Ground Breaking Ceremony
for New Wing

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held May 10, 2006 for the South Carolina Political Collections (SCPC) wing which is being added to the University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library at the library. A similar wing will be added to the opposite side of the library to house the University's rare books and special collections holdings.

Featured speakers for the SCPC event will be the Hon. James B. Edwards, former governor of S.C. and the Hon. Ernest F. Hollings, former U.S. Senator from S.C. Remarks will also be offered by Paul Willis, Dean of Libraries; Andrew Sorensen, President of the University; Herb Hartsook, Director of SCPC; and Trip King, Director of Development for SCPC.

James B. Edwards has served South Carolina and the nation as a state senator (1973-1974), Governor (1975-1979), U.S. Secretary of Energy (1981-1982), and as president of the Medical University of South Carolina (1982-1999). A leader in the Republican Party, Dr. Edwards was the first Republican elected governor of South Carolina since Reconstruction. The James B. Edwards Collection held by South Carolina Political Collections documents Dr. Edwards' life and career in public service.

Ernest F. Hollings has dedicated his life to public service having held elective office for more than fifty years. He served as a member of the S.C. House of Representatives (1948-1952) and was elected President Pro Tempore of that legislative body in his second term. Hollings served as South Carolina's Lt. Governor (1955-1959) and Governor (1959-1963), the youngest man elected chief executive of the state in the 20th century. In 1966, Hollings was elected to the United States Senate where he served with distinction until his retirement in 2005. With the 1991 announcement that Senator Hollings would donate his papers to the University of South Carolina, University Libraries created a political collections division, now called South Carolina Political Collections, to manage the Hollings Collection as well as other collections held or acquired by USC.

South Carolina Political Collections was created to document South Carolina government and political activities at the local, state and national levels in the post-World War II era. SCPC collects, arranges and preserves the papers of individuals and organizations playing key roles in government and politics. Collection donors include members of Congress, governors, leaders in the General Assembly, political parties, party activists, journalists, and others.

After years of planning, construction will soon begin on South Carolina Political Collections' new home. A 32,000 square foot wing will be added to the east side of Thomas Cooper Library as part of an overall expansion project and, when complete, will provide SCPC with state-of-the-art housing for the study, exhibit, care and storage of the holdings. The SCPC wing will consist of three floors and contain public spaces such as a multi-function lecture hall and auditorium, a reading room, exhibition galleries, a conference room, and a mini-theater. The new wing is designed to provide enhanced facilities for researchers; climate-controlled storage areas for books, manuscripts and framed materials; dedicated space for public programs and teaching; and improved exhibit galleries for the permanent and temporary display of collection materials.

South Carolina Political Collections currently holds more than seventy collections including the papers of contemporary politicians such as Fritz Hollings, Carroll Campbell, John West, Bob McNair, Dick Riley, Jim Edwards, Floyd Spence, Bryan Dorn, Liz Patterson, David Wilkins, Donald Russell, and Olin Johnston, to name but a few. SCPC also serves as the repository for the papers of the South Carolina Republican and Democratic Parties and the League of Women Voters of South Carolina. SCPC houses the most comprehensive collection of South Carolina political materials anywhere.

South Carolina Political Collections has received national recognition for its superior role in documenting contemporary government, politics and society. SCPC continues to expand as it solicits new collections, arranges and describes materials on hand, and augments documentary records with oral history interviews. The staff at SCPC is dedicated to an ambitious outreach program to ensure that these collections are accessible outside the boundaries of USC's Columbia campus by utilizing traveling exhibits and electronic media. In the future, SCPC will host programs of public interest and of topical importance.