You might have heard...we now have a state vegetable thanks to a third-grader from Lexington who proposed the bill. Now the state vegetable is collard greens. Collards as they are also known are a traditional Southern meal, eaten originally by slaves as they were abundant and cheap. Now we eat them on New Year's Day, along with black-eyed peas. The leaves look like folded money so they represent wealth in the upcoming year!

• News Article
• Mary Grace Wingard's letter to Governor Haley
• Video on how to prepare collard greens

Through a partnership between the University of South Carolina Libraries, the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities we can now read historic newspapers from across the state through the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. These are great primary sources for the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Industrialization.

• The Anderson intelligencer. (Anderson, S.C.) Aug. 14, 1860-Jan. 29, 1896
• The Charleston daily news. (Charleston, S.C.) Sept. 8, 1865-April 5, 1873
• The Columbia daily phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) May 15, 1865-July 29, 1865
• Columbia phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) Mar. 21, 1865-April 8, 1865
• Columbia phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) April 10, 1865-May 13, 1865
• The daily phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) July 31, 1865-Oct. 2, 1877
• The Sumter watchman. (Sumterville, S.C.) Jan. 5, 1870-Dec. 25, 1872
• Tri-weekly phoenix. (Columbia, S.C.) Dec. 9, 1871-May 18, 1875
• The watchman and southron. (Sumter, S.C.) Aug. 2, 1881-Dec. 31, 1921

Just to pick one small item of interest, here is a contest from The Watchman and Southron from Sumter, SC on September 28, 1904. Imagine the thrill of winning a Ford in 1904!

Did you know that the SC Department of Education publishes its own glossary of Social Studies words? Many of the words are now defined in the StudySC SC Glossary. Do you know the definition of industrialization, place, and monarchy?

Here are the answers:

industrialization (n)
- the growth of machine production and the factory system. The process of introducing manufacturing into countries or regions where most of the people are engaged in primary economic activities

monarchy (n)
- government in which political power is exercised by a single ruler under the claim of divine or hereditary right

place (n)
- a location having distinctive characteristics that give it meaning and character and distinguish it from other locations