Palmer Campus in Downtown Charleston, South Carolina celebrated its 2017 Eastside Day Celebration during Spirit Week at Trident Technical College by recognizing retirees, college faculty and community allies by naming them as Pillars of Palmer for significant contributions to the college and the Eastside community. Listen to their stories regarding what the recognition meant to them. The videos and photographs of the honorees were produced by Trident Technical College students in the Film, Media and Visual Arts Division.
Monday, November 27, 2017
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Celebrate our Pillars of Palmer: See the New Portriat Gallery
You can see our new portrait gallery honoring our Pillars of Palmer - faculty, staff, and community members who have contributed to the college and to the community. You can see the physical exhibit by visiting our Library Commons on the Palmer Campus, and you can also read about it in our online exhibit.
Honoring the Past: Gerald Mackey
We here at Trident
Technical College seek to honor the past, for knowing where you come from helps
you get where you’re going. Gerald Mackey embodies the history of these
buildings we move through today. He started his career teaching African
American students in the segregated CA Brown High School that created this
campus. When Trident Technical College bought the building for its downtown
campus, he eventually ended up running it. The TTC downtown Palmer Campus grew
under his leadership.
Preserving for the Future:
Dr. Susan Millar Williams and Mary Edwards
We here at Trident
Technical College also work to preserve the past and the present for the
future. We see ourselves as stewards of the land, the buildings, and the
memories of the people who move through them. Our next two honorees serve as our
most prominent recorders of the history of this campus and the community around
it.
Dr. Susan Williams reads, writes,
and talks about our local history, making what has been invisible, visible. She
has published numerous books and articles, worked on documentaries, and given
lectures on local history. She charts the landscape of memory, and encourages
others to do the same.
Mary Edwards lives in
the Eastside, and knows it like few others. She was also a graduate of CA Brown
High School. She brought that knowledge with her to Trident Technical College,
enriching the development of Eastside Day and other community projects. She
gives voice to her community within the walls of the academy, representing and
honoring those who came before her, and paving the way for those who will
follow.
Connecting the Community: The Presidents, former and present,
of the Eastside Community Development Corporation
If you want something
done in the Eastside, you need to talk to the Eastside Community Development
Corporation. We at Trident Technical College strive to be a part of the
community we serve, and our strongest partner has been the Eastside Community
Development Corporation. They came in
our gates, and got us outside those gates. They help us make the gates
irrelevant. These presidents serve their community, creating programs,
organizing events, supporting businesses, and fostering education. We honor the
work this organization has done, and the people who helped make it happen.
Monday, November 20, 2017
Celebrate our Pillars of Palmer: Library Archive Now Available
Created by Maureen Myers and her staff in the Palmer library, the Eastside Collection stands as an important research guide for students writing about their local community as well as for faculty developing curriculum that includes local history. It also allows us to celebrate the work of our faculty, staff, and students in doing research, sharing community resources, and educating the public about the importance of the Eastside community. And it helps to demonstrate Trident Technical College's commitment to the community it serves.
Friday, November 17, 2017
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Eastside History Series: Cigar Boxes
by Dr. Susan Millar Williams
Growing up in Arkansas in the 1960s, I
thought of cigar boxes as a real treasure, and I often begged the local
drugstore to let me have their discards. Most of the ones I managed to get hold
of were made from cardboard printed to resemble wood grain, and they had once
held Roi-Tans, which sold for five cents each. Little did I
know then that I would someday work in Charleston, right across the street from
the building that once housed the American Tobacco factory, where those boxes (and
the cigars they contained) were made.
One
of the most famous brands associated with the factory was called the Cremo, and
it gave the factory its local nickname, Cremo College. Roi-Tans and Cremos were
marketed as more sanitary than other brands because they were made by machine
and pre-drilled so that the smoker did not need to bite off the tips.
Most boxes were designed to
double as counter displays, so that merchants could prop them open like this and
sell the contents individually.
Both the cigars and their boxes were
manufactured on site at the Charleston factory, the boxes at the end of the
building now occupied by Garden and Gun
magazine. I ordered this one, which is made of cedar, on E-Bay. You can see the
grain of the wood in this shot, along with the logo. 
The Revenue Act of 1864 required that all
cigars be packed in boxes. On the back of my box is a revenue stamp
that links it to the Charleston factory (on the right).
These men (to the left) are posing in front of the Charleston
factory not long after the turn of the century, along with huge cedar logs that
were once used to make cigar boxes. The finest were made of Spanish cedar,
though others were made of other woods, including poplar, sometimes with a thin
veneer of cedar. Most were fastened together with small nails, and printed
paper trim was pasted on.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)