12 December 1899: $2.50 Buys Seven Nights of Enlightened Entertainment at Lucy Cobb

On this day in 1899, the first of seven lectures/performances were delivered at the Lucy Cobb Institute. The series had been advertised for weeks in the Athens Daily Banner:

The initial lecture was offered by Alfred Taylor of Tennessee, a former Congressman who had run against (and lost to) his own brother for the Governorship of Tennessee in 1886. He had left politics to go on the lecture circuit, often with his brother, who had also retired from public service. In 1920, Alfred Taylor would finally become the Governor of Tennessee.

Most of the other men on the lecture schedule were nationally known for their oration and performances. The Athens newspapers for the month of March, 1900, are missing, so the subject of University of Georgia Department of Chemistry head Dr. H. C. White's talk is unknown.

Learn More:

• Athens Daily Banner, July 1899 - Dec. 1899 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of Lucy Cobb Institute, 1858-1994 by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• The Tennessee Almanac and Book of Facts by James A. Crutchfield in the Heritage collection.
• Tennessee: A Short History by Robert Ewing Corlew in the general collection.
• History of Tennessee (no author) in the Heritage collection.
• American Fairy Tales from Rip Van Winkle to the Rootabaga Stories by Neil Phillip in the young adult and children's collections.
• The Oxford History of the Classical World by John Boardman in the Reference and general collections.
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand in the general collection.
• Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas in the biography collection.