Walterboro ~ 1950’s: A Decade of Change

65-Year-Old School Report Discovered at Colleton County Memorial Library

The Report & Its Never-Before-Seen Images a Part of Digitization Effort by the Library
When 14-year-old Marion B. Glover had to write a report on Walterboro in 1957 he did what any kid would do without the internet – he bought a handful of local postcards, took some snapshots with a family camera and visited the library.
Sixty-five years later, Glover’s report, entitled “Walterboro: Old and New,” has been rediscovered in the library’s old vertical files and is being digitized as part of a digitization initiative by the Colleton County Memorial Library.
Glover’s report is 39 pages long and contains 17 mid-century postcards and 20 photos of the town – many never seen before. A similar report, written by local student Jean O’Keefe around the same time (1957), was discovered and digitized last fall by the library.
“It’s wonderful to be able to share historic material created by our local youth,” declares Reference Librarian and Local Historian Elizabeth Laney. “The discovery of this report is also timely as the National Archives is set to release the 1950 US Census to the public for the first time in 72 years on April 1. Now we have a new visual and written record of our town to supplement what we will see in the census.”
The Colleton County Memorial Library is currently working hard to identify historic material like these old school reports and make sure they are preserved and made available digitally to the public. Funding from several sources, including a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has allowed the library to purchase digitization equipment and archival supplies to help preserve these remarkable records and increase public access to them.
The public can see the report and its remarkable photographs at a program at the main branch of the Colleton County Memorial Library (600 Hampton St) on Friday, April 01 at 1:00 PM – “Walterboro in the 1950s: A Decade of Change.” The program is free and will feature several newly discovered items from the library’s archive. For more information about the program visit colletonlibrary.org/adult-services or call 843-549-5621, ext. 3.