This searchable collection of Columbia City Directories from 1859 is an invaluable source for historians and genealogists. City directories offer an alphabetized listing of residents and businesses as well as a street-by-street listing of occupants. This collection is made possible through by Richland Library and University of South Carolina Libraries. Check back often this collection is always growing.

A selection of lithographs featuring Columbia, South Carolina during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, including the Wade Hampton mansion and gardens, Columbia after Sherman’s march, and images of the State House and grounds. Originally published in Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly between 1860 and 1894.

Fifty years after the end of segregation, Columbia is taking a hard look back at its civil rights struggles and racial progress.

Columbia city officals anxiously tested the first new "mechanical signal" on Monday, November 6, 1922.  The new device was located at the intersection of Gervais and Sumter. Officials announced that "the green light gives drivers the right of way and the red light calls for a stop".  Four officers and a megaphone were available at the intersection to instruct "drivers of all kinds of vehicles." 

African Americans in South Carolina have a long and vibrant history, beginning in 1540, 130 years before the founding of Charles Town.  Several Africans were members of the Hernando DeSoto expedition through the Southeast.  According to the chronicles of this expedition, one of these African adventurers fled with the captured Native American “Queen” of Cofitachique and possibly became the first person of African descent to live in the Carolinas.

The Second Tennesee and First Rhode Island regiments arrived in Columbia in early November 1898 before heading off to the Spanish American War.  They were the first troops to be stationed at the new Camp Fornance located in the rural area north of Columbia.  The military camp lasted only a few months but the name still refers to the neighborhood on the other side of Elmwood Cemetery. 

For 8 1/2 minutes 50 Allen and Benedict students sat down at the "white" lunch counter in Woolworth's on March 2, 1960. The Woolworth'sDepartment Store at the 1400 block of Main Street was one of several stores students protested on that Wednesday.  According to The State newspaper the students sat down, read a bible and left. There was no violence. There were no arrests.

Sometimes, at Richland Library, we forget the many talented Columbians that we have had the pleasure of honoring and admiring over our long history. Recently, we were reminded of popular novelist Annie Greene  Nelson. Nelson was awarded the Lucy Hampton Bostick award from the Friends of Richland Library on February 13, 1989. Her 300 admirers, the largest crowd ever for the Bostick award ceremony, celebrated her accomplishments that day.

The beginning of the 1963 New Year did not start out quietly in South Carolina.  Harvey Gantt and
Clemson University dominated the headlines in Columbia’s The State and Columbia
Record newspapers. 

Cloudy, rainy weekends are great to curl up and do some genealogy research.  This weekend I used HeritageQuest and discovered that the 1940 census has just been added. Not every state is indexed but all of the images are available.  South Carolina, of course, is one of the states not indexed but HeritageQuest indicates on their site that all indexes will be available in 2013.  Many other states are indexed so take a look and see if there is one you can use.