Photo
An integrated group of African-Americans and whites (which was unusual in its time) gathers at a USO meeting on Harden Street operated by the YWCA around the time of the Second World War. The woman...H. Ordinary People & Everyday Life | History of SC Slide Collection
Many of the images in the three sections of the collection preceding this one ("Economic Activity in South Carolina,""Transportation in South Carolina," and "South Carolina Towns and Cities") are also about the everyday lives of ordinary people: the work they have done, the places they lived, the means by which they moved back and forth between home and work, or home and play. But this section is intended to focus particularly on the people themselves. The organization of this section is a mixture of category and chronology. Because South Carolinians have taken sports seriously, the first images here are of competitive sports. These are followed by images of outdoor recreation; of ceremonies, parades and demonstrations; of the making of music and of dancing, as well as other forms of the art of entertainment; of cooking and cleaning; of creating crafts. The final group of images is one of portraits: people in groups, and people as individuals. In some cases, we know their names. In many cases, we do not. For all, their smiles, their poses, their surroundings are memorable: from the anticipation of a group of teenagers about to board a bus for a trip, to the serenity of a young Civil War wife to travel to Charleston to see her soldier husband - these are all people to whom we respond in recognition and delight.
Photo of the Laurens Football Team circa 1909 courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
Within this Series
Photo
A cast iron wash pot sits in the front yard of one of the houses on this Georgetown County plantation, photographed around 1900. Washday meant boiling the wash, wringing it out laboriously by hand...Photo
"Saturday Night," an etching by artist James F. Cooper (1907-1968) from the late 1930s, is probably a scene from Pawley's Island, where Cooper owned a beach house. "Saturday Night" is more than simply...Photo
Motorcycle enthusiasts in front of the State House protest a proposal to make safety helmets mandatory for all motorcycle riders. Photo by Doug Gilmore, published October 1985. Courtesy of "The State"...Photo
Families enjoy a day's outing at the beach, July 4, 1955, in the separate areas on Hunting Island State Park set aside for African-Americans. New facilities were built for African-Americans in a...Photo
The Columbia All-Stars were an African-American professional baseball team. Photo by Walter Livingston Blanchard, ca. 1920. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.Photo
In the early 19th century, childhood began to be perceived as a time of innocence, and children as something different from miniature adults. Robert and Elizabeth Gilcrest were painted by the...Photo
These boys from the Greenville YMCA entered a float in a 1924 parade. Courtesy of the Greenville County Historical Society.Photo
A Berkeley County woman squeezes excess water out of her clean laundry by running clothes through a mechanical wringer. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.Photo
This group of Winthrop College students called their music organization The Caterwaulers, in a photo which appeared in the college 1910 yearbook. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.