William Gilmore Simms's collection of scrapbooks represents one of the most significant, but least accessible, resources for the study of the writer. Housed as a part of the Charles Carroll Simms collection in the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina, there are nine volumes of scrapbooks, each comprised of works of numerous genres from throughout Simms's career.[1] While the majority of the included works are Simms's own, the scrapbooks also features writings by others, as well as works of uncertain authorship. Prior to digitizing these volumes, access to them ...

                Simms was interested in the American Revolution throughout his career, writing significant works about the conflict in both fiction and nonfiction.  By 1840, he had already produced the first edition of his History of South Carolina as well as two of his Revolutionary Romances, all of which are works largely concerned with the effect of the Revolution on his native state.  Around this same time, Simms had decided to complement this work by writing biographies.  In April 1840, he wrote to James Lawson that he was “meditating and taking notes for several Biographies—say ...