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A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Color photograph of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta.

National Center for Civil and Human Rights (NCCHR)

Located in downtown Atlanta, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (NCCHR) is a museum that explores the connections between the U.S. civil rights movement and the global struggle for human rights.

Photograph by Bradley Huchteman

Color photograph of a two-story lobby in the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

NCCHR Main Lobby

The NCCHR's 42,000 square-foot facility opened in 2014 and receives approximately 200,000 visitors each year.

Photograph by Marco Correa

Color photograph of the American civil rights movement exhibit at Atlanta's National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

NCCHR Exhibit

The center's primary exhibit, "Rolls Down Like Water: The American Civil Rights Movement," incorporates historical images, oral histories, and film footage alongside interactive features.

Photograph from the National Center for Civil and Human Rights

Workmen’s Circle Awards Banquet

Workmen’s Circle Awards Banquet

The first Organized Labor and Workmen's Circle Banquet took place in May 1969 at the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta. Seated from left to right: E. L. Abercrombie, Oliver Singleton, Gid Parham, Joe Jacobs, Robert Shadix, and Harold Bauman. Standing from left to right: Joe Baylan, Irving Gordon, E. T. Kehrer, George Caudelle, Harris Jacobs, John Wright, and James Howard (?).

James Sala and William R. Pullen

James Sala and William R. Pullen

James Sala, a leader in the AFL-CIO, presents a check to William R. Pullen for the establishment of the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University in Atlanta, circa 1969.

David B. Gracy

David B. Gracy

David B. Gracy, appointed in 1971 as the first director of the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University, sits at his desk in 1974. He remained in the position until 1976.

Leslie Hough

Leslie Hough

Leslie Hough, the second director of the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University, is pictured in 1985. Under Hough, the Archives acquired the records of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) and the United Garment Workers of America, as well as the papers of U.S. secretary of labor W. J. Usery Jr. and labor activist Stetson Kennedy.

Auburn Avenue Research Library

Auburn Avenue Research Library

The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, pictured in 1994, is located on the west end of the Sweet Auburn historic district in Atlanta. The library offers reference and archival collections dedicated to African American culture and history.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

Auburn Branch of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta

Auburn Branch of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta

The Auburn Branch of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta, pictured circa 1935, opened in 1921 and closed in 1959. It was the city's first public library branch for African Americans.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

Annie L. McPheeters

Annie L. McPheeters

Annie L. McPheeters, pictured circa 1940, was appointed assistant librarian at the Auburn Branch of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta in 1934. McPheeters was responsible for developing the library's core Negro History Collection, housed today at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Photograph by Lane Brothers

West Hunter Branch

West Hunter Branch

Pictured circa 1960, the West Hunter Branch of Atlanta's public library system opened in 1949, during the era of public segregation, to serve African American patrons. All the city's libraries were integrated in 1959.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

Negro History Collection

Negro History Collection

The Negro History Collection is pictured in 1949 at the West Hunter Branch of the Atlanta Public Library. Renamed the Samuel W. Williams Collection on Black America in 1971, the collection today forms the core archive at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Photograph by Lane Brothers

Story Hour

Story Hour

Eva Thomas (far left), a public school teacher, leads a story hour program for children in 1944, outside the Auburn Branch of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta. The story hour was a collaborative project between the Atlanta Public Library and the Atlanta Board of Education.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

Dedication Program

Dedication Program

The dedication ceremony for the Samuel W. Williams Collection on Black America was held on November 21, 1971, at the Carnegie Library building in downtown Atlanta. Formerly known as the Negro History Collection, the archive is housed today at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

Westville Potter

Westville Potter

A potter demonstrates his craft to schoolchildren at Historic Westville, a living history museum in west Georgia. The village of Westville opened in 1970 and depicts an 1850s community.

Tullie Smith Farm

Tullie Smith Farm

The Tullie Smith Farm, located on the the grounds of the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, re-creates a working farm from the 1840s.

Image from Jim Bowen

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Westville

Westville

A blacksmith is heating iron over forge at Historic Westville, a living history museum in west Georgia.

Image from Historic Westville

Georgia Archives Month, 2009

Georgia Archives Month, 2009

The theme for Georgia Archives Month, 2009, was "Quench Your Thirst for History." Sponsored by the Society of Georgia Archivists, Georgia Archives Month is held each October and celebrated with a variety of exhibitions and programs at archives, libraries, and museums around the state.

Courtesy of Society of Georgia Archivists

Georgia Archives Month, 2014

Georgia Archives Month, 2014

The Society of Georgia Archivists selected the theme "Sweet Tea and Southern Breezes" for Georgia Archives Month in 2014. The monthlong event is held each October and highlights the work and holdings of archives around the state.

Courtesy of Society of Georgia Archivists

Travel Back in Time

Travel Back in Time

Georgia Archives Month, held each year in October, is a celebration of the state's preserved historical record and is sponsored by the Society of Georgia Archivists. The theme for 2010 was "Travel Back in Time."

Courtesy of Society of Georgia Archvists

Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum

Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum

The Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum opened in the Old Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Albany in 1998. The first mass meeting of the Albany Movement was held at the church in 1961, and in the 1990s the church building was converted into the museum. Known today as the Albany Civil Rights Institute, the museum moved to a new facility next to the church in 2008.

Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.

William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum

William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum

The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum was established in Atlanta in 1996. The museum, affiliated with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, serves as a cultural center, archive, and repository of artifacts and information regarding the Jewish experience in Georgia.

Holocaust Gallery

Holocaust Gallery

The permanent exhibit The Holocaust Years at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta describes the systematic murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. The story is told through photographs, documents, personal memorabilia, family pictures, and in the voices of those who survived and made new lives in Atlanta.

Jewish Gravesites

Jewish Gravesites

The Jewish section of Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta is included in a database of cemeteries and burial sites compiled by the Jewish Cemetery Association of Georgia. The association was founded by volunteers at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta.

Photograph by Kate Wrightson

Circus Parade, Madison

Circus Parade, Madison

A circus parades through the square in downtown Madison, circa 1912. This photograph is included in the Vanishing Georgia collection at the Georgia Archives in Morrow. The project was initiated by Carroll Hart, the former director of the archives, in 1975 to collect and preserve images documenting the state's past.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #
mor017-014.

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Georgia Archives

Georgia Archives

The Division of Archives and History, also known as the Georgia Archives, is a division of the office of the secretary of state. Located in Morrow, the archives collects, manages, and preserves the official records of Georgia from 1732 to the present.

Courtesy of University Financing Foundation

Georgia Archives

Georgia Archives

The Georgia Archives building, built in 1965 on Capitol Avenue in downtown Atlanta, was designed by A. Thomas Bradbury, the architect for several government buildings around the state capitol. In 2003 the archives relocated to a new site in Morrow.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives.

Button Gwinnett’s Signature

Button Gwinnett’s Signature

Button Gwinnett's signature is said to be one of the rarest and most valuable of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The signature is housed at the Georgia Archives in Morrow.

Image from Wikimedia

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Spelman Seminary

Spelman Seminary

Spelman Seminary in Atlanta, pictured circa 1912-13, was founded in 1881 and became Spelman College in 1924. Five years later, the Atlanta University Center formed, joining the school with other African American institutions in the city.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, # ful0992c-86.

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Robert W. Woodruff Library

Robert W. Woodruff Library

The Robert W. Woodruff Library, which contains one of the country's most extensive collections of archival material relating to African American history, is centrally located in Atlanta among the schools that belong to the Atlanta University Center.

Image from Thomson200

Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame

Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame

The Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame was founded on April 19, 1989, at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. The 1999 Georgia legislature enacted a law making it the official repository for documents associated with aviation history in Georgia.

Courtesy of Museum of Aviation

Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame

Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame

The Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame is populated with exhibits dedicated to accomplished pilots who have influenced the history of aviation in Georgia.

Photograph by William P. Head

High School Media Project

High School Media Project

Teachers at Rome High School confer with students about their project for a National History Day in Georgia state contest, sponsored by Georgia Humanities. Georgia Humanities works closely with educators in the humanities around the state by hosting teacher workshops and providing resource materials.

Courtesy of Georgia Humanities.

Senator Jackson Dedicates Library

Senator Jackson Dedicates Library

Senator Henry M. Jackson speaks at the Russell Library dedication on June 24, 1974. Other platform guests include Governor Jimmy Carter, Senator John C. Stennis, Senator Herman E. Talmadge, former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Senator Russell's siblings.

Russell Library Opens for Research

Russell Library Opens for Research

Mrs. S. Gordon Greene Sr., sister of Senator Russell, officially opens the Russell Library on January 8, 1977. University President Fred C. Davison, Russell Professor in History Gilbert C. Fite, and Russell Foundation Chair Phil Landrum observe.

Donation from Russell Foundation

Donation from Russell Foundation

Michael F. Adams, president of the University of Georgia, holds a $3 million check presented by the Russell Foundation on October 20, 2003. The gift will help to build a new facility that will house the university's three special collections libraries.

Courtesy of University of Georgia Photographic Services

Richard B. Russell Jr. Special Collection Libraries

Richard B. Russell Jr. Special Collection Libraries

Richard B. Russell Jr. Special Collection Libraries building at the University of Georgia. 

GALILEO

GALILEO

GALILEO (GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online) is Georgia's virtual library, with electronic books, periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, reference materials, special collections, and access to Georgia's library catalogs.

GALILEO Conference

GALILEO Conference

An attendee at the GALILEO annual conference in Macon.

GALILEO 1.0

GALILEO 1.0

The GALILEO home page when the website launched in 1995.

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

The entrance area for the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum features a manicured lawn and a fountain and reflecting pool. The Atlanta architectural firm Jova/Daniels/Busby, in cooperation with Lawton/Umemura/Yamamoto of Hawaii, designed the structure.

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

Construction costs for the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum were $26 million, raised by donations from friends of Carter from around the world. The building was dedicated and the museum opened to the public on October 1, 1986.

Plains

Plains

Plains, in Sumter County, is well known as the hometown of former U.S. president and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter.

Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.