Preservation at the Charleston County Records Center: Preservation Needs Assessment and Material Rehousing

FAIN: PG-233690-16

Charleston County Government (North Charleston, SC 29405-7464)
Haley Doty Vaden (Project Director: May 2015 to April 2018)

The hiring of a consultant to carry out a preservation needs assessment and the purchase of preservation supplies to help preserve an extensive collection of municipal records from the South Carolina Low Country.  The holdings of Charleston County include numerous official documents: probate court records, marriage license registers, deed books, and plat maps. All told, the collection encompasses 20,000 cubic feet of boxed records and 3,500 sets of bound and unbound documents.  They offer a rich source of information on community life, race relations, and the family in coastal South Carolina. The project focuses on the preservation of the oldest and most delicate paper-based materials, some of them dating to the period of British colonial rule in South Carolina.

The goal of the Preservation Assistance Grant project is to support two activities at the Charleston County Records Center (CCRC). The first activity will be to hire a consultant who will conduct a preservation needs assessment, focusing on the oldest and most historically significant documents in the collection. These historic records include Probate Estate Files from the 1760s – 1850s, Plats from the 1750s – 1960s, Clerk of Court Metallic Case Files from the early 1800s – 1960s, and Mortgages & Deeds from the late 1800s – 1960s. The grant will also fund the purchase of preservation supplies to replace and rehouse archival collections. These supplies will include acid free boxes, archival file folders, and glassine interleaving paper. The Preservation Assistance Grant will support CCRC by ensuring records are properly housed and stored, preserving historic documents of Charleston County for the government, citizens, and the public to access for administrative and educational purposes.