The program in the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) at the College of Charleston was established in 1994 to promote scholarship and public engagement with the history and culture of the Lowcountry, the Atlantic World, and the connections between the two. CLAW's mission is to place Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry region in a broader international context by fostering research and educational outreach that illuminates the ongoing connections and cultural exchange among various Atlantic cultures, societies, and ethnicities in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas.
"Picturesque America" from the Charleston Museum Illustrated Newspapers Collection in the Lowcountry Digital Library.
The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) program works with various partners that engage innovative digital tools and strategies to improve online access to history projects and educational outreach. The following Digital Initiatives are projects that take a multifaceted approach to advancing public access to scholarship, archives, oral histories, and spatial, temporal, and environmental information relevant to the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World.
Please click the icons below to learn more about CLAW's Digital Initiative partners:
The Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) produces digital collections and projects that support research about the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and historically interconnected sites in the Atlantic World. LCDL is committed to a multifaceted approach that incorporates historical and anthropological scholarship, oral history, integrative archival practices, digital librarianship, and spatial, temporal, and environmental information. Together with its institutional partners, LCDL helps students, scholars, and a wide range of public audiences develop a better understanding of the history and culture of the South Carolina Lowcountry relative to the nation and the world.
"The Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI) is a digital public history project hosted by the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) at the College of Charleston. Funded through a pilot project grant from the Humanities Council of South Carolina and a major grant award from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, LDHI began development in 2013 and launched in 2014 as a digital consultation service, scholarly editorial resource, and online platform for partner institutions and collaborative scholars to translate multi-institutional archival materials, historic landscape features and structures, and scholarly research into digital public history exhibition projects."
This online exhibition and educator resource series focuses on the complex history of emancipation and the period of Reconstruction that followed the American Civil War. After Slavery showcases a rich collection of source materials organized for high school and college/university classroom use. Originally published 2006, redesigned for LDHI in 2013-2014. Updated 2016.
The Special Collections division at the College of Charleston is pleased to offer a corollary geographic touchstone of Charleston’s queer history and beginning the task of documenting the presence of the LGBTTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Intersex, and Agender) community as well as their allies in the Lowcountry. Currently no history of homosexuality of the Charleston area and the Lowcountry exists. Despite the obstacles and erasures of queer history, this project attests to a strong and vibrant queer past in Charleston and seeks to restore these individuals to their rightful place in our story.
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