When historian and former Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Carolina in May, she spoke eloquently about the significant role the South Caroliniana Library has played in her work over the past 50 years. From her first visit while writing her dissertation in 1973, Dr. Faust says what she has found at the Caroliniana is not only a “manuscript treasure trove,” but also a fountain of knowledge and insight from the people who worked at the library throughout her years researching on the Horseshoe. Although her Ph.D. is from the University of Pennsylvania, she says she received an essential part of her education as a historian at the Caroliniana.
Born in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Dr. Faust received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, magna cum laude and her M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania. She served on the faculties of Penn and Harvard for nearly a half century and was president of Harvard from 2007 to 2018. She is author of seven books, including National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. Her most recent book is a memoir, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury (2023). In 2018 Faust received the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity from the Library of Congress.
Following her campus visit in May, Dr. Faust spoke with University Libraries about how the South Caroliniana’s collections have informed her scholarship and what they have to offer anyone who seeks a fuller understanding of the history of South Carolina and the American South.
What is your history with the South Caroliniana Library and University Libraires?
I was writing my dissertation in the winter of 1973, and I was interested in the proslavery argument and how intellectuals in the Old South defended something that I thought was indefensible. I came to the Caroliniana to look at materials of William Gilmore Simms and James Henry Hammond and whatever else I might be able to find. From the very start, I was welcomed so warmly. Allen Stokes, Head of Manuscripts at the time, was such an extraordinary librarian and historian. He was great at connecting what I was working on to whichever collections might have relevant materials and helping me see the larger picture; it was like taking a class while doing my own research. Over the years when I came back to look at these materials, I was given a lot of insight and access to materials I would have never thought of using that turned out to be extremely valuable, valuable, and I was welcomed to a community of scholars and researchers that extended beyond the university, but for whom the Caroliniana was a touch point.
What are some collections you have used during your time researching at the Caroliniana?
Besides the papers of James Henry Hammond, there are a couple that come to mind. The South Caroliniana Library was an invaluable resource for my book about Confederate women (Mothers of Invention). Two extremely useful diaries were the diary of Keziah Brevard and Ada Bacot. For This Republic of Suffering, two collections of family papers that portrayed the wide context of loss and mourning during the Civil War were the W.D. Rutherford Papers and the Palmer Family Papers.
What value do primary resources, like these diaries, have for you?
All my historical work is based on reading diaries, letters, church records, burial records, plantation records and so forth from the 19th century. It is the foundation of everything I’ve written. I think they are invaluable because you get your own perspective on things, you aren’t being fed the past through an intermediary. You’re interacting directly with what is in the archive, and you must figure out what to make of it. It’s never complete and it’s always to be questioned and contextualized, but nevertheless, that direct connection with what has remained is the foundation of historical research and historical writing. Another piece of it too, is what you don’t use, but are immersed in all the same. A search engine takes you to a question you already have, but when you’re having to read through a lot of material that may not end up being something you quote directly, you are being introduced to a context and points of view that enable you to time travel and to see that world through other people’s eyes. That, I believe, is invaluable.
What do you wish other historians knew about the Caroliniana and what is its relevance to the broader field of history?
South Carolina is such a crucial place for the history of the South and the history of our nation. It represents so much of what’s important about the era before, during and after the Civil War and the kind of changes and institutional transformations that happened and didn’t happen. I think anybody who is interested in U.S. history needs to be interested in South Carolina. I was speaking to a younger historian about her work, and I kept telling her that she had to go to the Caroliniana for her current project because even though we are in this marvelous world of digitization, and libraries are working hard to make materials digital, there’s so much that isn’t. What I hope people will know is that there are treasures you are not going to find if you do your research online. Along with that, the community of scholars that I encountered when I was in South Carolina enhanced my understanding of the collections and what might be relevant to my research. These conversations and interactions don’t happen when you’re sitting at home doing research online. You will miss treasures, both human and manuscript, if you don’t go to places and use the materials. Now I know, of course, it can be expensive and difficult at times. During the years I was doing research at the Caroliniana, I had a baby, which of course made it more complicated to travel, but I do believe it is worth making some sacrifices to go.
How do you think the collections at the Caroliniana set the university apart?
South Carolina has a very strong identity as a state. I spent a lot of my adult life living in Pennsylvania and I never felt like it had a clear sense of its own identity. There are other libraries that are state oriented, mostly historical societies. The Caroliniana merges the University with the state in a way that is not duplicated in other places.
Do you have anything else you would like to add?
Libraries and librarians are so important. Collecting artifacts and records of the past is so important if we are going to understand who we are. And as we consider what higher education and learning should be in our country, we shouldn’t forget the importance of those institutions and those people who make them operate. Three cheers for the Caroliniana and for the university for supporting it. I hope people have a chance to explore it and come to see its treasures firsthand.