18 November 1921: "Give Kodak This Christmas"

On this day in 1921, this one national Kodak ad was run in the Athens Banner for two local businesses:

The more expensive Autographic Kodak cameras had been introduced in 1914, and allowed the user to write the date (or other information) on the film. When developed, the picture included the data written at the time the photograph was taken. 

Though George Eastman had paid the inventor of this system $300,000.00 (akin to millions today) to use it exclusively for his Kodak cameras, changes in photographic technology made it unworkable by the 1930s. 

The Brownie had been introduced in 1900, and was the first camera made for the every man, woman, and child at a price of $1.00, akin to about $30.00 in today's money. You can see images of these early Brownie cameras by clicking here.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1921 - Feb. 1922 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs by Maureen Alice Taylor in the general collection.
• More Dating Old Photographs, 1840-1929 by Maureen Alice Taylor in the general collection.
• 1919 Kodak ad showing Autographic Camera being noted, via Google Books.
• The Brownie Camera at 100 page on the Kodak website.
• George Eastman: A Biography by Elizabeth Brayer in the biography collection.
• Measuring Worth website.
• The Origins of American Photography by Keith F. Davis in the new books collection.
• Restoring Classic and Collectible Cameras by Thomas Tomosy in the general collection.
• The Kodak Guide to Digital Photography by Rob Sheppard in the general collection.
• The Amateur Photographer's Handbook by Aaron Sussman in the general collection.

30 September 1911: Amazing News in Pictures

On this day in 1911, the Athens Banner reported that "the newest thing in motion pictures" would surely lead to news that wasn't in the newspaper but available with the 

press of a button at the head of his bed and in a frame over the mantel there will appear in motion pictures of natural color the gleanings of the happenings of the day before recorded by the photo-reporter.

 (click to enlarge image)

At the time, photographs were not common in the Athens newspapers. There may be a reproduced publicity photo to promote a play or film coming to town, but rarely were local people or events depicted in the paper as anything other than text. Photographs of local people and places appeared only in special issues about the city's progress, and even then, these were portraits of people and unoccupied photographs of rooms or buildings. The "action shot" was not part of local journalism, so a moving picture was a huge change from what even the most devoted Athens news junkie might encounter.

Newsreels were quite popular in the coming decades, though newspapers did not go out of business even when one could push a button and watch "natural color" news from one's own bed.  Several different companies would create the news reels, with Athens especially excited by one in 1913 that featured the UGA Freshman-Sophomore Pushball game.

The Elite theater was on Lumpkin Street, and was later renamed the Georgia Theatre. 

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1911 - Nov. 1911 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick in the New Books collection.
• 150 Years of Photo Journalism from the Hulton Getty Picture Collection in the general collection.
• Muckraking! The Journalism that Changed America by Judith and William Serrin in the general collection.
• Careers in Focus: Journalism by the J. F. Ferguson Publishing Company in the general collection.
• The Edward R. Murrow Collection in the DVD collection.
• My Paper Chase: A True Story of Vanished Times by Harold Evans in the biography collection.
• City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics by Jeff Hecht in the general collection. 
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson in the New Books collection.
• The Newsreel Archive website.
• Universal Newsreels on Internet Archive website.
  

19 April 1912: Legislating Lifeboats "might save many others"

On this day in 1912, as Congress began its official inquiry into the Titanic disaster, the Athens Banner editorial staff came out in favor of lifeboat legislation:

(click to enlarge image)

Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan began to subpoena White Star Line executives and surviving crew members the day the Carpathia docked in New York with the survivors of the disaster. He would spend six weeks on the investigation, and regulations involving lifeboats, ship construction, ice monitoring, and the Radio Act of 1912 were the result. Similar regulations were passed by Great Britain, and later other nations around the world.




Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Apr. 1912 - Jun. 1912 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Building the Titanic: An Epic Tale of the Creation of History's Most Famous Ocean Liner by Rod Green in the general collection.
• Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic by Steven Biel in the general collection.
• Titanic Legacy: Disaster as Media Event and Myth by Paul Heyer in the general collection.
• Her Name, Titanic: The Untold Story of the Sinking and Finding of the Unsinkable Ship by Charles Pellegrino in the general collection.
• Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt in the general collection.
• Titanic Survivor: The Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessop Who Survived Both the Titanic and Britannic Disasters by Violet Jessop in the general collection.
• Titanic: 100 Years on the National Georgraphic website.

27 February 1942: Charlayne Hunter-Gault Is Born

On this day 70 years ago, in Due West, South Carolina, Charlayne Hunter-Gault was born to Althea Ruth and Charles S. H. Hunter, Jr. Her father's position as an Army chaplain caused the family to move frequently, so Charlayne and her younger brothers Henry and Franklyn, spent much of their childhoods living with their maternal grandmother in Covington and Atlanta, Georgia.


Charlayne attended Henry McNeal Turner High School in Atlanta, where she graduated 3rd in her class in 1959. That year, she and class valedictorian Hamilton Holmes were approached by local civil rights leaders who wanted to challenge Georgia's segregated system of higher education. Both Charlayne and Hamilton applied to the  University of Georgia in 1959 and were denied admission based on their race. 


In Fall of 1959, Charlayne Hunter enrolled at Fort Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and she and Hamilton Holmes continued to apply to UGA every quarter, with their attorneys in Atlanta challenging their denied admission in court. In January of 1961, Judge William Bootle ruled that Holmes and Hunter were qualified to attend UGA, and therefore entitled to be admitted to the University. Three days later, both students enrolled at UGA, becoming the first African-American students to attend the school.


In 1963, Charlayne Hunter graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism, and took a job as an editorial assistant at the New Yorker magazine. She would later work as a reporter and anchor for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. In 1968, she joined the New York Times, and while there, married Ronald Gault. She left the Times in 1978 to be a national correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer Report on Public Television. In 1992, she wrote a memoir, In My Place.


In 1997, her husband was transferred to South Africa, and Hunter-Gault left PBS to become the Africa correspondent for National Public Radio. From 1999 to 2005, she was CNN's Africa correspondent, and still occasionally files reports for NPR. In 2006, she published New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance. She currently contributes to TheRoot.com.


Over her career, Charlayne Hunter-Gault has received more than two dozen honorary degrees and earned many journalism awards. She's won the New York Times' Publisher Award, the National Urban Coalition Award for Distinguished Urban Reporting, two National News and Documentary Emmy awards, and two Peabody awards.

Despite her experiences as a student at the University of Georgia, Hunter-Gault has stayed involved with her alma mater. In 1985, as part of UGA's Bicentennial Celebration, the Holmes-Hunter Lecture was created, and has been held annually ever since, focusing "on race relations, black history, and education with implications for inclusion and diversity." In 1988, Charlayne Hunter-Gault became the first African-American invited to speak at UGA commencement, 25 years after her own graduation.


In 2001, as part of the celebration of 40 years since desegregation, the Academic Building on North Campus was renamed the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building. In 2007, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer-in-Residence chair was created in the Grady College of Journalism, and in 2011, Hunter-Gault donated her papers to the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.




Learn More:

• In My Place by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the biography collection.
• New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the general collection.
• We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia by Robert A. Pratt in the Heritage and general collections.
• An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia by Calvin Trillin in the Heritage and general collections.
• Civil Rights Digital Library in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• New Georgia Encyclopedia: Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
• American Program Bureau Speakers: Charlayne-Hunter Gault.
• Crusades in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought the Civil Rights Revolution by Jack Greenberg in the general collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• African-American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known, and Unsung Triumphs of Black America by Joan Potter in the general collection.
• Celebrating Courage: The 50th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA website.
• WLTX (Columbia, SC) Interview with Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
• Atlanta Mayor to Deliver This Year's Holmes-Hunter Lecture announcement in UGA Columns online newspaper.

28 August 1987: WUGA Brings Public Radio to Athens

On this day in 1987, after several delays, Athens gained her own public radio station, WUGA. The station began broadcasting at 6:00am with National Public Radio's Morning Edition. The Athens Observer urged people to listen to hear something "delightfully different."


The establishment of a public radio station in Athens took years of planning, and by the mid-1980s had become an issue of faculty recruitment for the University of Georgia. The Georgia Center of Education had always intended to have a radio station, and in the mid-1980s, grants for the purpose of addressing this need. The work in Athens coincided with the creation of Peach State Public Radio in 1985, now part of Georgia Public Broadcasting.


The station broadcast at 3,000 watts on 91.7 FM. It now broadcasts at 6,000 watts, and has a coverage area  that includes Elberton, Gainesville, Lawrenceville, Eatonton, Madison, Monroe, and Washington, Georgia. The added translator at 97.9 FM that broadcasts from the University of Georgia campus has a range of only about seven miles, and helps with reception in the western part of Athens where interference from Atlanta radio stations had been an occasional issue.


Since its creation, WUGA has consistently been honored for their local coverage of the Athens area. This spring, News Director Mary Kay Mitchell was awarded for "Best General Reporting" in the radio category by the Georgia Associated Press Association; the station won five other awards, as well: second place awards for "Best Series Reporting," "Best Use of Sound," and "Best Feature." 


WUGA now offers more local programming, such as African Perspectives, Just Off the Radar, Night Music, and Athens News Matters,  along with national programs from NPR and PRI, and international programming, such as BBC's The Changing World and World Service news. The station consistently wins "Best Radio Station" polls in the Athens area.



Learn More:

• Athens Observer, Apr. 1987 - Oct. 1987 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner-Herald, August 16 - September 15, 1987 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• WUGA Weekly Schedule on the WUGA website.
• The Sound and the Story: NPR and the Art of Radio by Thomas Looker in the general collection.
• This is NPR by Cokie Roberts in the general collection.
• The NPR Classical Music Companion by Miles Hoffman in the Reference collection.
• Nothing with Strings: NPR's Beloved Holiday Stories by Bailey White in the fiction collection.
• Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Just for Laughs, 18 Interviews with Stars of Comedy in the CD collection.
• Car Talk: Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father When It Comes to Cars in the CD collection.
• NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music in the CD collection.
• NPR's Funniest Driveway Moments in the CD collection.

This Day in Athens a Finalist for Best Local Library Blog!

On this day we'd like to announce that This Day in Athens is one of five finalists for Salem Press's 2011 Library Blog Awards in the category of Local Blog! 


We are very surprised, and very excited to have this honor. We are the only local history blog in the category. Voting is open until June 1st, and we hope you'll take the time to vote for us, and check out the other wonderful blogs that are finalists. The excellent company is an honor in itself.


Thanks to everyone who subscribes to This Day, reads and passes along the posts, has "Liked" us on Facebook, and follows us on Twitter. We couldn't have done it without your support!

Tech Tips Program: How to Use the Digital Library of Georgia Collections

On this day, we'd like to encourage you to attend the Athens-Clarke County Library's Tech Tips lunchtime seminar this Wednesday, January 26th, in the library auditorium at 12:15pm. This month's topic is of special interest to our readers: The Digital Library of Georgia. As many of you know, you can search the DLG from your home computer without requiring a library password.

Digital Projects Archivist Andy Carter will show you how to navigate the DLG's millions of digital objects in over 200 databases for genealogy or history research, or just for the fun of it. Special emphasis will be given to the Civil Rights Digital Library and the newest newspaper collection, Athens Historic Newspaper Archive.

The new Athens Historic Newspaper Archive spans from 1827 to 1922, with digitized, searchable images of 57,000 newspaper pages. It joins similar newspaper archives for Atlanta (1857-1922), Columbus (1828-1890), the Red & Black (1893-1979), Macon (1826-1908), Southern Israelite (1929-1958 and 1984-1986), and Milledgeville (1826-1920).

This 45-minute lunchtime program is free and open to the public. So bring your questions for Andy Carver and learn more about the amazing free resource that is the Digital Library of Georgia. We hope to see you there!

9 December 1916: "A Brilliant Finale" to America's Electrical Week

On this day in 1916, Athens Railway & Electric Company, located at the corner of College and Hancock Avenues, advertised the last day of demonstrations and programs for America's Electrical Week:

America's Electrical Week was an outreach campaign by the Society for Electrical Development, a trade industry organization formed in 1912 to "establish co-operative relations among the different electrical interests in the United States." The celebration week was intended to show "what electricity has accomplished abroad and in the United States since the European war began," with a goal to "electrify the entire country with special illuminations, parades, and pagentry." 

As part of the 1916 promotion, a poster contest was held during the summer. Of the 800 designs submitted, 125 were chosen as finalists for a traveling exhibition to allow the public to vote for the poster to use in the campaign. The winning logo was part of many window displays around the nation, and is in the upper corners of this ad, showing a genie summoned not from an oil lamp but with an electric light button. The Banner explained the theme as "Aladdin's lamp accomplished wonderful things, but the electric button does everything the lamp did and much more. Instead of the genie serving one person, the up-to-date genie, electricity, serves everybody everywhere."

The official celebration started in New York on December 2nd, with President Woodrow Wilson pushing the button to "bathe" the Statue of Liberty in electricity-powered light, stating, "I light this statue as a symbol of our purpose to throw upon our life as a nation the light which shall reveal its dignity, serene power, benignant hope, and its spirit of guidance."

All week in Athens, the Banner ran front page stories about the crowds that gathered to see the demonstrations of various electrical products for the home at the Athens Railway & Electric Company, noting that "most of the ladies were especially interested in the vacuum cleaner." The store also offered special sale items, and served "delicious luncheons from the elegant electric kitchen."

Other local retailers of electric appliances also had sales during the week:  Talmadge Hardware Company offered two electric stoves for sale at $18.50 each, and these ads were run by Athens Engineering Company throughout the week:

At the end of America's Electrical Week, the Banner declared the enterprise "a great success" because "interest has been aroused in the intelligent selection of the various forms of appliances which will lessen drudgery, advance cleanliness in the home, make the dark places lighter and the light places even brighter."

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Nov. 1916 - Mar. 1917 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes in the general collection.
• America Enters the World: A People's History of the Progressive Era and World War I by Page Smith in the general collection.
• How Electronic Things Work and What to Do When They Don't by Robert L. Goodman in the general collection.
• The Science Book of Electricity by Neil Ardley in the children's collection.
• The Electricity Story: 2,500 Years of Experiments and Discoveries by George deLucenay Leon on the children's collection.
• The Electric Railway Journal available through Google Books.
• Fall 1916 Sears, Roebuck, & Co. Catalog in the Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck, and Company collection in Ancestry Library Edition via GALILEO. (available at any library computer)

1 December 1910: The M. G. Michael Family of Athens Attends the Selig-Frank Wedding in Atlanta

On this day in 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Moses G. Michael and their daughter, Helen, attended the wedding of Miss Lucille Selig of Atlanta and Mr. Leo Max Frank of Brooklyn, New York.

The wedding was held at the East Georgia Avenue home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emil Selig. Rabbi David Marx of Hebrew Benevolent Congregation performed the ceremony before a small gathering of family and close friends. The Athens Banner described the evening as "a pretty event," noting that "the house was artistic with quantities of smilax and vases of pink carnations in all the rooms."

The paper reported that "Miss Michael sang several beautiful selections before the ceremony and was accompanied by Miss Regina Silverman, who also played the wedding march." The two young women also wore pink, with Helen Michael in "a white lingerie gown over pink silk" and Regina Silverman in "a pink chiffon cloth gown over silk, trimmed with lace and black marabou."

Other out-of-town attendants at the wedding included the groom's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Frank of Brooklyn, New York, and the best man, Mr. Milton Rice of Rochester, New York. The paper stated the couple would "spend several weeks at the Piedmont before going north for a wedding trip." They would live with the Seligs upon their return.

Leo and Lucille Frank would be married less than three years when the Atlanta media circus surrounding the murder of Mary Phagan at the National Pencil Factory on Confederate Memorial Day, 1913, would destroy their lives. Though the Atlanta newspapers published any rumor or innuendo that would sell extra editions, the Athens newspapers admonished the Atlanta media for such low behavior and published only the barest of stories about the case as it endured.

Leo Frank was murdered on 17 August 1915 by a mob that was angry his death sentence had been commuted to life in prison by Georgia Governor John Slaton. His body was returned to New York, where he was buried at New Mount Carmel Cemetery. Lucille Frank never remarried, and always signed her name as "Mrs. Leo M. Frank," until her death at age 69. Even then, in 1957, her family was unsure of burying her in Atlanta, and it wasn't for another 45 years, in 2002, that nephews buried her ashes between her parents' graves in Oakland Cemetery, but without a marker.

The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned Leo Frank in 1986, based on the 1982 testimony of then-83-year-old Alonzo Mann, who had been a 14-year-old office boy in the National Pencil Factory in 1913. Mann had seen janitor Jim Conley carrying Phagan's body on the day of the murder. Conley threatened to kill him if he told, and Mann's mother told him to keep quiet. Over the years, Mann repeatedly tried to tell the story, but it wasn't until 1982 that a reporter from the Tennesseean took him seriously enough to publish his eye witness account, and give him a lie detector test, which he easily passed. Members of the Phagan family still believe Leo Frank was the murderer.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jul. 1910 - Dec. 1910 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive via the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Leo Frank Case by Leonard Dinnerstein in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Robert Seitz Frey in the general collection.
• Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television by Matthew Bernstein in the general collection.
• Parade: The Original Broadway Cast Recording in the CD collection.
• Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America by Allen James  in the Heritage and general collections.
• On Lynchings by Ida B. Wells-Barnett in the general collection.
• The People v. Leo Frank: A Georgia Roundtable on the Georgia Public Broadcasting website.
• The Temple Bombing by Melissa Faye Greene in the general collection.
• The Nature of Prejudice by Gordon W. Allport in the general collection.
• Atlanta newspapers on Footnote Library Edition in GALILEO (call 706-613-3650 for current password)
• Images of the people and documents associated with the trial on the GPB Georgia Stories website.
  

7 November 1878: "Subsequent returns prove that we were mistaken..."

On this day in 1878, the Southern Banner newspaper ran a triumphant headline and story on page 2, columns 1 and 2, declaring "DEMOCRACY TRIUMPHANT" in Georgia's 9th Congressional district. The Banner extolled the victory of their preferred candidate, Democrat Colonel Joel A. Billups, a Madison attorney, over Independent candidate Emory Speer, a 29-year-old Athens attorney. However, it turned out that Mr. Speer was the winner of the election, taking the seat by 1,500 votes.

In the weeks prior to election day, the Southern Banner had written insinuating editorials about the trustworthiness of Mr. Speer, questioning whether or not he paid his debts. His status as "Independent" was also doubted, and he was considered to be in cahoots with the Republicans. In their erroneous victory editorial on November 7th, they declared that the 9th district was "Still Solid" and described how Col. Billups had been investigated thoroughly by "a man of honor, truth, and fairness" who had found Col. Billups to be the same. Therefore, all should celebrate an election result that made Col. Billups the district's representative.

The Southern Banner was a weekly paper, so their correction was not printed until the following week, with a run on November 12th. There they described how their error was easy to make, "and was doubtless shared by Mr. Speer's friends." They also noted that they "recognize Mr. Speer as the Congressman elect for the 46th Congress from the 9th Congressional District." The rest of the editorial explained why the paper's publisher believed that Mr. Speer's victory "will prove disasterous to the vital interests of the Democratic party."

Emory Speer served as the Independent Representative from Georgia's 9th until he was defeated in 1882, after accusations that he was responsible for the consideration of Madison Davis to the position of Athens postmaster. At that time, he was appointed by President Chester Arthur to be the District Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Later, Mr. Speer became a judge in the Southern District of Georgia.

Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Nov. 6, 1877 - Mar. 14, 1882 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• A Standard History of Georgia and Georgians by Lucian Lamar Knight in the Heritage collection.
• The Republican Party in Georgia, from Reconstruction to 1900 by Olive Hall Shadgett in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Journalism, 1763-1950 by Louis Turner Griffith in the Heritage and general collections.
• Untapped Sources: America's Newspaper Archives and Histories by Jon Vanden Heuvel in the Heritage collection.
• Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism by Eric Burns in the general collection.
• Truman Defeats Dewey by Gary Donaldson in the general collection.
• Dewey Defeats Truman: A Novel by Thomas Mallon in the fiction collection.
• Everybody Makes Mistakes by Christine Kole MacLean in the children's collection.
  

21 August 2002: Student Newspaper Notes Establishment of Patterson Copyright Award

On this day in 2002, the independent student newspaper at the University of Georgia, the Red & Black, published news of the new American Library Association Award named for University of Georgia law professor, L. Ray Patterson. Patterson was the Pope Brock Professor of Law at UGA, and a Special Assistant Attorney General of Georgia for Copyright Law. The initial award was presented by law professor Lawrence Lessig to Professor Patterson during the 2002 ALA national convention in Atlanta.

The Patterson Copyright Award in Support of User's Rights is not an annual award, but one given as merited to "an individual or group that pursues and supports the Constitutional purpose of the U. S. Copyright Law, fair use and the public domain." Patterson considered copyright law to be "a law of user's rights," that fair use of copyrighted information is a right rather than "an excused infringement." There have been six winners since the award was established. The 2010 winner is Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Patterson was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1929, and attended Mercer University for his undergraduate degree. He earned a Master's degree in English from Northwestern University, then taught at Middle Georgia College before joining the Army during the Korean War, where he worked as a Russian translator.

After the war, Patterson earned a law degree from Mercer University, and taught law there while earning his S.J.D. (Doctorate of Judicial Science) from Harvard University. He then spent the 1960s teaching law at Vanderbilt University and acting as an assistant U. S. Attorney. In 1968, he published Copyright in Historical Perspective, a text that remains in print today.

In 1973, Patterson become dean of the Emory School of Law in Atlanta, stepping down from that position in 1980. In 1987, he accepted the position of Pope Brock Chair at University of Georgia Law School. Patterson published The Nature of Copyright: A Law of User's Rights with co-author Stanley Lindberg, editor of the Georgia Review, in 1991. Though he wrote or co-authored over 20 books in his career, these two books were among the most admired for their approach to copyright law.

Patterson taught at UGA until his death from lung cancer in November, 2003. He was 74 years old.

Learn More:

• L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award website.
• An interview with L. Ray Patterson on the ALA website.
  
• Intellectual Freedom Manual by the American Library Association in the Reference collection.
• CyberRights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age by Mike Godwin in the general collection.
• Carmack's Guide to Copyright and Contracts: A Primer for Genealogists, Writers, and Researchers by Susan DeBartolo Carmack in the general collection.
  
• Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Lawrence Lessig in the general collection.
• The Public Domain: How to Find and Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art and More by Stephen Fishman in the general collection.
• Telling It All: A Legal Guide to the Exercise of Free Speech by Harold W. Fuson in the general collection.
• Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment by Floyd Abrams in the general collection.
• The First Amendment Project, a documentary by Chris Hegedus in the DVD collection.
• The Red and Black Archives website.
  

Book Signing by Journalist Joe Cumming

On this day we'd like to let you know that journalist Joseph B. Cumming, Jr. will be coming to the Athens-Clarke County Library to talk about his new book, Bylines: Writings from the American South, 1963-1997 on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010, at 7pm in the Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. Cumming is the former Southern Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine who also published articles for Esquire, Southern Voices, Harper's, Chattahoochee Review, Atlanta Magazine, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His book is collection of freelance articles covering everything from the Civil Rights movement to working with Celestine Sibley.

The author will sign copies of his book in the lobby after the program, and light refreshments will be served. Copies of his book can be purchased in the Library Store starting July 7th, 2010. We hope to see you there!

29 March 1941: The First Peabody Awards Are Presented

On this day in 1941, the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism distributed the first George Foster Peabody Awards at a luncheon at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. There were five awards presented for work done in 1940:

• CBS Radio for Public Service by a Network
• Elmer Davis of CBS Radio for Best Reporting of the News
• KFRU Radio of Columbia, Missouri, for Public Service by a Small Station
• WGAR Radio of Cleveland, Ohio, for Public Service by a Medium Station
• WLW Radio of Cincinnati, Ohio, for Public Service by a Large Station

There were also 15 Honorable Mentions, including one for WSB Radio of Atlanta, Georgia for "Distinguished Public Service Contributions." The practice of including Honorable Mentions ended in 1955. In 1948, when television became more prevalent in the culture, the first two awards for television were given to ABC for their Actor's Studio short-drama program, and to NBC for their Howdy Doody children's program.

The Peabody Awards were created when the Lambdin Kay, general manager of WSB, was asked in 1939 by the National Association of Broadcasters to create an award for broadcasting that was similar to the Pulitzer Awards for publications. Key contacted John E. Drewry, Dean of the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia because he believed "the award would be more credible if it were academically sanctioned and independently administered." The award was named for George Foster Peabody, a businessman, education philanthropist, and University of Georgia Trustee who had died the previous year.

Unlike the Pulitzer Awards, Peabodys do not have set categories into which a nomination must fit, but seek more generally to recognize "excellence in quality" for any form of electronic media from anywhere in the world. This fluid definition, that does emphasize public service and education as well as entertainment, allows the Award Committee freedom to be as specific or general as they want with their awards, and has allowed the Peabodys to expand as media has evolved. The first cable award came in 1981 for the HBO-Ms. magazine documentary, She’s Nobody’s Baby: The History of American Women in the 20th Century. In 2006, web entities were named as joint winners when ABCNews.com was named as one of those who helped create award-winning investigative journalism; in 2008, awards were given to the sites YouTube.com and, for their parodies of cable news, TheOnion.com.

The Committee also has the freedom to reward specific episodes or programs, as well as entire series, such as the 1972 award to ABC Television for their Afterschool Specials; to the company that creates a program, such as the 2006 award to Be Squared Productions, Inc. for Alton Brown's show on Food Network, Good Eats; to the network that airs and jointly owns the program, such as the Fox Network and Thirteen Productions for the X-Files in 1996; or to a specific episode or part of a program, such as the 1988 award for "Mr. Snow Goes to Washington" story on 60 Minutes, or the 2007 award for the Frontline episode "Cheney's Law."

While an individual might receive an award for their overall career contributions to broadcast media, such as sportscaster Jim McKay's award in 1988, another might win an award for work on a particular episode of a program, such as Rod Serling's award in 1956 for his script for Playhouse 90's production of "Requiem for a Heavyweight." Edward R. Murrow won a total of six Peabody Awards in his career, some for specific achievements, such as his 1948 award for Outstanding Reporting and Interpretation of the News, as well as a general career contribution award in 1953. Local and regional stations are often singled out for their reports and specials that serve their communities.

There are no set number of awards per year, though the total has never exceeded 36. There are approximately 1,000 entries evaluated each year, and a unanimous decision is required for an entry to receive an award. Winners are now announced at the end of March and the ceremony takes place in mid-May. This year's ceremony is May 17, 2010, at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. Diane Sawyer is the host, the first ever repeat host for the awards.

Learn More:

• George Foster Peabody: Banker, Philanthropist, Publicist by Louise Ware in the Heritage collection.
• Welcome South, Brother: Fifty Years of Broadcasting at WSB, Atlanta, Georgia in the Heritage and general collections.
  
• On the Air: Pioneers of American Broadcasting by Amy Henderson in the general collection.
  
• A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia by F. N. Boney in the Heritage and general collections.
• Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism by Edward Bliss in the general collection.
  
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and General collections.
• Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
• The Peabody Awards Collection at UGA Libraries.
  
• Peabody Winners Book on The Peabody Awards web page.