Below are some of the resources and topics you can find further information about in our main exhibit gallery.
Beaufort’s Natural Resources
- Geography of Beaufort (60+ islands, Barrier/Remnant Islands, Tidal change)
- Ecology of Beaufort ( natural food sources)
American Indians
- Prehistoric Chronology
- Technology (technological cradle)Architecture (shell middens/rings)
- Archaeological Reflections of American Indians
- The Yamassee people (villages, language, Settler influences)
- Altamaha (permanent settlement)
- Trade practices and Yamassee War (displacement of Natives)
- Modern S.C. tribes
Discovering the New World
- Spanish Exploration ( 1514 first exploration, Francisco Chicora)
- Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, Jean Ribault, William Hilton
- Charlesfort; Santa Elena (Fort San Filipe, Fort San Marcos); Stuart Town
Founding of Beaufort
- Carolina Colony (Lord’s Proprietors, King Charles II)
- Founding of Beaufort Town (Henry Woodward, Henry Summerset 2nd Duke of Beaufort, Tuscarora Jack Barnwell)
- Deerskin and Slave Trades (routes/roads)
- Early Plantation Life (rice, indigo, cattle, Eliza Lucas Pickney)
American Revolution
- Thomas Heyward Jr.
- Declaration of Independence (grievance #4)
- Loyalists vs. Patriots
- Battle of Beaufort
- Economic impact of the war
- National Militia Act and History of the Arsenal (BVA)
Antebellum Beaufort
- Town Life (architecture, opulent lifestyle)
- Beaufort College
- Plantation Life (task system, slave life)
- Expansion of Slave Trade
- Gullah/Geechee Culture
- Sea Island Cotton
Civil War in Beaufort
- Nullification Crisis
- Secession (Robert Barnwell Rhett)
- Battle of Port Royal (General PT Beauregard, Fort Walker, Fort Beauregard, General Thomas Sherman, Commodore Samuel Dupont, the Great skadattle, Union’s Blockade Stratagy)
- Occupation
- Hospitals
- Development of National Cemetery
- Contrabands
- 1st S.C. Volunteer Infantry (General Rufus Saxton, Port Royal Experiment)
- Robert Smalls (The Planter, political career, public school system)
- Susie King Taylor, Harriet Tubman, General PT Beauregard
Postbellum Beaufort
- Mitchelville/Freedman’s Bureau/ Missionary Societies
- Port Royal Experiment
- Politics of Reconstruction (Robert Smalls, sharecropping)
- Mather School
- Penn School
- Truck Farming
- Phosphate Mining
- Seafood Industry (Blue Crab, Oyster canning)
- Hurricanes (Clara Barton, Red Cross)
Twentieth Century Beaufort
- Military comes to Beaufort (Parris Island, NHB, MCAS)
- Tenant Farming and The Depression
- Jim Crow/Civil Rights (Martin Luther King)
- Re-envisioning Beaufort (Henry Chambers, Waterfront park, Tourism
- Sheriff McTeer (root medicine/hoodoo, History of BHM)
- Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
- Film Industry
- Water Festival