Agriculture has always been an important part of our lives here in South Carolina!
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The "spiritine" or turpentine factory in Cheraw was active at the turn of the 20th century. Courtesy of the Cheraw Visitors Bureau.
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The turpentine industry has been an important part of the forest products industry in South Carolina from its earliest days. The first step in making turpentine is to gather pitch from pine trees; fan...
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The Orangeburg County cattle pasture had a good stand of pine timber in the background. The timber not only provided shade and protection; it was also a major agricultural crop in South Carolina...
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Interior of a tobacco grading room in a Darlington tobacco factory around 1890. Photo by August Kohn. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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African-American and white boys work together stringing tobacco under the shade of the shed, near Marion. Sorting and stringing tobacco onto long poles was a preliminary step to curing it. Dorothea...
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U.S. Goodyear farm in Bishopville, showing a combination tobacco curing and sweet potato curing storage barn. Photograph by E.C. Hunter in October 1939. Courtesy of the Clemson University Libraries.
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In this somewhat unusual photo around 1900, harvested tobacco is being hung on racks immediately in the field before being taken by mule-drawn wagon to the tobacco barn, where the stringing process...
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Artist Richard Lofton painted this tobacco farmer during the 1930s. Courtesy of the Collection of the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina. Richard Morrison Lofton, American, 1908-1966....
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This sketch was a preliminary study for the Mullins Post Office mural painted by Lee Gatch in 1940, titled "Tobacco and Industry." Courtesy of the South Carolina State Museum.
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As important as the growing of cotton was its marketing, and in this the Cotton Exchange played a powerful role in the local economy. All of the members of the Charleston Cotton Exchange were...