Almost all of the images in this collection document a particular South Carolina place at a specific time in its history. This section, organized alphabetically is not intended, therefore, as a comprehensive list of every South Carolina community. It is actually a fairly impressionistic look at the county seats and rural villages, as well as the cities, in which South Carolinians live and work. For several towns and cities (Beaufort, Camden, Charleston, Columbia, Darlington, Georgetown, Greenville, Spartanburg, and Sumter), an effort has been made to select several images that show how that place has changed over time. Other places were chosen for special features that have made that town unique; still others have been chosen because they illustrate the features that many towns in the state have shared.
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A mill village in York. Photo from the Works Progress Administration, 1930s. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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An aerial view of Winnsboro around 1950, before the Confederate monument in front of the clock tower was moved because it caused traffic accidents. The clock, assembled in 1833, is thought to be the...
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The Fairfield County Courthouse, built in 1823 from a design by Robert Mills, still stands, and was recently restored. Fairfield became a county in 1785. Courtesy of the Fairfield County Museum.
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Main Street, Winnsboro, around the turn of the century. Winnsboro, the county seat of Fairfield County, was settled in 1755, incorporated in 1785, and named to honor one of its founders, Revolutionary...
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Honea Path mill village and reservoir, Ware Shoals, Greenwood County, 1914. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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Walterboro Courthouse, designed by Robert Mills, was built of materials originally used in the Provisional Capital of South Carolina at Jacksonboro. Photographed here in 1910, a militia unit on...
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A new section of the Vaucluse Mill Village of the Graniteville Manufacturing Company. Photo by J.F. Sofge, Graniteville, December 19, 1947. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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The second county courthouse for Union County, built in 1827, was photographed in 1904 shortly before it was torn down in 1908 to make way for a new courthouse. Formed from the old Ninety Six District...
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This 1973 painting by Mildred White is titled "Dismantling the Dixie Life Building." Courtesy of the Sumter County Museum Archives.
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This aerial view of downtown Sumter, taken around 1930, shows clearly the City Hall and the skyscraper Dixie Life building, built in 1911. Courtesy of the Sumter County Museum Archives.
