Old Charleston Church an Exciting New Find!

Charleston is known as the Holy City for good reason. Look at the skyline and several tall church steeples can be seen.

From its 17th century inception, Charleston has been very religiously tolerant. Only a small number of people were needed to form a church.  Today, the city benefits from this benevolence with a treasure trove of churches of many faiths.

I maintain a separate blog for my College of Charleston First Year Experience course, "Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teach the Living." I want to share two recent posts from my Charleston Beyond the Grave blog that deal with Charleston's religious richness.

St. Mary's is on Huger Street near King Street

This past Sunday Alesia and I attended Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the Holy City. Gorgeous inside, St. Mary's also has a lovely, historic and interesting graveyard that wraps around the building.

Here's my post from this enlightening experience!






Another treasure trove, this one of historic information, is Ruth Miller who has spoken twice now to my "Beyond the Grave" class. She is a longtime Charleston historian and tour guide. In this post I wrote, learn (as I did) of Charleston's many religious firsts and distinctions.

Ruth Miller and yours truly after her fall semester talk (photo by Megan Wright) 

Preaching to the Choir at Charleston's Audubon Society

I knew there would be kindred spirits when I spoke to Charleston's Audubon and Natural History Society on March 8.

There was an impressive turnout for my talk, which take place in an auditorium in Duckett Hall on the campus of The Citadel.  Many thanks to Paul Nolan who coordinated my visit and did a lot of advance publicity work.

Alesia took this photo at my March 8 Audubon Society presentation

The presentation centered on my passion for nature and birds- and particularly my nature and bird photography.  I collected my thoughts, fondness, tips and tactics about this hobby in my new book, "Nature-ly Fun: Bird Photography From A to Z".

My book signing before and after the talk went very well too. Audubon is an organization Alesia and I are talking about joining. I touted the many things I've learned being a member of the Carolinas' Nature Photographers Association (CNPA) and can see the benefits of also being part of the local Audubon group.

Explaining the "A to Z" concept of my new bird/nature photography book

Thanks again for the hospitality and attentiveness Audubon Society members!

Magnolia Cemetery Class Visit A Sunny Delight!

The students and I at the massive Smith Pyramid

A highlight of the special course I teach at the College of Charleston is taking my students to Charleston's beautiful and historic Magnolia Cemetery. 

We went last Saturday and what a glorious day it would be!  

Check out the post I wrote on my blog for this course, which is called, "Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teach the Living." 

My students each did their own posts on the blogs they created for my course. Here are a few of my favorite student-written posts about this visit: Bridget McElroy, Stephanie Owens, Nina Piacentine, and Jorden Falker.