Edisto Island History Harvest: Unearthing the Buried Treasures of Sea Island Culture

FAIN: PY-234262-16

Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society (Edisto Island, SC 29438)
Gretchen M. Smith (Project Director: June 2015 to May 2018)

A presentation on the richness of local cultural heritage, as well as a community digitization day to capture images, artifacts, and documents in the possession of local residents. Building on the Edisto Island Historical Society’s current efforts to improve documentation of the history of the island’s long-established African American population, the project outreach and programing would target the African American community. The public program would feature Mary Elliott, project historian for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, presenting on the history of Edisto Island and the significance of the slave cabin donated by the historical society to the Smithsonian. The digitization event would take place at a local historically significant African American church and include a celebration of African American influences on local culture through food, crafts, and history. Where permission is granted, all digitized materials will be made public through the Edisto Island Historical Society and Lowcountry Digital Library websites.

The Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society (EIHPS) serves the Edisto Island (E.I.) communities and is proposing two events to reach out to community members to capture local history and cultural heritage. The first event will be the History Hiding in Plain View public program to foster an understanding of the significance of community member’s cultural heritage and family histories and to demonstrate the need to digitally preserve their artifacts. The second event will be a History Harvest Festival to digitize historic and cultural materials provided by communities in and around E.I. These events will serve to greatly expand knowledge of E.I.’s rich history to local and virtual audiences. The events will also serve as a crucial opportunity for the EIHPS to diversify both its membership and audiences through an emphasis on digitizing historic materials that are connected to E.I.’s significant African American history and culture.