University of South Carolina Rare Books and Special Collections

08/28/2026

We finished out the week looking at some Medieval Manuscripts with University of South Carolina School of Music!

Professor Carrico brought her MUSC 353 class to see some of our medieval sheet music. They got to see large volumes as well as handheld and illustrated works. Even our medieval sheet music lamp was on display!

07/21/2026

Fifty years ago, Thomas Cooper Library got bigger – a lot bigger.

In the summer of 1976, Thomas Cooper, which opened in 1959 as the university’s undergraduate library, became USC’s primary library after undergoing a massive expansion that not only tripled the square footage of each of the building’s existing floors but also added four new floors underground.

Read more about the renovation that gave us the Thomas Cooper Library we know today at the link below!

https://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_libraries/exhibits_events_news/news/2026/celebrating_50_years_of_thomas_cooper_library_underground.php

Pictured below is the giant hole that was excavated to add four new underground floors to the library.

07/20/2026

We had fun inviting the Earth Educator's Rendezvous 2026 participants to look at some of the items in our collection that focus on geology and Earth sciences!

Visitors in the group got to look at items such as:
🪨 The historie of the world: commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus, by Pliny the Elder (1634).

🪨 Strata identified by organized fossils: containing prints on colored paper of the most characteristic specimens in each stratum, by William Smith (1816-1819).

🪨 Recherches sur les substances radioactives, by Marie Curie (1903).

Among other rocking items! 🪨🌏

07/16/2026

Heading to the theater this weekend to catch Christopher Nolan's ?

Get ready for your epic journey by checking out these pages from George Chapman's translation of Homer's works into English, featuring Homer's "Odysseys". Published in 1616, Chapman's work is the first to translate Homer into English, making it accessible to English society for the first time.

Have you read "The Odyssey"? What was your experience like?

07/15/2026

At University Libraries, a new AI-enhanced tool is making the historical record more accessible – and giving student workers an opportunity to provide feedback that makes the tool even better.

Seeklight, a new tool from JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, assists the Digital Collections Department with rare collection digitization and processing by transcribing handwritten documents with a high degree of accuracy. Student workers act as beta users of the tool, allowing them to offer feedback on how Seeklight could be improved.

Learn more about the tool, and how students are using it, at the link below!
https://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/university_libraries/exhibits_events_news/news/2026/seeklight_AI.php

07/06/2026

07/06/2026

Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸

Today we celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document that wrote the United States of America into existence.

Continue to celebrate with us on July 11th when we are hosting an open gallery for our "Echoes of Independence" exhibit!

07/02/2026

07/01/2026

Countdown to Independence Day: The first appearance of "the shot heard round the world"

that the phrase "the shot heard round the world" didn't appear publicly until 1837? The "Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, April 19, 1836" (later titled "Concord Hymn") is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson written for the 1837 dedication of an obelisk monument in Concord, Massachusetts, commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord, a series of battles and skirmishes on April 19, 1775, that sparked the American Revolutionary War. The poem is the origin of the phrase "the shot heard round the world." This is the first print appearance of the poem, which is featured in the Christian Register and Boston Observer in 1837.