George McDaniel

Author of Drayton Hall Stories: A Place and Its People

Author Talks
Tuesday, Aug 23 2022 @ 7pm

Bundle Tickets

–Not Yet Members: $38 (includes general admission ticket + book at 30% discount!)
–Members: $33 (includes discounted general admission ticket + book at 30% discount!)
–Insiders: $28 (includes free general admission ticket + book at 30% discount!)

General Admission Tickets (book not included)

–Not Yet Members: $10
–Members: $5
–Insiders: Free

Woodruff Auditorium is located inside McElreath Hall. Doors and cash bar will open at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.


A new portrayal of this 18th-century icon among America’s historic sites, Drayton Hall Stories: A Place and Its People is the first book in the nation to focus on a site’s recent history using interviews with descendants (both White and Black), board members, staff, donors, architects, historians, preservationists, tourism leaders, and more. Like different pieces of a mosaic, each interview combines with others to create an engaging picture of this one place, revealing never-before-shared family moments, major decisions in preservation and site stewardship, and pioneering efforts to transform a Southern plantation into a site for racial conciliation. Readers will come to see Drayton Hall’s people not as stereotypes, but as the real people they were — and are. Maps, photographs, lines of descent, interview questions, a how-to guide, and related website, all provide blueprints for readers who wish to undertake similar endeavors to build community in today’s world.

About the Author

George W. McDaniel, PhD, is the President of McDaniel Consulting, LLC, a strategy firm that helps organizations and museums build bridges within itself and to its broader constituents. For more than 25 years, he served as the Executive Director of Drayton Hall, a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Charleston, South Carolina. A native of Atlanta, he graduated from the Lovett School in 1962, earned a BA from Sewanee, a MAT (history) from Brown University, and PhD (history) from Duke. Interspersed through those years were travels to many places — Europe, Africa, Vietnam — where he saw peace and war and learned by experience about cultural differences and commonalities. Beginning with the Smithsonian Institution, he has built a career in education and history museums, earning awards at local, state, and national levels. From 1985 to 1989 he worked with Atlanta History Center as a director of education and public programs. A nationally respected museum professional and author, he helps organizations to use history, place, and culture to enhance community.

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