"S" is for South Caroliniana Library

"S" is for South Caroliniana Library. The South Caroliniana Library building was completed in 1840 as the central library building for South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina). It was the first freestanding college library building in the United States, predating those of Harvard (1841), Yale (1846) and Princeton (1873). By 1850 the library’s collections were considered among the best in the nation. After the Civil War, the library’s fortunes rose and fell through decades of unsteady funding. In 1940, the university’s general library collection was moved into McKissick Memorial Library and what was now called the Caroliniana collection remained in the old library. Thus, the historic building on the Horseshoe became the South Caroliniana Library—a depository for published and unpublished materials related to the history, culture, and literature of South Carolina.