We have a double header for you at our April 23 meeting. And that means we’ll be starting 30 minutes earlier than usual, at 6:30 pm. We’ll be meeting at Church of the Holy Cross, 299 Seven Farms Drive.
We’re starting early so we can celebrate namesake Robert Daniell’s birthday complete with a short talk about Daniell by DIHS co-founder Mike Dahlman.
We’ll follow that up at 7 with “Hidden History: The Walled City of Charles Town” Our speaker will be Katherine Sanders Pemberton, Manager of Research and Education at Historic Charleston Foundation.
Katherine Saunders Pemberton is a native of Virginia and earned her degree in Historic Preservation at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va. She worked as an archaeologist at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest before moving to Charleston in 1992.
Katherine is the Manager of Research and Education at Historic Charleston Foundation where she has worked since 1996. Since 2005, Ms. Pemberton has also been an adjunct professor for the Clemson/ College of Charleston graduate program in Historic Preservation where she teaches Historical Research Methods.
Ms. Pemberton’s principle research interest for the last several years has been the fortifications of colonial Charles Town. In her role as co-chair of the Mayor’s Walled City Task Force she has spearheaded and published research, organized archaeological investigations, and introduced this little-known colonial history to the public.
Ms Pemberton also conducts research on more modern aspects of Charleston’s history. She recently submitted a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the W. Gresham Meggett School on James Island, one of several “equalization schools” in this area built in the 1950s and 60s in an effort to maintain “separate but equal” schools for black and white children. She is also currently working on a National Park Service Civil Rights Grant for Mosquito Beach, an African American gathering place in the heart of the Gullah/ Geechee Heritage area.