The Richard D. Sawyer Historic Greenville Collection contains an extensive array of materials pertaining to Greenville and Greenville County history, including ephemera, artifacts, photographs, manuscripts, published material, and newspapers. A majority of the material represents businesses, schools, World War I training camps as well as the Greenville Army Air Base.
The manuscript series is arranged by types of material and then chronologically. The series contains the two oldest original documents in the collection, from 1818 and 1853. The series consists of mainly correspondence, likely collected for the company logos or letterhead. Reedy River research includes photocopies of a land grant, deed and will. Two unusual items include a Secretary’s Roll Book for the White Horse Alliance no. 487, (1891); and a journal from the Lynn Praying Band of Winthrop, Maine, (1876-1895) that mentions Simpsonville, S.C.
The published material series consists of booklets, pamphlets, brochures, calendars, directories, maps, and newsletters from banks, businesses and organizations. Of interest is an issue of the Wadsworth Gas Attack and Rio Grande Rattler from 1918, a weekly publication by and for the men of the 27th Division U.S.A. at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, S.C.
The newspapers series contains 6 issues of local newspapers, as well as 21 issues of the GAB newspapers (Greenville Air Base) for 1943-1944. This weekly base newspaper published during WWII gives insight into the daily life of the 40th wing and 334th bombardment groups. Greenville Army Air Base was in operation from 1942-1950 and then became Donaldson Air Force Base.
The ephemera series is the largest and contains material from banks, businesses, churches and schools. Material includes coupons, envelopes, business invoices, statements, receipts; flyers, invitations, letterhead, passes, publicity cards, programs, tax stamps; tickets and school-related material from Greenville schools including Parker High School, as well as Furman University. There are also a few pieces of ephemera and an artifact related to Donaldson Air Force Base.
The photographs series includes original and copied photographs; a majority are undated. Enlarged photocopies of postcards are also included. Stereograph cards created by Sawyer include Greenville buildings, downtown Greenville Reedy River area, 1995 flood, etc., 1988-1995, as well as the former Southern Railway Passenger Station/Greenville depot and its demolition. Panoramic photographs of Camp Sevier and Camp Wadsworth are included.
The Artifacts series is the second largest series and contains commemorative plates and a Clovis point [est. 12,000 to 8,000 B.C] found in Pelzer. Artifacts from Greenville’s Camp Sevier and Spartanburg’s Camp Wadsworth, World War I training facilities, are included as well as artifacts from the World War II Greenville Army Air Base.
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