawned many reincarnations throughout popular literature, film and television.

richard riley

UofSC opens Richard W. Riley Collection as part of S.C. Political Collections

July 11, 2018, Peggy Binette

The South Carolina Political Collections — one of the largest political collections in the nation — will expand Monday, Aug. 6 when the University of South Carolina opens the Richard W. Riley Collection. The collection details the life and public career of Richard Wilson “Dick” Riley, a former South Carolina state representative, senator and governor and U.S. Secretary of Education.

John Shippen accepting a trophy

Open History

June 14, 2018, Nicole Carrico

University Libraries' newsfilm collection includes the only known footage of America’s first pro golfer, John Shippen. An African-American golfer, Shippen played in the second U.S. Open held in 1896 at the same location as this year’s — New York’s Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. In the silent film footage, Shippen can be seen picking up a second-place trophy in a tournament nearly two decades after playing in the Open at the age of 16.

dos passos

Dos Passos collection

February 22, 2018, Nicole Carrico

Richard Layman's collection of John Dos Passos, a “lost generation” author, playwright, artist and political activist, has found a permanent home at the University Libraries Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. University Libraries will celebrate the acquisition Feb. 28 with a public lecture and exhibit.

Richard T. Greener

Larger than life

February 21, 2018, Chris Horn

Richard T. Greener’s larger-than-life story is one of academic achievement, professional success and civic service, played out mostly in the tumultuous years after the Civil War. It’s a story of firsts — in addition to being USC’s first black professor, Greener was also Harvard’s first black graduate and America’s first black diplomat to a country of white citizenry.

Kathleen Parker

Washington Post columnist gives personal archive to UofSC

November 20, 2017, Peggy Binette

Students and scholars will have a richer understanding of contemporary politics and culture thanks to Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker. The 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner who lives in Camden, South Carolina, and writes the nation’s most widely syndicated column, has given her personal archive to the University of South Carolina Libraries’ South Carolina Political Collections.