Columbia debuts new public art piece in the Vista. Here’s what it is
CHRIS TRAINOR JANUARY 11, 2022
PHOTO BY CHRIS TRAINOR
Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, left, was among those who dedicated the Vista Peace Pole in a ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. The peace pole carries the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in eight different languages. In a perfect world, peace would be a sort of universal language. And as we strive for that more perfect tomorrow, the words of peace are now set to ring out in Columbia’s Vista district, through a new public art installation. On Tuesday, city officials and local residents dedicated the Vista Peace Pole on Senate Street, between Lincoln and Park streets, near the University of South Carolina Alumni Center. Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann was among those who participated in a ceremony dedicating the peace pole. Artist Eileen Blyth created the public art piece, which was funded by a number of private donors. The placement of the pole was facilitated by One Columbia for Arts and Culture, the city-backed arts boosting nonprofit that has helped place a host of public arts pieces in the capital city.
As noted by a permanent marker at the site of the new Vista art installation, peace poles began as part of a Japanese peace movement after the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. There are now more than 200,000 peace poles across the world, which extol the ideas of peace, hope and action. The Vista Peace Pole is a steel sculpture from which a large bell hangs. Each side of the sculpture is adorned with the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth.” The message is written in eight languages: Japanese, English, Gullah, Hindi, Catawba, Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish.
During Tuesday’s ceremony, eight guests read the message in each of the languages, and each rang the bell to advocate for peace. One Columbia Executive Director Lee Snelgrove noted a host of groups that advocate for peace had input into the Vista Peace Pole process through the Columbia Peace Pole Initiative. He also noted the new sculpture is near a number of other public art pieces in the Vista, which has become a hub for such work.
“The Columbia Peace Pole Initiative involved a lot of people, and we had many languages to go through and make sure they were all right,” Snelgrove said. “It’s a pleasure to have this one finished in this space. It is a perfect spot for it, in the Vista, and adds to the Vista’s public art collection. … It is right here in the heart of Columbia, visible to the State House, showcasing the important things of Columbia and what we recognize: art, peace and community.” Lori Donath, a member of the Columbia Peace Pole Initiative committee, reflected on the messages of the Vista installation. “The eight languages on this peace pole — Japanese, English, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Spanish, Gullah and Catawba — represent and honor the diversity of our local population and traditions,” Donath said. “They are the languages of nation states, they are the languages of religious affiliations, they are the languages of people around the world and in our community who aspire to a better life.”
The story of this filmmaking venture begins in 2013 when Bill Adler and his family were living in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Bill had a passion to preserve the history of the community’s original founders, a group of Quakers from Fairhope, Alabama, so he began the task of interviewing the elders and crafting a film. Along the way, there were some starts and stops (these often happen with independent film projects), and in 2017, Robin Truesdale joined Bill to direct and edit the hour-long documentary. The film was finished in February 2020 just weeks before the Covid pandemic began erupting around the world. Covid threw us for a loop, canceling the theatrical premiere and plans for a film tour at festivals and conferences. But virtual connections came to the rescue. We’ve been able to screen the film for virtual groups and film festivals and take part in online Q&A discussions. We want to express our thanks to all the film’s supporters – from the early days, through the production years, and during our pandemic release! Also, we’re extremely grateful to the individuals and families who shared their stories, both on and off camera. Their actions continue to impact our world. Please enjoy watching this amazing story of courage, conviction, and kindness! https://video.rmpbs.org/video/sweet-home-monteverde-dh7gzy/ Best wishes for 2022, Robin Truesdale and Bill Adler Mission Statement: Through documentary storytelling, we strive to expand our understanding of the human experience and foster an informed, connected, and compassionate world.
Columbia Vista, 900 Senate St Median (Between the SC Statehouse and the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center)
Masks and social distancing kindly requested.
The public is invited to attend a brief, outdoor dedication of the latest work of public art in Columbia, South Carolina. The eight-foot-tall peace pole, one of over 200,000 planted around the world, shares the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in eight languages. Local artist Eileen Blyth was commissioned by the Columbia Peace Pole Initiative, in collaboration with One Columbia for Arts and Culture. The artist has included a bell, which young and old may ring to signify their desire to actively work for peace in their communities and in the world. The Vista Peace Pole was funded by donations to the Columbia Peace Pole Initiative. The Vista Peace Pole and names of donors will be included in One Columbia’s Public Art Directory ([email protected]).
A good place to start are the main repositories for genealogical information on the web. In addition, The University of South Carolina has a small library of genealogies that were done before the internet.
all rights belong to the owner of this picture: https://www.swarthmore.edu/
MyHeritage – can search British christenings, US census. This is free through my public library. Warning: Much of the census information was conveyed orally to the census taker. Standard spelling was not in place. You will need to search for every conceivable spelling and abbreviation. And then the information was transcribed to allow internet searches. The transcriptions can sometimes be quite creative.
Ancestry(charge) – good for wills, marriages, old business directories, church records
FamilySearch – good for estate inventories. I think it’s free.
It can be a little haphazard what you might find on these sites. I have found good stuff on all of them. As it is generated by amateurs, take what you find with a great deal of skepticism.
A good place to go to next is the South Carolina Department of Archives. The search facility is not intuitively obvious but quite powerful once you figure it out:
Some of the material is online. Some of it is on microfilm. The online info will tell you where to find the microfilmed material or you can pay the state a minimal amount to do it for you. Be warned – generally any person or place mentioned in a document will be indexed but people and places do get missed.
You might want to then look at deed information. Most of my research has been confined to the colonial to Civil War period. And centered on Dorchester County, upper Berkeley County, and the part of Colleton County along the Edisto.
Property transactions where land exchanged hands usually shows up in the Charleston Register of Deeds office. They have a special section for older transactions under the Archives heading. It can be a little tricky to navigate.
Once you locate the book the deed is located in, you then search using the book identifier (B11) and a page number of 001. It’s goofy and they do have people who will help you over the phone.
If you have access to these books and your deed falls within the colonial/revolutionary war time period, you can shortcut the process by using 4 volumes of deed abstracts prepared by Clara Langley of the WPA and updated by Brent Holcomb.
But initial land grants are usually found in the South Carolina Department of Archives.
Maps
David Rumsey map collection includes Mills Atlas maps of South Carolina counties in the 1820’s.
Local historical societies and libraries can also be helpful. The Charleston public library has a really good genealogy section. And they also have microfilmed copies of old newspapers. Ridgeville has a nice historical museum.
Among books, if you are doing Quaker genealogy, you might want to start with the Encyclopedia of American Genealogy by William Wade Hinshaw.
William Medlin has a helpful, maybe more user friendly South Carolina Quaker genealogy source:
Medlin, William, Quaker Families of South Carolina and Georgia
Once you know the meeting your relative was connected with, you can usually locate the meeting minutes online. Sometimes they read like print; sometimes they are illegible, at least online.
Sometimes the minutes are pro forma and sometimes they give you a good hint as to what’s going on in a meeting. Also a good source for weddings and funerals.
Here are some books that I found helpful:
The 13 volume Friends Library published around 1830 contains the journals of several traveling Friends who visited South Carolina. You can do an online search for Carolina to see where South Carolina is mentioned or search on particular persons.
The Book of John Howell and his Descendants – the journal of a traveling Friend that was published independently. Carroll mentions several others that don’t make it into the Friends Library.
Books I haven’t really used but look like they would be useful for upcountry Friends:
Willard Heiss – Quakers in South Carolina Backcountry
Silas Emmett Lucas, Jr., Quakers in South Carolina
Summer, G. Leland, /
Folklore of South Carolina : including Central and Dutch Fork sections of the state, and much data on the early Quaker and Convenanter customs, etc
A book that I found helpful for the part of South Carolina I have been researching:
McCurry, Stephanie, Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations, & the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country.
In reading parts of Quaker journals dealing with South Carolina, you become aware that South Carolina was in the midst of the Second Great Awakening and the Methodist revival. To understand what’s going on, you probably need some background in that.
For example, these are the books that are on my reading list:
A Cautious Enthusiasm: Mystical Piety and Evangelicalism in Colonial South Carolina – January 23, 2013
A Place to Worship: African American Camp Meetings in the Carolinas by Minuette Floyd
The Origins of Southern Evangelicalism: Religious Revivalism in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670–1760 by Thomas J. Little
And then to understand the current culture:
Hallowed Ground: Primitive Camp Meetings of the South Carolina Lowcountry, Part I: Cattle Creek and Cypress Camp Meetings
Finally, two women that I came across in doing this research whose works I want to read:
Mary Shackleton Leadbeater – the Shackletons ran a Quaker boarding school near Timahoe in Ireland where many of the Camden Friends came from. This is the famous explorer’s family. Edmund Burke attended school there and corresponded with Mary Shackleton Leadbeater. Not your usual Quaker journal.
Annals of Ballitore,
And Biographical Notices of Members of the Society of Friends: Who Were Resident in Ireland
And a South Carolina woman I thought I might be related to for one day – Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who was the mother of the South Carolina Senator and Presidential candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and who was a key player in the development of indigo as a cash crop. Her journal brings home how difficult it was to survive sickness in the 18th century in South Carolina.
indigo girl by natasha boyd
Eliza Lucas Pinckney: An Independent Woman in the Age of Revolution
Women Of Colonial And Revolutionary Times: Eliza Pinckney; Journal And Letters Of Eliza Lucas Hardcover – September 10, 2010
