The Friends of the Medford Library and U SC Lancaster Cordially invite you to attend The Friends of the Medford Library Annual Meeting Honoring Dr. Thomas Blumer on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 7:00 PM In the Atrium of the Medford Library

Dr. Thomas Blumer served as senior editor, European Law Division, of the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He has published a Bibliography of the Catawba (Scarecrow Press) and a study of Catawba Pottery: Survival of a folk Tradition (Alabama, 2004).

The Friends of the Medford Library organization is pleased to recognize Dr. Thomas J. Blumer for his lifetime of achievement and service to the Catawba Nation. Dr. Blumer received his B.A. and M.A. in English fiom the University of Mississippi, and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Blumer's passion has been an ongoing relationship with the Catawba Nation which began in 1976 while he was serving as curator for a pottery exhibit at Winthrop University. In 1979 the Native Amcrican Rights Fund asked him to be its official Catawba history consultant and he was later asked by the Catawba to serve as their official tribal historian.

The Friends of the Medford library are proud to pay tribute to Dr. Blumer as we announce the donation of thee Thomas Blumer Catawba Research Collection to the Medford Library. This important and historically significant collection includes more that 8,000 slides; field tapes with senior tribal members ca. 1900 - 1941; correspondence from 1970 to the present; paper files concerning the Catawba suit and its resolution; photo archives; and a Catawba reference collection.

This event is free to the public. A reception and book signing will immediately follow the program.

In addition to honoring Dr. Blumer, the Friends of the Medford Library will award the Elliott White Springs Prize for Fiction and The Medford Poetry Award.