Waring Historical Library

08/28/2025

🎞️📽️Have you ever watched National Treasure or Night at the Museum in a room full of Archivists and Curators? If you haven’t, I highly recommend you do so! The chuckles and gasps were at an all time high!

At the Society for American Archivists 2025 conference, it’s tradition that they compile clips of archives in film throughout time. It was certainly my favorite time of the conference!

Cheers to those who attended and we will see SAA again next year!

01/06/2025

You can register for this virtual event here: https://musc.libcal.com/event/13002967

12/23/2024

08/31/2024

On August 31, 1886, a massive earthquake centered near Charleston, South Carolina, and the entire Lowcountry was devastated by the quake. Following the earthquake, city authorities worried that epidemics would break out, including cholera, typhoid, and the dreaded yellow fever in the tent cities housing displaced Charlestonians. This was not an irrational fear: even in normal times, these scourges could bring a city to its knees. As it turned out, there were no epidemics in Charleston in the aftermath of the quake, either because city authorities were vigilant or because they were lucky.

Visit our online exhibit "Faults and Fractures" to learn more: https://bit.ly/FaultsFractures

Pictured: Tent city at Washington Square Park showing makeshift shelters, September 1886. (Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, SC)

08/29/2024

Charleston maintained a City Hospital, primarily supported by appropriations from the City Council, located in a brick building that in antebellum days had been known as the Workhouse, at the corner of Mazyck and Magazine streets.

The night of the earthquake, the walls of the City Hospital crumbled and heavy buttresses fell to the ground. Two of the 125 patients were killed in the falling rubble. In the aftermath, bodies sprawled on doors and shutters torn from wrecked buildings for use as stretchers.

The earthquake provided Mayor William Ashmead Courtenay with the opportunity he wanted to remake the City Hospital, though the site chosen for the new building was on reclaimed marshland along the banks of the Ashley River. Construction on what became known as Memorial Hospital, at the corner of Lucas (now Jonathan Lucas) and Calhoun streets, began about six months after the earthquake. The old City Hospital was torn down early in 1887, and Memorial Hospital opened in 1888.

Visit our online exhibit "Faults and Fractures" to learn more: https://bit.ly/FaultsFractures

Pictured: Earthquake August 31, 1886. Displaced towers and coping of the City Hospital on the southwest corner of Luzon and Magazine streets. (Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library)

08/27/2024

At the time of the earthquake of 1886, Roper Hospital was located on the corner of Queen and Mazyck streets. A tower imploded at Roper during the quake, bringing down part of the front wall and blocking the main entrance. Patients, passersby, and a nurse were killed as a result. The News and Courier reported on September 6, 1886, “The Roper Hospital was, perhaps, more seriously damaged than any public institution in the city.”

Visit our online exhibit "Faults and Fractures" to learn more: https://bit.ly/FaultsFractures

Pictured: Roper Hospital after the Charleston Earthquake of 1886. (Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, SC)

08/26/2024

This week we will be exploring the intersection of Charleston's medical history and the earthquake of 1886!

The Medical College of South Carolina’s original buildings were constructed in 1826 at the corner of Queen and Back Streets and consisted of a dissecting room, medical museum, library, and lecture halls. During the earthquake of 1886, their facilities were so badly damaged during the earthquake that they couldn’t be used for more than a year. Classes were moved to new wooden structures and to the former U.S. Marine Hospital around the corner from the college on Franklin Street.

In January 1887 the legislature appropriated $5,000 for the school’s restoration and an additional $5,052 was raised by public subscription. In the spring of 1887 the repairs were completed and the school returned to its old home.

Visit our online exhibit "Faults and Fractures" to learn more: https://bit.ly/FaultsFractures

Pictured: The first building of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina after the 1886 earthquake. (Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, SC)

08/23/2024

John Edwards Holbrook was born in Beaufort, South Carolina in December 1794. By December 1822, he had opened his medical practice at the intersection of Tradd and Orange Streets. Holbrook joined the Medical Society on March 1, 1824. He was elected to the Medical College’s professorship of Anatomy at his second meeting on April 12, 1824.

In addition to his medical accomplishments, Holbrook was also interested in reptiles, amphibians, and fish. His publications include Southern Ichthyology; or, a Description of the Fishes Inhabiting the Waters of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (1847-1848), as well as Ichthyology of South Carolina (1855-1857). The illustrations here come from the latter publication!

(Holbrook, John Edwards. 1860. Ichthyology of South Carolina. Charleston, S.C: John Russell.)

08/21/2024

Visit the Macaulay Museum of Dental History during our museum open house next week and discover the history of dentistry in South Carolina from the late 19th century through the 1960s! Drop in any time between 11 Am and 1 PM!

📅 August 26, 2024
🕛 11 AM - 1 PM EST
📍 177 Ashley Ave.

08/20/2024

Hays Hospital in Clinton, SC, is our featured hospital for this week!

In 1913, Leslie Saint Claire Hays graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He eventually returned to Clinton, SC, to found a hospital in 1917. After his first building burned down in a fire, he purchased another in 1927 at 200 S. Woodrow Street and continuously expanded it to better serve his community.

Curious about the hospital’s legacy? The building was purchased by Clinton resident Leonard Pitts to preserve it. In 2022, the building was reopened Legacy at Hays, an apartment building.

Pictured: Postcard showing a color illustration of the Hays Hospital. (MSS 985.022, Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, SC)

08/19/2024

The fall semester has begun and students are back in class! We hope all the new folks on campus are getting ready to hit the books! ✏️🎓

This picture comes from our MUSC photograph collection (ARC900). This collection is an excellent resource for those interested in historic images documenting the history of MUSC. Contact us to schedule an appointment to browse the collection yourself!

08/16/2024

These dental assisting students from York Technical College gained hands-on experience by assisting a dental student at the College of Dental Medicine at MUSC. They participated in a three-week statewide program funded by the Area Health Education Center (AHEC). Pictured from left to right are Ellen Shelby, Sallie Marshall, and Tena Chitwood.

This photograph is part of our MUSC photograph collection (ARC900). This collection is an excellent resource for those interested in historic images documenting the history of MUSC. Contact us to schedule an appointment to browse the collection yourself!