–  “Cultural Creativity, History & Heritage in Edgefield” –

Join us for eight terrific events in our speaker series this May and June. These public presentations and discussions focus on the cultural creativity, history, and heritage of the societies and pottery enterprises that flourished in the landscape of the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Looking also to broader contexts, we will consider sites of natural and archaeological significance across South Carolina, including the prehistoric Topper site investigated by Dr. Al Goodyear and the many heritage sites under the stewardship of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. We explore the remarkable accomplishments of African Americans, European Americans, and Native Americans across time. These events are free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Edgefield County Historical Society and funded in part by The Humanities Council of South Carolina, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A full program is available online at: http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/Edgefield/2013SpeakerSeries.pdf

These eight great presentations and events include –

—  “Slave Life in Documents: Primary Sources on Edgefield’s Enslaved Laborers,” presented by Maggi M. Morehouse, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, Thursday, May 30, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield, SC.

—  “Edgefield and Matters Conventional, Exceptional and Inventive,” presented by Orville Vernon Burton, Ph.D., Creativity Professor of Humanities, Professor of History & Computer Science, and Director of the Clemson CyberInstitute, Clemson University, SC, Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield.

—  “African Diasporas and Material Culture in the South,” presented by John Michael Vlach, Ph.D., Professor of American Studies and Anthropology, George Washington University, Thursday, June 6, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield.

—  “The Topper Site and Prehistory of the Americas,” presented by Al Goodyear, Ph.D., South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 4:00pm, the Sciences Auditorium, Room 327, University of South Carolina at Aiken.

—  “‘We Wear the Mask’: African Diasporic Art and Ritual in South Carolina,” presented by Jason Young, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, Thursday, June 13, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield.

—  “Rural Life on the Aiken Plateau: Investigations at an Early 20th-Century Tenant Farm and the Stoneware of Enslaved African-American Potter-Poet Dave,” presented by George Wingard and Keith Stephenson, Savannah River Archaeological Research Program, University of South Carolina, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield.

—  “‘Where I Come From . . .’ The Wanderer Africans and the Edgefield Face Jug Tradition,” presented by April L. Hynes, Edgefield Stoneware Research Center, Thursday, June 20, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield (with Mark M. Newell).

—  “Africanized Face Jugs of Edgefield County: Archaeological Data,” presented by Mark M. Newell, Ph.D., Georgia Archaeological Institute, Thursday, June 20, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield (with April L. Hynes).

—  “Cultural Resources Management and the SCDNR Heritage Trust Program,” presented by Sean G. Taylor, Archaeologist, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Heritage Trust, Columbia, SC, Thursday, June 27, 2013, 6:00pm, at Joanne T. Rainsford Discovery Center, 405 Main Street, Edgefield.