31 October 1844: A Youth Library Offered "at the New York Price"

On this day, Albon Chase began advertising a new set of books, available together or individually at his "Book-Store," for the impressionable young men and women of Athens. 

 

Primary education in 1844 was reserved for those who could afford both to pay to have their children educated and did not require their labor at home. Athens had a highly literate population, but there were no free schools. The cheapest schools in the 1840s charged $3.00 per quarter for basic primary education, akin to $93.10 in today's dollars. 

Those with more money could hire private tutors for their children, or send them to one of the local academies that taught basic English, grammar, writing, rhetoric, arithmetic, geography, history, chemistry, astronomy, Latin Greek, natural philosophy, music, drawing, painting, and French. Schools such as The Female Academy (which offered co-ed education), offered subjects on a sliding scale ranging from $4.00 per quarter for the most basic instruction to $8.00 per quarter for everything except more artistic pursuits, which could be purchased as separate lessons. 

Most education for girls focused on softer learning, such as arts, recitation, and French, rather than the speeches of Cicero or higher mathematics. It was this lack of rigorous higher education for women that caused the Lucy Cobb Institute to be founded in 1858, for Athenians believed their daughters should be as well educated as their sons, and did not want to send them away to school for the necessity. 

Albon Chase was a member of the class who could afford education for his children. He was born in New Hampshire in 1808. became the publisher of the Southern Banner 1832. He established with John Linton the Pioneer Paper Manufacturing Company located on Barber Creek, just southeast of Athens, a venture that cleared 60% profit in its first year.

In 1845, he moved the newspaper offices to a three-story wooden building at the corner of College Avenue and Front Street (now Broad), with his newspaper offices above the bookstore. Many newspaper publishers also printed books, ledgers, and other sorts of paper materials for sale other than news; Chase also offered colored wrapping paper for gifts.

He retired from the Banner in 1846 after 14 years of work, but his son, William, purchased part of it in 1858 and acted as co-editor. According to the book Antebellum Athens, "political opposition charged that regardless who was the editor, the Banner was controlled by Howell Cobb."

Chase was a founding and guiding member of other local business ventures, such as the National Bank of Athens, the Athens Building & Loan Association, the Georgia Equitable Insurance Company, and the Southern Mutual Insurance Company, where he served as Secretary until his death in 1867.

He was also active in the practical running of Athens, serving as one of the city's first commissioners, starting in 1839, and representing Ward 2 off and on until 1859. In 1852, Albon Chase served as Intendent of the city, akin to being Mayor today; Chase Street is named for him.  Two of his homes are still standing in Athens, at the corner of Hull and Clayton Streets downtown (now apartments), and at 243 Dearing Street. He is buried at Oconee Hill Cemetery.


Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Mar. 18, 1842 - Mar. 6, 1845 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County Georgia by Ernest C. Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• Annals of Athens: 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• History of Athens and Clarke County by H. J. Rowe in the Heritage and general collections.
• Historic Dearing Street by Frances Taliaferro Thomas in the Heritage collection.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I, by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections. 
• Measuring Worth website.
• Digitized copy of Anecdotes of the Revolution.
• Digitized copy of Fables from Northcote and Others.
• Digitized copy of Hutton's Book of Nature.
• Digital copies of Beauties of American History.
• Digital copies of Lives of the Most Eminent Sovereigns of Modern Europe.
• Digitized copy of Juvenile Companion and Fireside Reader.

Important Information about Heritage Room Book Collection!

While we had hoped to have the current Heritage Room book collection remain available as closed stacks during the final phase of renovation, space and furniture realities have made it necessary to greatly reduce the number of books that we will have available. 

We plan to have the following books available as closed stacks (i.e. you must request the books from a librarian) during this brief, final phase of construction:

• Clarke County books, including Athens city directories, but minus UGA history, much of which can be found in our circulating collection, the Digital Library of Georgia, and/or UGA's library;
• Elbert County books;
• Greene County books;
• Jackson County books; 
• Madison County books;
• Oconee County books;
• Oglethorpe County books;
• Wilkes County books;
• Much of our Daughters of the American Revolution collection, including the Patriot Index set;
• Loyalists in the Southern Campaign set;
• Pension Roll of 1835 set;
• Roster of the Confederate soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865 by Lillian Henderson;
• Georgia Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 by Janet Hewett;
• Compendium of the Confederate Armies set by Sifakis;
• Federal and some state census index books for states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, spanning the 1780s to the 1870s;
• Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 by William Dollarhide;
• Virgil White's pension and service books, covering 
• War of 1812, 
• Mexican War, 
• Indian Wars, and 
• American Revolution;
• Virginia Marriages and Wills books;
• Virginia Cavaliers and Pioneers set;
• Virginia Purse and Person set;

We may have more available; we just aren't sure yet what our space will allow. The microfilm collection that is currently available in Reference will continue to be available during this last phase of construction.


THIS WEEKEND, August 18-19, 2012, will be the last weekend for several months where the book collection currently available is still openly available to researchers. 

If you have research you have put off, please consider coming to the library this weekend and early next week to pursue it. 

Sometime in the next week, the books will start to be put into storage until the end of the library's renovation. We are happy to help you find what you need, and if we do not have it, can find out where you can get it. 


Please contact us if you have any concerns or questions, either by calling the Reference desk (706-613-3650, ext. 356) or emailing us at either Heritage.Room.Blog@gmail.com or heritageroom@arlsmail.org. 

We apologize for such a last minute announcement of this situation, but once you see the new Heritage Room, we hope you will agree that a few months of inconvenience were worth the wait. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding during this time!

31 July 1840: Printing Apprentice Wanted

On this day in 1840, the Southern Banner published this notice that they were looking for an apprentice:

Apprentices were often used by a variety of businesses as cheap labor and to pass down the trade: printing presses, carriage or harness makers, merchant clerks, physicians, tailors, bakers, milliners, apothecaries, gas fitters, chefs, or other skilled trades.  An "eligible situation" in this ad indicates that not only is this opportunity available, but it is a good opportunity for some young man, perhaps as young as 13 or 14, to learn a trade that he could use to support himself and his family through life. In 1840, printers didn't just publish the local newspaper, but also created ledgers and other business forms, stationery, and sometimes books for their community.

Typically, apprentices lived with, were fed and clothed by, the craftsman to whom he or she (in the case of millinery or seamstress work) was apprenticed, with a guarantee of a small sum and appropriate new clothing to start in the business themselves after a set period of time. Often, the situation involved a contract that laid out all these terms, including the forfeiture of guaranteed clothing and cash should the apprentice leave before the end of their term.

Not all apprenticeships were open environments; when the Charleston Orphan House indentured their charges to businessmen as a way to ensure the children learned a trade, the child was bound to that indenture until the end of their term, when the child turned 21 years of age. Should the businessman not comply, a fine of $60 "liquified damages" would apply. The Orphan House, however, insisted that the child agree to the indenture, and often refused requests for apprentices if the position (such as factory work) was not seen as self-supporting occupation. This standard did not apply to their female charges, who were primarily put into domestic situations since a "successful life" for them mean marrying someone who could support them.


Apprenticeships still exist today, and are skill trade versions of internships. The Department of Labor's Registered Apprenticeship program lists opportunities in dozens of fields, including carpentry, medical technology, machine repair, refrigeration maintenance, welding, masonry, building inspection, and ironwork. 




Learn More: 

• Southern Banner, Mar. 23, 1839 - Mar. 11, 1842 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• History and Records of the Charleston Orphan House, 1861-1899 by Susan L. King in the Heritage collection.
• Apprentices of Virginia, 1623-1800 by Harold B. Gill, Jr. in the Heritage collection.
• Building the Great Cathedrals by Francois Icher in the general collection.
• Greenjobs: A Guide to Eco-Friendly Employment by A. Bronwynn Llewellyn in the general collection.
• Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page in the general collection.
• Registered Apprentice page on the United States Department of Labor website.
• Athens Technical College website.

 
 

Important News about the Heritage Room Collection during the Last Part of the Library Renovation

On this day, we'd like to provide notice for some changes that are coming quite soon that could affect your research plans.


In the next few weeks, most of the library will be on the move to enable the last phases of construction. At the end of July, the Reference area is scheduled to move into the renovated side of the second floor, and, at that time, the Heritage Room book collection will become closed stacks through the end of the year. 


The books in this collection will still be available to patrons, but you will need to ask a librarian to retrieve the title or titles you wish to use. This situation is temporary, merely a side effect of space constraints while the other half of the second floor is being updated.
 
The Heritage Room microfilm, reader, and digital scanner will remain in the new Reference area until the end of construction. We still urge you to call to reserve the machine you want to use in advance, to ensure it is available when you arrive. All aspects of the microform collection will return to the Heritage Room space once the room reopens, with great fanfare, in early 2013. (It really is sooner than it sounds!)


Among the features of the new Heritage Room space will be 

• more microfilm readers and printers (plus the old dinosaurs with their loud mechanical Thu-THUNK! when you hit the Print button), 
• a conference room that will be used for classes but can also be reserved for use by local organizations for meetings, 
• more computers, 
• more individual work tables, 
• more shelves full of books, 
• lockers for you to stash your bags securely, 
• an easier-to-find location,
• a more accessible and browsable magazine area, 
• a more comfortable ambient temperature in the reading room,
• a larger vault, and 
• work spaces for staff so there will be fewer piles of boxes and papers and ledgers and maps in the room, which means more room for you to spread out while researching.

Here are some pictures of the room in progress, courtesy of our public relations guru, Rhiannon Eades:

(click to enlarge image)

In the picture above, you can see the light coming from the new meeting room doorway on the right that was once a window! And on the topic of windows, you can see we still have the large one at the end of the room that always filled the space with such gorgeous golden sunlight in late afternoon.

(click to enlarge image)

Hooray! Carpet padding! 

No, not really exciting, but it is the first step toward getting carpet in the new space. (All steps forward are to be celebrated.) You can also see new walls where the microfilm reader alcove used to be (but is now office space for Heritage Room and Information Services staff), and the knocked out wall where there used to be file drawers filled with microfilm and boxes filled with maps.

(click to enlarge image)

A nice low line of shelves with enough power to handle, according to the diagram of the new second floor layout, seven microform readers and reader-printers. At long last, the digital scanner will be at a comfortable height for long periods of research. 

Please let us know at the Reference desk if you have any concerns, or have questions about using the collection. We understand that having access to the materials you need is important, and we are here to make this temporary inconvenience as little trouble as possible. 

In the mean time, we appreciate your patience, and hope you are as excited about the prospect of a renewed Heritage Room as we are. We miss it, too!

Learn More:

• Athens-Clarke County Library Renovation blog.
• Renovation plans for the Athens-Clarke County library.
• Second floor layout of the renovated Athens-Clarke County library (.pdf file).

This Day Flashback: What's New is Old

This summer, due to construction, the Athens-Clarke County Library's Summer Reading Performance Series will be having their programs at the Clarke Central High School auditorium.  

The weekly performances at Clarke Central reminded us of a story This Day in Athens featured in 2010 about a similar concert program for children hosted by the volunteer members of the Athens Library Association in February, 1915. At the time, Athens Library Association was a group of volunteers with donated books in a donated room in the Southern Mutual Building downtown. 

While they had Saturday morning storytimes for children in the corner of their library room, to host a larger, fuller concert program, the library volunteers used the auditorium at Athens High School on Wednesday afternoons. (Summer programs would be held outdoors, as the auditorium would be too warm.) The most popular books in the children's collection at the time were Beatrix Potter's tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Just So Stories, and The Little Princess.

The 2012 Athens-Clarke County Library programs programs will be held in the Clarke Central auditorium on Thursday mornings at 10:30am.  They will feature local storytellers, ventriloquists, puppeteers, music, stories, sing-alongs, poetry, and dancing.  The first program is this Wednesday, May 24th, hosted by the Children's Area staff.

To learn about each week's show, as well as other Summer Reading programs offered by the Athens-Clarke County Library Children's Area, go to the Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program website or pick up a purple flyer at the library.

Learn More:

• This Day in Athens, 27 February 1915: "The Pleasure and Privilege of a Story Hour."
• Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program at the Athens-Clarke County Library web page.
• Dream Big--READ! 2012 Summer Reading Program at the Athens-Clarke County Library brochure. (pdf)
• Athens-Clarke County Library Children's Area web page.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• The Story of the Athens Public Library by Susan Frances Barrow Tate in the Heritage collection.
• Books by Beatrix Potter in the children's fiction collection.
• The Little Princess by Frances Hodges Burnett in the children's fiction collection.
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling in the children's fiction and young adult collections.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in the children's fiction collection.

19 March 1918: "Loaded With Southern History"

On this day in 1918, the Athens Banner reported that one of the city's most prominent citizens, Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford, the principal of the Lucy Cobb Institute, was denied passage on a train to Richmond, Virginia, because the trunk of books she was carrying was "away over the weight allowed by the railroad." 

Mildred Rutherford devoted her life to the Lucy Cobb Institute and advocating for "the truth" about the Civil War and the South. Her historical writing, which featured a sentimental view of the Old South, plantation life, and slavery, would not be considered appropriate today, yet her belief that her female students could and should learn as much as male students, as well as be prepared to work in the real world, seem almost ahead of her time. 


Known around town as "Miss Millie," she was the daughter of Williams and Laura Cobb Rutherford, the niece of  Governor Howell Cobb and T.R.R. Cobb, who established the Lucy Cobb Institute in 1859. The school was named for Miss Millie's cousin, who died prior to the school's opening. The Rutherfords lived across the street from the school.


Mildred Rutherford graduated from Lucy Cobb in 1868, and a few years later moved to Atlanta to teach. She lived with another female cousin, and spent eight years there before returning to Athens at the request of her parents to take over the financially unstable Lucy Cobb Institute. When she took over the school in 1880, only 24 students were enrolled; by 1882, student population reached 104.


The curriculum under Rutherford was modelled on the traditional male course of study in preparation for college. Students were taught Latin, higher mathematics, logic, rhetoric, philosphy, science, literature, and history. For an extra charge, parents could have their daughters trained in traditionally female course work of French, art, and music. During this time, she was also actively writing textbooks about English, French, American, and Southern literature that she felt were more appropriate for female students. She often hired former students as teachers, and brought in more instructors with advanced degrees.


In 1895, she stepped down as principal of Lucy Cobb, while still continuing to teach Latin, history, literature, and the Bible. In 1896, she started the Laura Rutherford chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and served as its president until 1906. Mildred Rutherford was the state UDC Historian General for life, and from 1901-1903 was also the group's president. In 1911, she was appointed Historian General of the national UDC, and the organization twice made exceptions for term limits so she could continue to serve until 1916. 


The collection of books she had to repack are now part of the United Daughters of the Confederacy collection at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. The Banner published the list of titles in Rutherford's trunk on page 7:

(click to enlarge image)

Rutherford used her speeches, books, essays, and newsletters as a way of "righting the wrongs against the South," where she advanced her belief that secession had been legal, slavery was not the cause of the war, and that the plantation system was not merely just, but a gentle society. Despite her own career and the fact that she never married, Rutherford believed the proper place for women was the domestic sphere of her family, as wife and mother, and spoke out strongly against women's suffrage. 


From 1880 until 1928, Rutherford taught at Lucy Cobb. She returned to her role as the school's principal, and later, president, several times, from 1907-1908, 1917-1922, and 1925-1926. In her last year leading the school, Rutherford had tried to raise money to keep the school independent of the county school system and the University of Georgia, but was unsuccessful in her fundraising. The school closed in 1931, and is now the home of the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government.


Her family felt the last year as Lucy Cobb president had compromised her health, but Rutherford taught at the school until her death. She had been a force at Lucy Cobb for nearly 50 years, and two thousand people, including many alumnae, attended Mildred Lewis Rutherford's funeral in August, 1928.  She is buried with her family in Oconee Hill Cemetery.  




Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Jan. 1918 - Nov. 1918 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of the Lucy Cobb Institute, edited by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume I, edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood in the Heritage collection.
• Case, Sarah H. "The Historical Ideology of Mildred Lewis Rutherford: A Confederate Historians New South Creed." The Journal of Southern History 68.3 (2002): 599-628. ProQuest Platinum; ProQuest Research Library. 17 Mar. 2012 . Via GALILEO.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery, Athens, Georgia, Volume I, by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• Addresses Delivered by Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the Heritage collection.
• Miss Rutherford's Scrapbook: Valuable Information About the South by Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the Heritage collection.
• The South in History and Literature by Mildred Lewis Rutherford in the Heritage collection.

9 March 1847: Free Lecture on the New and Extraordinary Art of Phreno-Mnemotechny!

On this day in 1847, this exciting advertisement was read by subscribers to the Southern Banner:

The lecturer was Pliny Miles, a writer from Watertown, New York, who was known for his "remarkable talents as a school-teacher." Two years later, he would author American Mnemnotechny, or Art of Memory: Theoretical and Practical, with a Mnemotechnic Dictionary to impart his theories and systems of memory to a wider audience. 

Mr. Miles book defines his subject on page six of his book:

Memnotechny, rightly considered, comprises all those aids to the natural mind that go by the name of association, combination, and comparison. When a person wishes to remember a name that is difficult to retain in the mind, he naturally seeks some fanciful association or other, perhaps compares the name to something that sounds like it, and thus will recall it when required. This is Mnemnotechny; though it is only the commencement of the beginning.

Mr. Miles used a system of mapping letters and words to figures, and claimed that any student using his method would reduce his study time by 75%. Within the book, he listed historic events, people, facts, and provided formulas for remembering them in his system. He also devoted a chapter in his book to creating and using one's own formulas.

Pliny Miles is described in his New York Times obituary as "a striking figure--tall, thin, of nervous-sanguine temperament, wearing a beard that never scraped acquaintance with a razor; a rapid walker, keen observer, talking with wonderful volubility, always cordial, open-hearted, and everywhere welcome for his agreeable social qualities."

In 1854, he would write a travel book about Iceland, described by the New York Times as "a pleasant book of the gossipy sort." By the time of his death in 1865, he was best known for his strong advocacy for changes in the postal system, pushing for a flat price on letters by weight regardless of the distance to reach their destination. This method, still used today, was adopted by the U.S. Postal Service in 1863.

Learn More:

• Southern Banner, Mar. 13, 1845 - Nov. 1848 on Microfilm in the  Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• National Postal Museum website.
• Mnemotechnics.org blog, forum, and wiki about memory techniques.
• Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer in the New Books collection.
• Committed to Memory: How We Remember and Why We Forget by Rebecca Rupp in the general collection.
• Ageless Memory: Simple Secrets for Keeping Your Brain Young by Harry Lorayne in the general collection.
• Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind by Daniel Tammet via PINES.
• Improving Your Memory: How to Remember What You're Starting to Forget by Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern in the general collection.
• 101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory by Terry McDermott in the general collection.
• In the Places of Memory: How We Build the Worlds Inside our Head by George Johnson in the general collection.

31 January 1861: Julia A. Flisch, Author and Women's Education Advocate, Is Born

On this day in 1861, Julia Anna Flisch was born to Pauline and Leonard Flisch in Augusta, Georgia. While Julia was still an infant, her family moved to Athens, where her parents, German immigrants, ran a sweets shop across the street from the University of Georgia, selling cakes and ice cream to college students. Julia grew up in Athens; her family lived above their store, and were active in the community, including the First Presbyterian Church, where her father was an Elder. She later noted that "the history and traditions of my childhood were the history and traditions of the University of Georgia."


After graduating with honors from the Lucy Cobb Institute in in 1877, Julia wanted to attend UGA, but her application was rejected because she was female. Her family returned to Augusta  a few years later (according to Augustus Longstreet Hull, college boys who bought on credit and never paid made the business unprofitable, and the move was "self defense"). 


In 1882, she wrote a letter to the Augusta Chronicle titled "Give the Girls a Chance," calling for more educational and occupational opportunities for women in the South to "work out their own sense of independence" and "to be of some active use in the world." She signed the letter only, "A Young Woman." The subject stirred the Augusta population, and two weeks later, the paper published that Julia Flisch was the author. 


Over the next few years, she wrote frequently on the subject of women's education, and criticized the common education provided to girls at the time--with a focus on sewing, music, and decorative arts--as "defective education" that denied women the ability to properly support themselves.


Julia herself went to Coopers Union in New York to study secretarial skills, such as shorthand and typewriting in 1883 and 1884. She returned to Augusta and worked as a bookkeeper while writing and publishing articles, stories, and her first novel, Ashes of Hope. She also covered 1887 commencement season in Athens for the Augusta Chronicle, bemoaning that the school was for the "sons of Georgia" alone. 


She urged women to pressure the state to provide more opportunities for women's education, and in 1889, after more overwhelming pressure via petitions and letters from the women of Georgia, the legislature passed a bill approving the first women's industrial college. Despite the widespread support of many prominent women in the state, only Julia Flisch was part of the official program for laying the cornerstone for the Georgia Normal and Industrial College (now Georgia College and State University) in Milledgeville in 1890.


Julia joined the school's faculty, teaching the secretarial skills she had learned in New York and later ancient and medieval history. She continued to write for newspapers, and spent her summers studying at the University of Chicago and Harvard. In 1899, 22 years after she had first applied to study there, the University of Georgia granted her an honorary degree, the first degree UGA ever gave to a woman; 19 years later, the first women students were admitted to UGA.


In 1905, Julia left her position to attend the University of Wisconsin. In 1908, she earned her Master's degree in history, and was offered positions at universities around the country. She chose, however, to return to Georgia, and took a position at the Tubman High School for Girls in Augusta. In 1925, she published her second novel, Old Hurricane and took the position of Dean of Women for the newly established Augusta Junior College, the first junior college in Georgia (now Augusta State University). Julia Flisch retired from teaching in 1936 due to her failing vision. She died in 1941, and is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta.


Georgia Women of Achievement honored Julia Anna Flisch, as well as Margaret Mitchell, Emily Thomas Tubman, Ruth Hartley Mosley, and Carson McCullers, as one of the important women in Georgia's history.




Learn More:

• Annals of Athens, 1801-1901 by Augustus Longstreet Hull in the Heritage collection.
• Higher Education for Women in the South: A History of the Lucy Cobb Institute, 1858-1994 by Phinizy Spalding in the Heritage collection.
• Lucy Cobb Institute Messenger 1876 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Volume LXXX, Number 3, Fall 1996 in the (stored) Heritage collection.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• College Life in the Old South by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage and general collections.
• Women in the South: An Anthropological Perspective, edited by Holly F. Mathews in the general collection.
• Julia A. Flisch collection at the Georgia College and State University library.
• All-American Girl: The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Nineteenth-Century America by Frances B. Cogan in the general collection.
• Torches of Light: Georgia Teachers and the Coming of the Modern South by Ann Short Chirhart in the Heritage collection.
• America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins in the general collection.
• Smart Choices: A Woman's Guide to Returning to School by Anne Bianchi in the general collection.
• Georgia Women of Achievement Honorees web page.

18 December 1896: For Children, "Dolls, Knives, Etc."

On this day in 1896, McGregor's Bookstore, which also sold athletic equipment and stationery supplies, much like college bookstores do today, ran this advertisement of their holiday offerings:

At the time, David W. McGregor's store was on the corner of Broad Street and College Avenue, across from the University, where Starbucks is located today.

Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1885 - Jan. 1897 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 1897-1898 Athens City Directory on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Athens, Georgia, in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Children at Play: An American History by Howard P. Chudacoff in the general collection.
• Children of a New Century by Jane A. Schott in the children's collection.
• Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood by Steven Mintz in the general collection.
• The Collector's Guide to Switchblade Knives: An Illustrated, Historical, and Price Reference by Richard V. Langston in the general collection.
• The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden in the general collection.
• The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan in the general and children's collections.
• The Double-Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan in the general collection.

5 December 2009: It's Our 2nd Blogiversary!

On this day in 2009, we started this blog, This Day in Athens, in hopes of bringing a glimpse of Athens past to Athens present.  


This Day in Athens has shown how Athens has grown, expanded, and changed over time, but also how some things, like rooster issues on Pulaski Street, an obsessive love of Georgia football, and a passion for Farmer's Markets, are timeless truths of this town. 


Our hope is that as you travel around town or are on the University of Georgia campus, you'll think of Hajos's Photography Studio, of Union prisoners guarded by Mitchell's Thunderbolts, of the Hancock Street sidewalks being laid in 1906, of the literary club meetings at the State Normal School, of fires that could not stop progress, of the water power  and railroads that fueled the growth of Athens and the University. 


Thank you for all the kind and encouraging words over the past two years, for passing along items to friends, for suggestions for wonderful post ideas, and adding information where you could. We hope you've found book titles that peaked your interest in our Learn More section, have subscribed to and enjoy our Heritage Room newsletters, and we hope you'll keep reading in the coming years.  If you have a favorite post, or a topic you would like us to cover, please let us know! 

19 November 1953: Opening of the Ilah Dunlap Little Memorial Library

On this day in 1953, the new Ilah Dunlap Little Memorial library opened on the North Campus of the University of Georgia. 


Ilah Dunlap was born in February of 1874 to Mary Anne and Samuel Scott Dunlap in Bibb County, Georgia. She was the fifth daughter in a family of six children. Her father was a Captain in Phillips Legion during the Civil War, who started out as a farmer, then later became a successful merchant and city alderman in Macon. 


In 1896, Miss Dunlap married Leonidas A. Jordan.  Mr. Jordan owned Oakland Plantation in Lee County, Georgia, and died within four years of their marriage. In 1900, Mrs. Ilah Jordan is listed as the 26-year-old widowed head of a household in Macon that included her brother Samuel S. Dunlap, Jr.; her profession listed as "Capitalist." She was regularly featured in the Macon Telegraph Society page, often in relation to bridge club meetings or trips to Atlanta and New York. 


In 1906, she married John D. Little, an Atlanta lawyer, and moved to Fulton County. She was already widowed when she died in late July, 1939, on a vacation with a friend in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, just one month before Hitler's invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.  Though her will left $400,000.00 to the University of Georgia for a library, the settlement of the estate took a prolonged period of time.  Much of her jewelry and effects took more than a year to be returned to her executor in Macon, as both the American consulate and German officials had greater priorities than her estate, and faced disruption in communication, the latter sometimes noted in the communiques between various government agencies.


Mrs. Little's bequest gave the impetus to fund a much-needed upgrading of University of Georgia library facilities. UGA had only 185,000 volumes, compared with 751,000 at the University of Texas and 352,000 at the University of Kentucky. The cost to build the library was $2,000,000.00, and the operating budget for the library was increased dramatically as well. The University of Georgia President, Harmon Caldwell, argued that a $1,000,000.000 operating budget was necessary to make the library one that could compete with other southern schools after World War II.

The day after UGA's library opened , the Georgia Institute of Technology had the grand opening of their new Price Gilbert Memorial Library, and the weekend was a series of festivities in both cities to celebrate the events. 


Among those who participated in the celebrations were now University System Chancellor Harmon Caldwell; University of Georgia President O. C. Aderhold; Georgia Attorney General Eugene Cook; and members of the University Board of Trustees. Invited guests included Dr. K. Y. Metcalf of Harvard University; Derner Clapp, Acting Librarian of the Library of Congress; and Ralph Ellsworth, Director of Libraries for Iowa State University. Claude Davidson, Jr., director of the UGA news bureau, even composed a poem for the occasion.


In his dedication address, Dr. Ellsworth praised Georgia for opening two major libraries, stating that, "Only a vigorous University can overcome the terrible inertia that always seems to develop when a new library building is needed. Universities that are on the decline don't build new libraries."


UGA recently completed construction on a new Special Collections Library on Hull Street. Such collections as the Richard B. Russell Library, the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and the Peabody Awards collection are in the process of moving into their new space. The building will open officially in January, 2012.



Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, August - December, 1953 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• University of Georgia Libraries website.
• History of Macon, Georgia: 1823-1949 by Ida Young, et al. in the Heritage collection.
• Lee County, Georgia: A History by the Lee County Historical Society in the Heritage collection.
• Civil War Macon: The History of a Confederate City by Richard W. Iobst in the Heritage collection.
• Compendium of the Confederate Armies: South Carolina and Georgia by Stewart Sifakis in the Heritage collection.
• Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974 collection in the Ancestry Library Edition database via GALILEO.
• Confederate Service Records collection in the Fold3 database via GALILEO.
• U.S. Census collection in the Ancestry Library Edition database via GALILEO.
• Georgia Marriages collection via FamilySearch.org.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collection.
• The University of Georgia under Sixteen Administrations, 1785-1955 by Robert P. Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson in the New Books collection.
• The Dedication of the Ilah Dunlap Little Memorial Library in the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia.
• MS 3357: Account Book 1939-1964 for the Estate of Ilah Dunlap Little in the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia.