Mid-20th-century history about Smyrna, Georgia comes alive with its 1953 scrapbook now available online in the Digital Library of Georgia

Selected by statewide cultural heritage stakeholders and funded by the DLG’s competitive digitization grant program, this collection is the Smyrna Public Library’s latest collaboration with the DLG and is available here: 1953 Smyrna scrapbook.

The collection is a 1953 scrapbook created by the Better Home Town Committee of Smyrna, Georgia, for entry into the Georgia Power Better Home Town Contest.

Mary Moore, librarian at the Smyrna Public Library, describes the importance of this content and why digital access to it is so important:

“This scrapbook is a unique snapshot of Smyrna in 1953. It captures an overview of the city with regard to government, economy, religion, housing, recreation, and youth at a time when Smyrna was still segregated but growing. The book contains rare documentation on Davenport Town and Rose Garden Hills, the two neighborhoods that were predominantly inhabited by African Americans. 1953 was a pivotal time in Smyrna; the city was in the midst of the largest period of rapid growth since the Lockheed Corporation had taken over the old Bell Bomber plant and brought unprecedented economic growth to the area that would spur population growth. Because the scrapbook has not aged well (it was made in 1953 and not with long-term materials in mind), it cannot survive frequent handling. Digitization of the materials now offers the only chance for the public to view all the articles and photos within.”

[View the entire collection online]

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About the Smyrna Public Library

Smyrna Public Library is the oldest city-operated library in the state of Georgia. It is fully funded by and serves the city’s residents. The library celebrated the 150th anniversary of its incorporation in 2022. For more information, visit the Smyrna Public Library here.

Selected images from the collection: 

 

Image courtesy of Smyrna Public Library

Title: Scrapbook, Georgia Power Better Home Town Contest Entry, Smyrna, Georgia, 1953.

https://dlg.usg.edu/record/satp_ss1953_sbhtc (page 2)

Description: Page 2 of the 1953 scrapbook created by the Better Home Town Committee of Smyrna, Georgia, for entry into the Georgia Power Better Home Town Contest.

 

Image courtesy of Smyrna Public Library

Title: Scrapbook, Georgia Power Better Home Town Contest Entry, Smyrna, Georgia, 1953.

https://dlg.usg.edu/record/satp_ss1953_sbhtc (page 50)

Description: Page 50 of the 1953 scrapbook created by the Better Home Town Committee of Smyrna, Georgia, for entry into the Georgia Power Better Home Town Contest.

 

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Historic Dalton Scrapbook Now Freely Available at Digital Library of Georgia

CONTACT: Deborah Hakes, dhakes@georgialibraries.org, 404-852-5547

DALTON, Ga — An historic scrapbook documenting the history and progress of the city of Dalton has been digitized and added to the Digital Library of Georgia. Funding for this project was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, the digitization unit of the Georgia Public Library Service, in partnership with the Northwest Georgia Regional Library System.

The scrapbook is a window into Dalton’s past. Created by representatives of civic organizations and community leaders, the scrapbook was part of a submission package to the Georgia Power Company’s 1949 Champion Home Town Contest. The book includes many black-and-white photographs of Dalton during the late 1940s, as well as hundreds of newspaper clippings, typescript documents, and original illustrations all boosting the city’s prolific textile industry. Emblazoned in chenille on the clothbound scrapbook cover are the words, “Dalton, Ga., Bedspread Center of the World.”

“The textile industry and the mill village culture unites many Georgians,” explains Darla Chambliss, Director of the Northwest Georgia Regional Library System. “We are delighted to partner with HomePLACE to provide greater access to this “fuzzy and irreplaceable piece of history” for many, many neighbors and friends.”

The scrapbook provides details about Dalton’s business and industry, education, agriculture, tourism, and municipal development. Researchers, historians, and genealogists will find rich source material, including economic reports, club rosters, and before-and-after shots of building and infrastructure improvements around town. K-12 students and educators can use these local, historical  materials to supplement social studies curricula.

“The scrapbook a reminder of the broader, national sense of lively small town pride and civic engagement endemic to the post-war years,” says HomePLACE Director Angela Stanley. “Viewing artifacts such as this through the lens of history, we can ask important questions about which citizens are included in its pages–and which aren’t.”

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Georgia HomePLACE encourages public libraries and related institutions to participate in the Digital Library of Georgia. HomePLACE offers a highly collaborative model for digitizing primary source collections related to local history and genealogy. HomePLACE is supported with federal Library Services and Technology Act funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia is a GALILEO initiative that collaborates with Georgia’s libraries, archives, museums and other institutions of education and culture to provide digital access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture and life. The Digital Library of Georgia also serves as Georgia’s service hub for the Digital Public Library of America and as the home of the Georgia Newspaper Project, the state’s historic newspaper microfilming project.

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