All Titles

The Civil War never left South Carolina, from its beginning at Fort Sumter in 1861 through the destructive, harrowing days of Sherman's march through the state in 1865.

Included here are the stories of Confederate civilians and soldiers who remained true to their cause throughout the perilous struggle. An English aristocrat risked his life to run the blockade and become one of the defenders of Charleston. The Haskells of Abbeville sent seven sons into Confederate service. Many South Carolina women made heart-rending sacrifices, including a disabled woman from Laurens County whose heroic efforts preserved Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, from wartime ravages. Author Karen Stokes details the lives of men and women whose destinies intertwined with a tragic era in Palmetto State history.

The remains of more than twenty historic plantations rest beneath the waters of Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, and Charleston historian Douglas Bostick raises them from the depths in this haunting visual journey.

South Carolinians have long desired a route for water navigation from Columbia to Charleston. An early Santee Canal effort ended in failure by 1850, but interest was reignited in the twentieth century. Roosevelt and his New Deal provided the necessary hydroelectric power and a boost to the state’s economy through the funding of a navigable route utilizing the Congaree, Santee and Cooper Rivers. This ambitious undertaking would become the largest land-clearing project in the history of the United States, requiring the purchase of more than 177,000 acres.

From the Lowcountry's first recorded duel to old-fashioned summers at the 'hottest spot in town", these pages will captivate you with stories of people, events and places that have all but vanished from memory.

Find out the real history behind some of Charleston's beloved mansions and learn about the early plantations and their owners. Join the authors as they relate the riots and romance, the preservation and politics - and even a ghost story - from Charleston's hidden history.

In 1670, the English ship Carolinabrought colonists to the west bank of the Ashley River.

These settlers and their descendants, along with thousands of enslaved Africans, built a flourishing plantation life in what became St. Andrew's Parish. The Civil War devastated the plantation society, and it seemed that St. Andrew's Parish glory years were in the past until 1889, when construction of a new toll bridge improved access to West Ashley from the peninsula of downtown Charleston. A suburban boom that began in the 1920s expanded and revitalized the community, and many of the original families who built homes, churches, schools, and businesses still live in the community today--a testament to the continued vitality and livability of St. Andrew's Parish, West Ashley.

Beaufort, South Carolina, the Palmetto State's second-oldest town, is a paradigm of the Low Country.

Historic mansions overlook the bay with century-old oaks standing sentinel. Visitors to Beaufort feel right at home, and those with a love of history have a true appreciation of the area. Since its discovery by the Spaniards in the early 1500s, Beaufort has experienced numerous personalities and ways of life, from plantations to war, phosphate mining, hurricanes, and large-scale truck farming. Gullah, a culture and dialect spoken by ex-slaves and their descendants, is kept alive at Penn Center, the first school for the newly emancipated. Three military installations are here: Marine Corps Recruit Parris Island, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and the U.S. Naval Hospital Beaufort. Various forts, churches, and schools served the area in their specific ways. Today, some lie in ruins offering peaceful repose while others remain intact and are well preserved. Beaufort's quaint downtown is a National Historic Landmark District.

See how Myrtle Beach's landscape ignited it into a resort phenomenon.

Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand have become the world's playground. What began over a century ago as local beach retreats between Little River and Georgetown have changed so dramatically that their history is endangered. Wide beaches, warm surf, and abundant wildlife turned this town into a destination that now offers world-class hotels, dining, shopping, entertainment, and recreation. This volume retraces the area's progression from Myrtle Beach's humble beginning in 1901 through the middle years of the 20th century to beyond 1954, when Hurricane Hazel crushed the Grand Strand and determined owners rebuilt their resorts with strength and grandeur. Included among these 240 vintage images are scenes of early dance pavilions, favorite tourist venues, and quaint cottage hotels in old Myrtle Beach. There are yesteryear views of Murrells Inlet and the beaches of Surfside, Garden City, and Pawley's Island, and vintage photographs of Ocean Drive and surrounding beaches in North Myrtle Beach. Susan Hoffer McMillan, author of two vintage postcard histories on coastal South Carolina, delves deeply into the history of Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand to share her fascination with its past through this unprecedented photograph collection. Whether you recall memories of places in this book or just seek to understand the evolution of Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand, you will enjoy forgotten images that illuminate and preserve the past for future generations.

A collection of photographs from past generations that help preserve a disappearing way of life in John's Island, South Carolina.

John's Island (also spelled ""Johns Island"") is the largest Sea Island and the second largest island on the East Coast. The legendary Angel Oak, a restored 18th-century mansion, and an African-American praise house are a few of the historic treasures found beyond the island's wide salt marsh vistas. Its scenic roads wind along rivers under moss-draped oaks, where planters and their descendants have farmed for generations. Since new development is rapidly changing the island's character, residents, including native author Connie Walpole Haynie have collected these photographs from over the years to allow you to go inside the island's history.

Gain insight into one of the nation's most prestigious military college, The Citadel, and discover the historic past of the South Carolina school.

Since its founding in 1842, The Citadel has provided generations of leaders to the state and nation. From its original purpose of providing an education to young men of South Carolina who would perform military duties for the state, it has evolved into an institution of national stature, highly regarded for both its academic reputation and its disciplined environment. Graduates of The Citadel have fought in every United States war since the Mexican War in 1846. Cadets have also achieved prominence in other fields, such as serving in leadership roles in state and national government, education, the professions, and business. With the help of over 200 black-and-white photographs, this work explores the development of The Citadel over the past 160 years, and included are sketches of its visionary founders, faculty members, and leaders. Descriptive vignettes highlight the success of the alumni and give insight into the experiences of the most important element of The Citadel: the South Carolina Corps of Cadets.

Life in colonial Charles Towne was dangerous--epidemic diseases, primitive medical practices, and a harsh environment led to the early demise of rich and poor alike.

When Charleston's founders moved their settlement across the Ashley River to the peninsula in 1680, they hoped for protection from pirate and Native American attacks, as well as increased trade and healthier living conditions. While they were able to secure more protection for the residents and improve trade, health conditions rapidly declined. The graveyards and public burial grounds quickly filled, and today, Charleston's historic cemeteries are almost as common a sight downtown as the churches that define the city. These tree-shrouded glades invite tourists and residents to explore the resting places of Charleston's most illustrious and interesting personalities.Charleston's Historic Cemeteriesoffers a guided pictorial tour of the elaborate gravestones and elegant inscriptions dedicated to Charleston's famous and infamous alike, including William Rhett and the pirate Stede Bonnet, Rhett's adversary. With dozens of illustrated stories about the transformation of funerals, tombstones, and mourning customs in America over the past 300 years, this collection details how Charleston became the home of a historically unique, city-wide gallery of mortuary sculpture.

Discover many of the unknown oddities of Chucktown - from its people to its foods.

To escape death the slaves hid. So begins ""Insurrection on the Stono,"" the story of a 1739 slave rebellion on the outskirts of the city. Charleston's violent and varied history emerges in the retelling of this dramatic event. In Charleston Curiosities: Stories of the Tragic, Heroic and Bizarre, South Carolina Historical Society's Michael Coker describes several centuries' worth of little-known wonders from the Holy City. Whatever happened to Osceola's head? What was it like to walk the streets of Charleston just after secession was declared? Whether presenting the colonial struggle among European powers for control of Charles Towne or the real story of the birth of she-crab soup, this eclectic and engaging volume will delight seasoned historians, residents and visitors alike.

Hilton Head Island: One of South Carolina's premier tourist destinations with an intriguing history dating as far back as 10,000 years ago.

Hilton Head Island's scenery and leisure industry attract more than 1.5 million visitors each year to play golf, relax on the beaches, or just soak up the atmosphere. Before the fairways and hotels ever arrived on the scene, however, the island already had a long and interesting history when Native Americans first began to visit the area. In Hilton Head Island, Natalie Hefter and the Coastal Discovery Museum revisit this history, charting the area's development from its first plantation in 1717, through the boom years of shipbuilding and Sea Island cotton to the Civil War. In over 200 vintage
photographs, the authors document the impact of the Union occupation, the establishment of Mitchelville (the island's "contraband" and Freedmen community), the dramatic effects of the first bridge to the island, and the development of the tourist industry that now typifies this popular South Carolina destination.

In this volume of vintage, black-and-white photographs, readers are fortunate to experience a Laurens County of a different era. The rhythmic patter of horse hooves and squeak of wooden wagons meant people were hard at work, and the ringing of a bell called students to a one-room schoolhouse. The landscape encompassed patchworks of farms and bustling mill villages before the region found the conveniences of modern technology. Some of those who fashioned the area into its present state-where pride in culture and heritage stand at the forefront-take center stage in this pictorial history. Laurens County will spark the memories of those who lived its history while illustrating the tales with images for future generations.

The eleventh-oldest college in the nation, the College of Charleston stands as one of the country's most historic academic institutions.

Over the past few centuries, the College has provided education and opportunity for students, faculty, and local Charlestonians against a rare Southern backdrop, with a campus that mirrors the architectural charm and elegance of the peninsula city. This volume, with over 200 black-and-white photographs, transports readers on an incredible visual journey across an nineteenth- and twentieth-century landscape of Charleston, a time and place unique in the city's and school's history. Documenting the school's antebellum days as the first municipal college in 1837, the turbulent years of the Civil War, the campus's growth and evolution in the earlier part of the twentieth century, and the traditions that continue today, this pictorial retrospective explores the many elements of the Cougar experience: the College's student life, the development and preservation of its buildings, its athletic teams and events, and the many diverse student-run organizations.

Greenville: The well-kept gem of South Carolina.

Visitors from everywhere have hailed downtown Greenville as one of the best in America. From its tree-lined Main Street to its bustling riverfront, the city inspired numerous other cities to try and duplicate its success. Using unique public-private partnerships, the revitalization of downtown Greenville was a true collaborative effort that helped to create a walkable and viable downtown. Once considered just a business-only town, Greenville has emerged as a metropolitan destination. In this updated edition, authors John Boyanoski and Mayor Knox White detail the toils and tribulations necessary to create a world-class city.

Discover the history of Folly Beach and how it transformed over the years from ""Coffin Island"" to a popular vacation destination.

Folly Beach was not named for its carefree inhabitants' lifestyles, but it is a fitting moniker nonetheless. Originally dubbed ""Folly"" for its dense foliage and forests just across the marsh from James Island and Charleston, the six-mile sliver of land has served as an outpost for Civil War soldiers, an inspiration to George Gershwin, and a place of fond memories for thousands of residents, vacationers, and day-trippers seeking time to relax in the sea and sand. Long before Folly became a place for respite and relaxation, however, it served as a quarantine island for sick sailors, forebodingly referred to as ""Coffin Island."" By the 1950s, Folly's dark history was sufficiently replaced with an amusement park, bowling alley, and moonlight dances out on the pier.

Hurricane Michael may have taken away some of the landmarks, but these images reveal the history of Florida's Mexico Beach, once known as the "Unforgettable Coast".

As French interests in the Americas dwindled, records indicate very little activity around Mexico Beach until rumors of buried riches and sunken ships brought treasure hunters to the coast. In the early 1900s, businessman Felix du Pont purchased the land known today as Mexico Beach. Resin to make turpentine was harvested from the native pine trees, and fishermen could not resist the migratory fish passing through the area's waters. By the 1930s, US Highway 98 was completed, and visitors could finally reach the sugar-soft sand beaches of the "Unforgettable Coast." By 1941, Tyndall Field was constructed and became a training site for Air Force pilots. In 1946, a group of farsighted businessmen, led by Gordan Parker, W.T. McGowan, and J.W. Wainwright, purchased 1,850 acres along the beach for $65,000. Parker's son Charlie moved to the area in 1949 with his wife, Inky, and their family. He soon took over development responsibilities for the Mexico Beach Corporation and laid the groundwork for the beach town known and loved today. Charlie went on to become the city's first mayor and a lifelong advocate of the family-friendly community.

Venture off the beaten path down forgotten roads and discover where a hidden South Carolina exists.

Time-travel and dead-end at a ferry that leads to wild islands. Cross a rusting steel truss bridge into a scene from the 1930s. Behold an old gristmill and imagine its creaking, clashing gears grinding corn. See an old gas pump wreathed in honeysuckle. Drive through a ghost town and wonder why it died. When's the last time you saw a country store's cured hams hanging from wires? How about a vintage Bull Durham tobacco ad on old brick? Author Tom Poland explores scenic back roads that lead to heirloom tomatoes, poke salad, restaurants that were once gas stations, overgrown ruins and other soulful relics.

As the most significant eighteenth-century estate assembled in the British American colonies still in existence, Drayton Hall is an icon of American history, design and preservation.

Its story is told through archaeological artifacts, architectural research and documentary investigations, with a focus on the inhabitants and their connections to the wider Atlantic world. A multitude of scholars contributed to our understanding of Drayton Hall as the first complete example of Palladian architecture in North America, its placement at the intersection of the European Enlightenment and America's slave society and as a family home where extraordinary events became landmark historic moments. Today, Drayton Hall is valued as the most authentic pre-Revolutionary southern plantation that helps examine the creation of American identity.