The Many Lives of Gertrude Sanford Legendre

Aiken County native and long-time Berkeley County resident Legendre lived a big life.  She was a New York rich girl and debutante, equestrienne and big-game hunter, flapper and party-goer, explorer and naturalist, society bride and socialite, South Carolina plantation owner and hostess, World War II spy and German prisoner of war, philanthropist and grande dame … Read more

Missy LeHand Tells All

Marguerite A. LeHand worked for President Roosevelt for more than 20 years as his private secretary, counselor, confidante and friend. In this presentation, Smith wears period costume and speaks with Missy’s Boston accent about her time with FDR. Mid-talk, she removes Missy’s hat, tells “the rest of the story,” and takes questions from the audience … Read more

Winnie-the-Pooh: The Bear Facts

Enjoy the fascinating back story of the Winnie the Pooh books and how they came to be written.  How a Canadian army officer found a baby bear in his home town of Winnipeg (hence the name Winnie), took him to London as his army unit’s mascot, donated him to the London Zoo where a young visitor named … Read more

All Things Southern: The Charleston Renaissance and the Revival of Southern Art

Once celebrated as “the Queen of the South,” Charleston, South Carolina, was left devastated by the Civil War–a faded reflection of its antebellum glory.  For 50 years following the war, the city struggled to overcome economic and cultural stagnation. Then in 1915, a group of artists and writers rediscovered the City’s innate beauty and artistic … Read more

The Art of Norman Rockwell

As the premiere illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post for nearly half a century, no other American artist was more popular with the public than Norman Rockwell. Americans saw in Rockwell’s art a reflection of their values, their strengths and their foibles. Despite his easy-going, pipe-smoking facade, he was a lonely man who suffered from … Read more

Growing Up Southern

An illustrated, candid talk takes the audience back to 1950’s rural Georgia where Tom recalls momentous times hanging out at the local Confederate monument, days playing football, and summers on his granddad’s farm. It was there he spent days with his childhood best friend, Jesse Lee “sweetie Boy” Elam, a black boy. Neither had any … Read more

South Carolina Country Roads

“South Carolina Country Roads” takes readers on a journey down forgotten routes and lesser-traveled byways. Join Tom as he shares photos and discusses what he discovered along the 10,000 miles he drove deliberately avoiding the interstates. Discover the bones of the land, the DNA of real life—rural icons, old home places, oddities, vanquished communities, and relics … Read more

What The Shag Taught Me

Tom wrote Save The Last Dance For Me (USC Press), the story of how the blues evolved into beach music and how the shag evolved to become the state dance of North and South Carolina. What surprised him most while writing the history of the shag and the Society of Stranders was a revealing glimpse into his … Read more

Unforgettable People & Places

Tom shares experiences about the legendary Goat Man, a colonel who turned from war to camellias, a sweet man who ended up homeless, and an unforgettable teacher. Enduring places include adventures at a bus station as a ticket agent, filming a wildlife refuge’s lovely isolation, the smell of rain on dirt roads, a kudzu-covered land, … Read more

How A Mule Kick Killed Eight People: A True Story

Tom’s habit of photographing old gas pumps at country stores had him cross paths with the grandson of a man killed for $500—murder for hire. The mayhem that ensued made history, involved Strom Thurmond, and led to eight people’s death, all because a mule kicked a calf in the head. The sole electrocution of a … Read more

Stories Behind the Photos (Behind the scenes of Reflections of South Carolina, Vol. II and Classic Carolina Road Trips: 100 stunning images in all.)

An illustrated talk takes the audience behind the scenes to a haunted cemetery, South Carolina’s oldest bridge, North America’s only tea plantation, a wild ride down the Chattooga, an old mill where a tractor killed one of the last men making stone-ground cornmeal, a colony of carnivorous pitcher plants, forest fire entrapment while photographing rocky … Read more

How A Road Trip Led To Four SC Books

Before walking out as SC Wildlife‘s managing editor to freelance, Tom made a road trip with photographer Robert Clark in search of a story. They found it and “Tenant Homes, Testament To Hard Times,” landed them a book contract. That book led to four others. Their initial 100-mile journey in time would lead to more than … Read more

A Vanishing Southland: The Loss of Ways and Traditions

Tom often writes about the vanishing ways, places, and traditions that have blessed the South with a sense of place: small towns that close at noon Wednesdays, vanishing country stores, telephoning fish, wasp attacks in church, casting spells to remove warts, and more. He brings the Southland of yesteryear alive … despite change and newcomers … Read more

A Comfortable Murder: British Detective Fiction of the Golden Age

The 1920s and 30s were the highlight decades of the British “cozy”: the relatively bloodless type of murder mystery that one can read curled by up by the fireplace with a strong cup of tea. This talk will trace the development of the genre of British detective fiction from its antecedents such as Wilke Collins … Read more

South Carolina Dances with Isabel Whaley Sloan

Isabel Whaley Sloan started teaching ballroom dancing and social etiquette in Columbia when she was 17 years old in 1914. For three-quarters of a century, generations of children, including Gov. Henry McMaster, flocked to her classes. Sloan was also well-known for organizing dances and social events for thousands of servicemen who were stationed at Fort Jackson during World … Read more

Military Diaries: Personal Accounts of WWI and the Cold War

Veteran reporter, author and USC Professor Emerita Pat McNeely presents recently edited military diaries and family histories of her husband and her father-in-law who served in the Cold War and World War I respectively. McNeely has added family pictures and additional information to both diaries to make them lasting histories. Hear about how she pulled … Read more

Frances Perkins, Woman Behind the New Deal (1933–1945)

Perkins became the first female cabinet member, FDR’s Secretary of Labor,  at the rock bottom of the Great Depression.  She came with a “To Do List” –  workman’s compensation, unemployment insurance, old age and health insurance; a minimum wage, a maximum work week,  and the abolition of child labor.  When she left office 12 years … Read more

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962

Rachel Carson is depicted just after the publication of Silent Spring and 18 months before she dies of breast cancer. Warning of dangers of pesticides and pollution, Silent Spring races to the top of the bestseller list, and Rachel Carson is attacked on all sides by the chemical industry. Proclaimed founder of the Environmental Movement, she is still maligned … Read more

Sports & Social Protest

This program uses the Viet Nam War Civil Rights protests in sport (the Wyoming University “Black 14,” Muhammed Ali’s CO status, 1968 Olympics, etc.) as a spring-board to discuss modern/present-day issues of race (cf. Naomi Osaka, the NBA, the MLB/Black Lives Matter/voting rights) and sport begetting social protest. We will attempt to make sense of … Read more

Civil Rights Movement & the Viet Nam War

This program will feature songs of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States discussed in context of historical events. Lyrics are provided. Dive into an investigation of the folk roots of early Civil Rights songs and the influence of soul/R&B on memorable Civil Rights anthems, from Guthrie to Franklin to Cooke, as well … Read more

Chicano Rights & Puerto Rican Independence Movement (in Context of Viet Nam War)

This program will engage participants in a discussion of literature and music from the Chicano and Puerto Rican American population during the Viet Nam War. Music and lyrics are provided. The presentation includes special emphasis on Roy Brown’s 1970 album Yo Protesto and the continued complicated relations between the US & Puerto Rico.

Anti-War Music & the Viet Nam War

This program offers a brief history of anti-war music in the United States up to the Viet Nam War and further discussion of specific anti-war songs (for example: “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by The Animals, 1965, is the most remembered song by VN War Veterans) and their historical context. More recent anti-war … Read more

Music & the Viet Nam War

This program gives an overview of different genres of music of the war, with lyrics displayed while songs play. “Top 40” hits are interspersed with “deep cuts” from the Viet Nam War era, and the discussion includes global cultural, social, and historical contexts for the songs presented.

Music and Politics

An in-depth look at the relationship between political structures and musical movements.  Depending upon the interests of the group, this talk can include Beethoven’s Musical Treatment from Napoleon to Hitler, Baroque Music and Absolutism, Mozart and the Enlightenment, Jim Crow and Jazz, or many others.

Jazz History (including any sub-genres or individual artists)

A discussion of jazz history from its inception in New Orleans through the modern day.  This talk can easily be tailored to fit the interests of the particular group and can include any combination of eras/styles, a broad overview, a focus on a particular style, or on individual artists and performers.  Any discussion will include … Read more

Domestic Violence and the Rise of the Novel

From an early age, we are taught that reading is good. But what happens when the stories that we read reinforce dangerous ideas? This talk will explore the similarities between novels of courtship and marriage and the horrific dynamics of domestic violence. With reference to popular texts, such as Disney animations, the speaker identifies how … Read more

Gamechanger: The Life and Writing of Julia Mood Peterkin

Julia Peterkin was a white woman who wrote about Gullah people living on her family’s plantation out of a desire to honor and preserve their culture. She was shunned by white Southerners for “betraying her race” but became accepted by Harlem Renaissance writers, such as Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois. Regardless of criticism, she continued … Read more

The Lynching of Willie Earle in Greenville – 1947

Willie Earle, an African American, was accused of killing Thomas Watson Brown, a cab driver from Greenville, SC.  Thirty-one white men (mostly cab drivers – all white) drove from Greenville in the middle of the night to take Earle out of the Pickens County Jail.  They then beat him, burned him, and shot him in … Read more

The Holocaust – In the Beginning

The years 1933-1939 must be studied to enable an understanding of what came later. The Final Solution, implemented in late 1940-1941, was slowly realized through these early years. Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933 paved the way for the Nazis to continue on their path of human destruction, but the economic woes of Germany … Read more