Standard Telephone Company Records documenting Standard Telephone Company’s provision of services to rural northeast Georgians for the past century are now available online.

Selected by statewide cultural heritage stakeholders and funded by the DLG’s competitive digitization grant program, this collection is the Habersham County Historical Society’s first collaboration with the DLG and is available here:

Standard Telephone Company Records

The collection contains historical materials dating from 1904 to 1999 that come from the archives of the independently-owned Standard Telephone Company. Headquartered in Cornelia, it provided telephone service to rural northeast Georgians. Among the materials are items recognizing fifty years of service from the Standard Telephone Company’s longtime employee, Henry Davis, an African-American telephone engineer, the first in Georgia and possibly the nation.

Dean C. Swanson, former president of STC Holdings, and Jim Johnson, former president of Standard Telephone Company, jointly establish the importance of making this work accessible freely online.

“The Independent Telephone Companies in Georgia had the most difficult economic and physical deployments due to the nature of the rural areas; these pioneers persevered with great risks. Digitization would be a great tribute to them.  Additionally, the circumstances and conditions under which the Standard Telephone Company was developed are highly generalizable. They can serve to glean similar processes in other rural areas for which this kind of history is not available. While the Habersham County Historical Society has a museum of Standard Telephone’s history and phone apparatus, we know too well that the younger generation will often turn to online digitized history to learn about the history of this industry. Given that, we feel digitizing this information is of great value to future generations.”

About the Habersham County Historical Society 

The Habersham County Historical Society was formed on February 22, 1973, by twelve citizens from Clarkesville, Cornelia, and Demorest on the campus of Piedmont College. In 2018, the society compiled the county’s history in a bicentennial publication: A Brief History 1818 – 2018, Habersham200: New Thoughts of Old Things. To celebrate the society’s 50th Year Golden Jubilee – a commemorative edition was published and is available on Amazon. The celebration was hosted by Piedmont University on March 11, 2023, and celebrated the entire county.

Visit https://www.habershamcountyhistorical50.com/ for highlights of the celebration.

You can find Habersham County Historical Society online at: https://habershamhistoricalsociety.org/.

 

About the Digital Library of Georgia

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) serves as Georgia’s statewide cultural heritage digitization initiative. It is a joint project between the University of Georgia Libraries and GALILEO. The DLG collaborates with Georgia’s cultural heritage and educational institutions to provide free online access to historic resources in Georgia. The DLG not only develops, maintains, and preserves digital collections and online resources but also partners to build digitization capacity and technical infrastructure. It acts as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and facilitates cooperative digitization initiatives. The DLG serves as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia’s print journalism preservation project.

 

Selected images from the collection:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Telephone Directory 1945

URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/hchsi_stcr_stc-pd1945

Collection: Standard Telephone Company records

Courtesy of the Habersham County Historical Society (Ga.)

Description: 1945 telephone directory for the Standard Telephone Company of Cornelia, Georgia, which served Habersham County in northeast Georgia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Original company charter STC

URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/hchsi_stcr_stc-charter 

Collection: Standard Telephone Company records

Courtesy of the Habersham County Historical Society (Ga.)

Description: Original company charter for the Standard Telephone Company of Cornelia, Georgia.

 

Title: DEDICATION Henry Davis Building June 21, 1986

URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/hchsi_stcr_stc-dedication

Collection: Standard Telephone Company records

Courtesy of the Habersham County Historical Society (Ga.)

Description: Page 2 of a pamphlet celebrating the dedication of the Henry Davis Building, recognizing fifty years of service from the Standard Telephone Company’s longtime employee, Henry Davis. Davis was an African American telephone engineer, the first in Georgia and possibly the nation.

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Digital Library Of Georgia Awards Digitization Subgrants To 7 Georgia Cultural Heritage Institutions Across The State

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) announced today the 7 recipients of its latest set of digitization service awards. These awards expand the scope of the Georgia communities documented in the Digital Library of Georgia. Among the awardees are 5 new partners. Awardee projects include documentation of the Leo Frank trial and folk pottery of Northeast Georgia.

The GALILEO-funded program increases the diversity of contributors to the DLG and its content. The Breman Museum, the DeKalb History Center, the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, Island Ford Baptist Church, and the Suwanee First United Methodist Church are all new partners. These awards enhance the DLG’s coverage of the growth of Gwinnett and DeKalb counties and of elementary education in Clarke County. Materials covering the Leo Frank trial and its aftermath will supplement those currently available. Documentation of Georgia folk life and pottery traditions rounds out the awards.

The recipients and their projects include:

Athens-Clarke County Library
Chase Street PTO Scrapbooks

Digitization of 17 scrapbooks and one photo album of the Athens-based Chase Street Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Organization from 1926 to the early 2000s. 

Atlanta History Center
John Burrison Folklore Archives Collection

Digitization of oral history interviews created between Fall 1973 and Fall 1977 by Georgia State University folklore students. The interviews discuss Southern crafts, storytelling, and traditions.

The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum
Leo M. Frank Collection

Digitization and description of the materials highlighting the repercussions experienced by those who stood up for Leo Frank’s innocence.

DeKalb History Center
Digitizing DeKalb County plat map books

Digitization of DeKalb County plat map books that detail the subdivisions, streets, and property owners throughout the county from 1912 to 1936.

Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia
Folk Pottery Project

Digitization and description of the Folk Pottery Museum Collection, composed of more than 300 ceramic objects created by Georgia folk potters from the mid-19th century onwards.

Island Ford Baptist Church
Suwanee Creek Chapter, NSDAR Historic Preservation Project

Digitization and description of the records of Sugar Hill’s earliest church, Island Ford Baptist Church, dating from 1833 to 1917. The records document enslaved individuals and the early settlers of Gwinnett County.

Suwanee First United Methodist Church
Suwanee First United Methodist Church Historical Documents

Digitization and description of the records of the first church established in Suwanee, Georgia, that document the church’s marriages, baptisms, and deaths from the 1880s through the 1950s.

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About the Athens-Clarke County Library

The Athens-Clarke County Library creates a welcoming and inclusive environment that empowers individuals and communities by providing resources that encourage discovery, imagination, and life-long learning. The Heritage Room, the headquarters of the Archives and Special Collections Department, is located on the 2nd floor of the Athens-Clarke County Library, 2025 Baxter St., Athens, Georgia, 30605. It houses a non-circulating collection of local history, genealogy, and southern history books, microfilm, and archival materials.

Link to partner website: https://athenslibrary.org/location/athens-clarke/.

 

About the Atlanta History Center

The Atlanta History Center, through its collections, facilities, programs, exhibitions, and publications, preserves and interprets historical subjects pertaining to Atlanta and its environs and presents subjects of interest to Atlanta’s diverse audiences.

Link to partner website: https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/.  

About the Breman Museum

The Breman, Atlanta’s Jewish Museum is home to the permanent exhibition Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years, 1933-1945; the Blonder Family Gallery dedicated to Southern Jewish History; and the Schwartz Gallery, which hosts a variety of traveling and rotating exhibitions. The Museum Library and Cuba Family Archives add to our on-site offerings while The Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education provides a wonderful educational resource for students, teachers, and lifelong learners.

Link to partner website: https://www.thebreman.org/.  

 

 About the DeKalb History Center

The DeKalb History Center collects, preserves, and shares the wide-ranging stories of the people and places of DeKalb County.

Link to partner website: https://dekalbhistory.org/.  

About the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia

The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia showcases the handcraft skills of one of the South’s premier grassroots art forms and explores the historical importance and changing role of folk pottery in Southern life.

Link to partner website: https://www.snca.org/fpm/about/about.php.  

About Island Ford Baptist Church

Island Ford Baptist Church is located at 850 Island Ford Road, Buford , GA 30518.

Link to partner website: https://www.facebook.com/IslandFordBaptistChurch/.  

 

About Suwanee First United Methodist Church

Suwanee First United Methodist Church’s purpose is to celebrate life, communicate the gospel, and to imitate Jesus in all that is. The church is located at 603 Scales Rd NW, Suwanee, GA 30024.

Link to partner website: http://suwaneechurch.org/.  

 

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