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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This collection has use restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 72.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 67,600 items) |
| Abstract | Penn Center of the Sea Islands, formerly Penn Community Services, is located on St. Helena Island, S.C., and is the site of the former Penn School, founded in 1862 as one of the country's first schools for freed slaves. The Penn Board of Trustees closed the school in 1948 but three years later reconstituted Penn as a center for community development and conference site for organizations working to advance African American causes or in support of equality, education, welfare, and other social issues. In the late twentieth century, Penn's mission evolved to include a focus on promoting and preserving the history and culture of the Sea Islands, S.C. Records document the administrative operations and cultural heritage activities of Penn Community Services and Penn Center of the Sea Islands. Topics include organizational policies and development; fund-raising and other finances; rural community development; ownership and retention of land by African Americans; health, education, and social services programming; Peace Corps training; the United States Commission on Civil Rights and state advisory committees that reported on discrimination practices; the Orangeburg Massacre; land use and environmental, cultural, and historic preservation; collaboration among South Carolina low country cultural heritage organizations and education agencies; the development of the "Education for Freedom" exhibit on Penn School and Penn Center history; Gullah and Sea Island history and culture; and special events, such as Heritage Days, Black History Month, Emancipation Proclamation celebrations, Labor Day programs, Community Sings, the Mystery Play, Miss Black Pearl pageants, and Civil War reenactments. Photographic materials depict special events; campus buildings; Sea Island rural and coastal scenery; employees and visitors; midwives; residents of St. Helena Island and other islanders; folk art exhibits and artists; visits by A. Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., and others; travel by a Penn Center group to Sierra Leone; and Hurricane Gracie (1959). Audiovisual materials include oral histories, other interviews, and recordings of campus events on topics that include Gullah history and culture, ownership and retention of land by African Americans, and cultural heritage and historical tourism. The Penn Center of the Sea Islands website includes a video about the Penn Center, an historical overview, and information about the museum, conference center, and programming. |
| Creator | Penn Center of the Sea Islands. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Historical Information
The Penn School Board of Trustees established Penn Community Services, Inc. (later renamed Penn Center of the Sea Islands), in 1951, three years after Penn School closed as an independent school (its last class graduated in 1953). The Board envisioned a new role for Penn as a center dedicated to community development and a conference site for organizations working to advance African American causes and in support of equality, education, welfare, and other social issues. Courtney Siceloff was hired in 1950 as executive director to begin charting that course.
During the 1950s, much of the work at Penn Community Services, Inc., focused low income residents of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Penn participated in projects to bring public water to many of the islands, helped people learn the rights and responsibilities of land ownership, and established a number of social services, including Head Start for disadvantaged preschool children and the Beaufort-Jasper Comprehensive Health Services. Penn also continued to be a training site for midwifery as it had been during the Penn School years. Beginning in 1955, conference meeting space on campus was made available for interracial groups. For more than a decade the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other religious, educational, business, cultural, and labor groups regularly used Penn's facilities for their meetings because it was one of the few places in the American South willing to host interracial groups at that time. In the late 1960s Penn also provided space for Peace Corps training and leadership training for prospective governmental leaders in the southeastern states.
Courtney Siceloff retired in 1969, and the Board of Trustees hired John W. Gadson as the first African American executive director at Penn. Support for social and economic development programs continued under Gadson's leadership. During his tenure, Penn established Black Land Services, Inc., to preserve ownership and retention of land by African Americans; the Child Development Project, which set up daycare centers; and the Business Development Project, which helped blacks to establish businesses and navigate loan processes. Gadson also expanded Penn's community role to include cultural preservation. In 1971, Penn created the York W. Bailey Museum and the Culture Program to document and educate about Sea Island history and culture. In 1974, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the Penn campus as a National Historic Landmark District.
Agnes Sherman was a key staff member of the Culture Program during the 1960s and 1970s. She led efforts on the Laura M. Towne Library, the York W. Bailey Museum, the Miss Black Pearl Pageant, and Penn's first oral history project. Sherman also was instrumental in re-establishing or creating some of the most important Penn traditions that continue to the present day under the History and Culture Department: the Labor Day Program on the Green; the Nativity Scene, which is part of the popular Penn School Mystery Play; monthly Community Sings; and Heritage Days.
Gadson resigned as director of Penn Center in 1976. Staff member Joseph McDomick, who led Black Land Services, Inc., served as interim executive director until the Board of Trustees hired John Buffington in August 1976. Buffington's tenure was brief; he resigned in a financial crisis in February 1978. An audit later that year identified three problems: leadership, finances, and programs. Joseph McDomick filled in again until 1980 when the Board of Trustees hired Emory Campbell.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Emory Campbell focused Penn's mission on helping Sea Islanders to preserve land ownership and the land itself. Resort development in the region threatened islanders' legal hold on their land and the sustainability of traditional coastal and agriculture ways of life. Penn's community organizing work centered on citizen education, land-use planning and policy reform, and sustainable community development. Penn also sought to preserve and promote Gullah history and culture to gain a place in low country heritage tourism. Some of the major initiatives of Campbell's tenure included the first Heritage Days celebration; a capital campaign for renovations to allow for expanded use of the Penn Center as a conference center; the Penn School for Preservation, "a community leadership training program covering the basic principles of community economic development, land use and environmental planning and effective leadership"; the Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE), which provided tutoring, academic and cultural enrichment, support for parents, and engagement with community concerns; the Penn-University of South Carolina partnership that addressed history and culture preservation, continuing education, and the needs of early childhood/at-risk families; and numerous grants that supported campus building renovations and exhibit development.
Campbell retired in 2002 with programs and projects well established in the tradition of Penn. Executive directors since Campbell have not yet deposited their records in the Penn Center of the Sea Islands archive at the Southern Historical Collection.
Executive Directors of Penn Community Services and Penn Center of the Sea Islands
For additional information see the Penn Center website ( www.penncenter.com) and Penn Center: A History Preserved (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2014) by Orville Vernon Burton with Wilbur Cross.
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Scope and Content
Records documenting the administrative operations and cultural heritage activities of Penn Community Services and Penn Center of the Sea Islands. Materials are arranged into series that document the work of the executive directors (Series 1) and the staff of the History and Culture unit (Series 2). Audiovisual materials are arranged according to format: photographic materials (Series 3), sound recordings (Series 4), and film and video (Series 5).
Series 1: The records of Courtney Siceloff, John Gadson, John Buffington, and Emory Campbell, executive directors of Penn Community Services and Penn Center of the Sea Islands. Topics include organizational policies and development; fund-raising and finances; rural community development; ownership and retention of land by African Americans; employment for conscientious objectors; food stamps; Head Start programming for disadvantaged preschool children; National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials (NAIRO); Peace Corps training; integrated education; leadership identification and training; the United States Commission on Civil Rights and its state advisory committees that reported on discrimination practices; the Orangeburg Massacre; land use and environmental and cultural preservation; historic preservation of Penn campus buildings; Gullah studies; collaboration among South Carolina low country cultural heritage organizations and educational agencies; the Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE); and History and Culture programming, including special events, such as Heritage Days, Black History Month, and Emancipation Proclamation celebrations.
Series 2: The records of History and Culture directors and staff and the York W. Bailey Museum. Topics include strategic planning; collaborative efforts with other cultural heritage organizations and agencies; and program planning for long-standing events, including the Labor Day program, Community Sings, the Mystery Play, Heritage Days, Black History Month, Emancipation Proclamation and Watch Night planning. Other topics include Peace Corps training at Penn, campus building conditions, the development of the "Education for Freedom" exhibit on Penn School and Penn Center history; and Gullah and Sea Island history and culture. York W. Bailey Museum materials are both documentation of administrative operations and items collected and preserved by Penn Center staff to create an archive of chiefly printed materials about notable African Americans and important people in the history of the Penn School and Penn Center.
Series 3: Photographic materials depict events, activities, campus buildings, Sea Island rural and coastal scenery, employees and visitors, residents of St. Helena Island, and other islanders. Topics include folk art exhibits and artists, including Sam Doyle; recurring programs at Penn Center, such as the Heritage Days festival events and parades, Labor Day, Mystery Play performances, Community Sings, Emancipation Day, Miss Black Pearl Pageant, and the Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE); special events at Penn Center, such as Civil War reenactors for the 54th Massachusetts, A. Phillip Randolph's visit, Martin Luther King Jr.'s retreat with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, South Carolina Human Relations Student Council, NAACP youth conference, National Sharecroppers, Peace Corps training, and travel by a Penn Center group to Sierra Leone; Hurricane Gracie (1959); oral histories; midwives; and York W. Bailey Museum employees, visitors, and artifacts.
Series 4 and 5: Audiovisual recordings and film contain oral histories and other interviews, music and storytelling performances, community meetings, church meetings, community sings, Heritage Days events, Civil War reenactments, Emancipation Day and Labor Day programs, symposiums on Sea Island cultural life and concerns, performances of the Mystery Play, a visit by President Joseph Saidu Momoh of Sierra Leone, and other campus events on topics that include Gullah history and culture, ownership and retention of land by African Americans, and cultural heritage and historical tourism.
Series 6: The Penn Center of the Sea Islands website includes a video about the Penn Center, an historical overview, and information about the museum, conference center, and programming.
NOTE: Researchers are advised to search for related materials across all series.
NOTE: Courtney Siceloff materials were originally filed with the Penn School Papers (#3615). They were transferred from that collection in August 2015 in order to be reunited with other Penn Community Services and Penn Center of the Sea Islands records. The subseries retain their order from the Penn School Papers with some new material added.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Executive Directors, 1949-2002.
Records of the executive directors of Penn Community Services and Penn Center of the Sea Islands, documenting administrative operations and cultural heritage activities. Topics include the Board of Trustees; organizational policies and development; fund-raising and finances; rural community development; ownership and retention of land by African Americans; employment for conscientious objectors; food stamps; Head Start programming for disadvantaged preschool children; National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials (NAIRO); Peace Corps training; integrated education; leadership identification and training; the United States Commission on Civil Rights and its state advisory committees that reported on discrimination practices found within their states; the Orangeburg Massacre; land use and environmental and cultural preservation; historic preservation of campus buildings; Gullah studies; collaboration among South Carolina low country cultural heritage organizations and education agencies; the Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE); and History and Culture programming, including special events, such as Heritage Days, Black History Month, and Emancipation Proclamation celebrations at Camp Saxton (John Joiner Plantation, Port Royal, S.C.).
The records in this series are arranged into subseries by executive director: 1.1 Courtney Siceloff; 1.2 John Gadson and John Buffington; 1.3 Emory Campbell.
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Subseries 1.1. Courtney Siceloff, 1949-1980.
The records of Executive Director Courtney Siceloff are divided into two subseries: 1.1.1 Administrative Records, which document the administrative operations of Penn Community Services; and 1.1.2 United States Commission on Civil Rights, which includes Siceloff's records of the organization and its state advisory committees. Siceloff served as a regional consultant for the United States Commission on Civil Rights, overseeing the state advisory committees of southern states, and as secretary of the South Carolina Advisory Committee.
NOTE: Courtney Siceloff materials were originally filed with the Penn School Papers (#3615). They were transferred from that collection in August 2015 in order to be reunited with other Penn Community Services andPenn Center of the Sea Islands records. The subseries retain their order from the Penn School Papers with some new material added.
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Subseries 1.1.1. Administrative Records, 1950-1980, 2001.
Arrangement: chronological, then alphabetical by subject.
Material documenting administrative operations at Penn Community Services. Topics include Board of Trustees; Penn School campus properties; finances; rural community development; employment for conscientious objectors; fund-raising and other financial matters; food stamps; Head Start programming for disadvantaged preschool children; National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials (NAIRO); Peace Corps training for volunteers preparing to serve in Botswana; integrated education; leadership identification and training; sensitivity training; and continuing contact with supporters, especially New York alumni of the Penn School and the American Friends Service Committee. Also of note is a guest book with a record of individuals and organizations who visited Penn's campus. Beginning in 1955, Penn hosted meetings of biracial groups from South Carolina and elsewhere in the South because it was one of the few integrated facilities available until after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
NOTE: Related material from 1948 and 1949 is filed with the Penn School Papers (#3615). See Penn School folders 214-226 for administrative materials that document the Board of Trustees' decision to close the Penn School and reconstitute itself as Penn Community Services. See Penn School folders 319-320, 327-330, 401-404 for financial materials that overlap between the Penn School and Penn Community Services. See Penn School folders 451-452 for annual reports. See Penn School folders 441-442 for miscellaneous printed items. See Penn School folder 425 for newspaper clippings. Many of these folders have been digitized and are available online.
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Subseries 1.1.2. United States Commission on Civil Rights, 1957-1968.
The United States Commission on Civil Rights was created under the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This agency was supported by advisory committees in every state that reported on discriminatory practices found within their states and provided advice and assistance to victims of discrimination seeking to participate in hearings. The South Carolina Advisory Committee was established in 1959. Courtney Siceloff served as secretary for the South Carolina Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and as regional consultant, overseeing the state advisory committees of southern states.
Material includes correspondence, reports, pamphlets, notes, minutes, and clippings related to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and its state advisory committees, especially the South Carolina Advisory Committee. Correspondents include members of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, including A. H. Rosenfeld Jr., Cornelius P. Cotten, Peter M. Sussman, and chair of the South Carolina Advisory Committee, E. R. McIver. Included is information on specific cases brought to the South Carolina Advisory Committee, with statements from people involved in cases including public officials and alleged victims of police mistreatment and employment discrimination. Information gathered by the state advisory committees pertains to poverty, education, school integration, housing discrimination, urban renewal, employment practices, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and discrimination in hospitals and healthcare facilities.
Also included is material related to the event known as the Orangeburg Massacre on 8 February 1968 in Orangeburg, S.C.. There, a student-led demonstration against segregation ended with three students shot dead and others injured by police officers. Material related to the Mississippi Advisory Committee includes a copy of a letter from U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy concerning the Department of Justice's litigation against Mississippi and several of its public officials.
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Subseries 1.2. John Gadson and John Buffington, 1967-1980.
Arrangement: chronological then alphabetical by subject.
Materials documenting administrative operations and cultural heritage activities of Penn Community Services. Of note are the Community Development Project reports, Black Land Services reports, and Board of Trustees communications. Other topics include the lawsuit over underpayment of wages for work performed by conscientious objectors at Penn, organizational policies, and an evaluation of Penn by external reviewers.
NOTE: These two executive directors served comparatively short tenures as executive directors. Their file groupings were not individually distinguishable and have been preserved in the order they were received with few modifications to file names to promote clarity and searchability.
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Subseries 1.3. Emory Campbell, 1974-2002.
Arrangement: alphabetical by subject.
Materials documenting administrative operations and cultural heritage activities of Penn Center. Topics include Penn Center's Family Land Use Education program; land use and environmental and cultural preservation; historic preservation of buildings on campus; organizational strategic planning and personnel policies; the Penn School for Preservation for training community leaders; the nurturing of a Gullah studies relationship with Sierra Leone; collaboration among South Carolina low country cultural heritage organizations and education agencies; Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE); and History and Culture programming, including special events, such as Heritage Days, Black History Month, and Emancipation Proclamation celebrations at Camp Saxton (John Joiner Plantation, Port Royal, S.C.). Materials include correspondence, reports, grant applications, clippings, printed materials, photographs, and writings by others.
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Series 2. History and Culture, 1970-2012.
The Penn Center Cultural Program was established in 1971. The purpose of the program was "to awaken the people of the Sea Islands, especially St. Helena Island, to the history of the area and to the numerous cultural riches the area has. The program was also designed with the purpose of assisting the community in discovering and promoting community talents and native abilities" (PA-5539/3, "Pictures and Stories of Cultural Program").
Jane Sapp served as the Cultural Programs director from 1971 to 1973. Following Sapp's departure, Agnes Sherman, who had been director of the York W. Bailey Museum, became director of Cultural Programs and served in that capacity until 1979. Sometime after Emory Campbell took over as executive director of the Penn Center, the Cultural Programs office changed its name to History and Culture. Over the next two decades the History and Culture director position was sometimes vacant, which explains in part the extent of related materials found in Series 1.3 Emory Campbell.
The records in this series are arranged by History and Culture director or other related position within the unit, in order of their terms of service: 2.1 Director: Jane Sapp; 2.2 Director: Agnes Sherman; 2.3 Director Vanessa Thaxton; 2.4 Director Joseph McGill; 2.5 Curator: Darryl Murphy; 2.6 Director Veronica Gerald; 2.7. Public Program Coordinator: Tracye Stormer; 2.8. Acting Director Annette Teasdale; 2.9. Director: Rosalyn Browne. Subsequent subseries are composed of materials that seem to have been shared among History and Culture staff over many years: 2.10. General Files; 2.11. Artists and Performers; 2.12. Books; 2.13. Heritage Days; 2.14. Song Lyrics; 2.15. York W. Bailey Museum.
Materials document the work of the Cultural Program and History and Culture, especially administrative operations of the office and the museum; strategic planning; collaborative efforts with other cultural heritage organizations and agencies; and program planning for long-standing events, including the Labor Day program, Community Sings, the Mystery Play, Heritage Days, Black History Month, Emancipation Proclamation and Watch Night planning. Other topics include Peace Corps training at Penn, campus building conditions, the development of the "Education for Freedom" exhibit on Penn School and Penn Center history; and Gullah and Sea Island history and culture.
Materials include correspondence with the board of trustees, community members, artists, performers, visitors to Penn, and others; reports and grant proposals; clippings and printed materials; and song lyrics.
NOTE: Researchers are advised to search for related materials across all series in the collection as topics frequently carry over from one staff member to the next and across formats.
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Subseries 2.1. Jane Sapp, 1971-1972.
Materials include correspondence and transcripts of interviews that may have been conducted by Cultural Programs staff as part of Family Union Day. Jane Sapp's correspondence concerns cultural programs planning and includes form letters to committee members, requests for publications from publishers, and letters to incoming interns with the Black Land Project. Subject files originally created by Jane Sapp can be found in Series 2.2 Agnes Sherman.
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Subseries 2.2. Agnes Sherman, 1970-1979.
Arrangement: correspondence, then alphabetical by subject.
Materials include Agnes Sherman's correspondence, incoming administrative memoranda from Executive Directors John Gadson and John Buffington and Administrative Director James Hull, and subject files. Correspondence documents History and Culture program planning. There is some correspondence concerning To Live As Free Men. Memoranda define Penn's personnel policies, fund-raising philosophy, project goals, photograph permissions, and other administrative concerns. Subject file topics include cultural program assessment, youth activities, and programs and events, including the Labor Day program, Community Sings, and the Mystery Play, all of which Sherman helped to establish or re-establish while working at Penn.
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Subseries 2.3. Vanessa Thaxton, 1987-1993.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Administrative records of History and Culture document planning for Heritage Days, the Mystery Play, Black History Month activities, visitors, exhibits and public programs at York W. Bailey Museum, volunteers, the Program for Academic and Cultural Enrichment (PACE), oral histories, Elderhostel, a program planning and feasibility study, the Sierra Leone trip, grant proposals, and routine and other correspondence with affiliated and collaborative organizations about presentations by Vanessa Thaxton.
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Subseries 2.4. Joseph McGill, 1995-1998.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Administrative records of the History and Culture document grant applications, work plans and strategic planning, campus building conditions, and historical tourism promoted by Penn Center and by other cultural heritage organizations and agencies.
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Subseries 2.5. Curator: Darryl Murphy, 1996-1998.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Chiefly materials related to the development of "Education for Freedom," an exhibit documenting the history of the Penn School and Penn Center. There are some records documenting events planning for History and Culture.
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Subseries 2.6. Veronica Gerald, 1999-2000.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Chiefly administrative records for the History and Culture. Materials include correspondence with artists, performers, participants in workshops held at Penn, cultural heritage organizations and agencies, and researchers and other visitors. Of note are records documenting the York W. Bailey Museum, Gullah Institute, Heritage Days, and proposed collaborative projects with the Humanities School of Beaufort, the National Park Service, Reunion Productions, and Southern Rural Development Initiative.
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Subseries 2.7. Public Program Coordinator: Tracye Stormer, 1996-1999.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Programming activities by month, Heritage Days planning, Community Sing programs, Emancipation Proclamation and Watch Night planning, exhibit examples, and Christmas program.
Additional Heritage Days materials can be found in Series 2.13 Heritage Days.
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Subseries 2.8. Acting Director Annette Teasdale, 2003-2005.
Topics include budget, correspondence, and Gullah Christmas.
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Subseries 2.9. Director: Rosalyn Browne, 2005-2008, 2011-2012.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Topics include Gullah Christmas and Gullah Institute, tourism market analysis, the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, and a Gullah bible recording.
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Subseries 2.10. General Files, 1955-2006.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Included are ephemera that might be given to visitors to Penn's campus and administrative and printed materials that might be referred to many times over multiple years and directors. Of note are the background information and writings about Penn School and Penn Center, Gullah and Sea Island history and culture, Penn newsletters, and song lyrics. Note that some materials include an alphanumeric designation (Y.W.B...) assigned by Penn Center staff. These numbers can also be found throughout Series 2.15 York W. Bailey Museum, Series 3.2 Photographic Materials (by Subject), Series 4.2 Audiocassettes, and Series 5. Film and Video.
Some of the administrative materials in this series overlaps with the museum operations files in Series 2.15 York W. Bailey Museum and Archives.
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Subseries 2.11. Artists and Performers, 1988-1997.
Arrangement: alphabetical by name, then by art form.
Artist and performer files, some of which may have been created initially as participants in Artists of Color project, but most likely added as potential participants in Heritage Days.