Starting in 2015, the College of Charleston will house the South Carolina Historical Society’s remarkable collections of books, manuscripts and archives. The College’s Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library will undergo an extensive renovation before opening the collection to the public. With the addition of the Historical Society’s materials to the College’s already extensive holdings, the Addlestone Library will rank with the top research centers in the nation in Southern Studies.
“This unique partnership formed when the Historical Society recognized the opportunity to move the vast majority of its collection from the historic Fireproof Building to a twenty-first century research facility,” says John White, interim dean of libraries. “In housing the collection in the state-of-the-art Addlestone Library, the Society will ensure the safety of the thousands of fragile maps, letters, photographs and books in its possession, and will guarantee the space for continued collection growth.”
“This partnership will enable the College to make the South Carolina Historical Society’s repository of historic resources more accessible to a much larger audience,” says College of Charleston President P. George Benson. “As a hub for research and intellectual discovery, the College’s Addlestone Library is the ideal place to house such an important collection.”
Dr. Faye Jensen, Executive Director of the South Carolina Historical Society, is equally pleased by the partnership. “The holdings of the South Carolina Historical Society have long been acknowledged by scholars and students as an irreplaceable and inexhaustible resource of state, regional, and national culture,” she said. “We are pleased that these resources will be in close proximity to the College’s own invaluable collections.”
The Society will retain ownership of its materials. Its staff will be intricately involved in the collection’s future maintenance, and have access to the College’s innovative digitization initiatives and best practices in traditional archiving.
For more information about the partnership between the College of Charleston and the South Carolina Historical Society, please contact Stephanie Alexander at alexandersd@cofc.edu.
