Berg family papers

Collection

Identifier: SCL-MS-14078

Staff Only

The Berg Family Papers include personal correspondence; business documents; baptism, confirmation, marriage services, registers provided by funeral homes; diplomas ranging from kindergarten through post-graduate college; religious tracts; genealogical charts; and magazines such as The Horseless Age, 1902, Parks’ Floral Magazine, 1918, Motorboating, 1920, and Radio News, 1927. Pamphlets among the papers vary widely in subject matter from religion to building boats and pilot rules for certain inland waters of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The bound volumes include autograph books dated 1852 and 1882 and poems translated from German, 1856-1895. The oversize folder holds a warranty deed (1887), diplomas (1891, 1928), a certificate of confirmation (1873), and a circus handbill dated 1916. A rubber stamp bearing the name A.H. Berg is also included. Oversize materials, ca. 1873-1928, consist of certificates; awards; diplomas, dated June 1891, of Miss Clara Berg, issued by the Columbia City Schools, and another diploma, dated 1928, from University of South Carolina issued to Miss Clara Berg; and broadside, 1916, promoting appearance by "Ye Mammoth Circus Aggregation," that would perform in two rings at the Y.M.C.A. building on Sumter St. in Columbia, S.C., featuring clowns, magicians, "Pretty Dolly Dimples the fat girl," Prof. Watchemavitch, Skinnylegs-Zoaves, "Congress of Freaks and Monstrocities," etc., to be followed by a "grand concert" of "refined vaudeville acts."

Dates

1852 - 1968

Creator

Berg, Gustavus Theodore (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

All rights reside with creator. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact The South Caroliniana Library.

Extent

1.25 Linear Feet (1 carton 3 volumes 1 oversize folder)

Additional Description

Biographical Note

Gustavus Theodore Berg (1823-1905), an architect and draftsman, married Caroline “Carrie” Muller (1837-1906) of Columbia, South Carolina, 22 Jun. 1858. They had eight children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. Mr. Berg served as an assistant to both John R. Niernsee and Francis (Frank) McHenry Niernsee during their involvement in the building of the South Carolina State House. He designed Ebenezer Lutheran Church, currently used as the chapel; the Masonic Temple and Fire House that once stood on the corner of Main and Washington Streets; the Robertson-Hutchinson House; and the north wing of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum during the years 1867-1882.