Savannah’s pioneer female landscape architect Clermont Lee transformed our public spaces. Now you can see her drawings online

North Way and Adams Street triangular plat, page 1 of 2 (Darien, Georgia).  Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society

Drawings by Georgia’s first female landscape architect Clermont Lee are now publicly available online thanks to a collaboration between the Georgia Historical Society and the Digital Library of Georgia.

From 1940 through the mid-1980s, she made landscape designs for clients in Savannah, Georgia, and throughout the Southeast.

“These designs provide insight into the less-well documented elements of preservation and restoration projects throughout the state,” notes G. Andrew Fleming, the Friends of Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites executive director.

Clermont Lee was a pioneering figure in the history of landscape architecture,” says Nate Pedersen, Manager of the Archival and Reference Team at the Georgia Historical Society. “We expect her drawings to be of significant interest to historic preservationists, landscape architects, gardeners, and scholars around the country. As such, we are delighted to be able to freely share her drawings online and are grateful for the support from the Digital Library of Georgia.”

Plans for many Georgia and South Carolina residences, churches, schools, city blocks, office buildings, parks, airports, and historic sites are among the detailed design drawings now available at GHS. Lee is probably best-known locally for her mid-to-late twentieth-century work designing formal gardens for several of Savannah’s historic house museums, including the Owens-Thomas House and the Green-Meldrim House, as well as plans for several of the Landmark District’s beloved squares. Across the state, Lee’s designs include plans for the Chief Vann House in Murray County and Baptist Village in Waycross.

Fleming also adds: “These types of records are invaluable in helping establish a complete picture of our state’s historic spaces.”

About Clermont Lee

Clermont Huger Lee, born in Savannah in 1914, was the city’s first female architect in private practice. She worked as an assistant to T.M. Baumgardner of the Sea Island Corporation during the Great Depression. She became interested in historic gardens in the 1940s after receiving her education at Barnard and Smith Colleges.

As one of the first professional female landscape architects in Georgia, Lee worked with and independently of some of her era’s leading preservationists. She focused on preserving, recreating, and reinterpreting historic gardens and landscapes. This was an aspect of the preservation movement that she felt was ignored in many plans that focused on historic structures. 

Lee represents a less recognized part of the movement’s story as both a professional woman working in the field and as a preservationist focused on the natural environment. Historic preservation, particularly during the mid-twentieth century, was associated primarily with professional male architects and developers. Women (usually wealthy white women) worked as volunteers and activists. 

In addition to her work in Savannah, she worked on projects throughout Georgia and in cities such as Jacksonville, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. Lee also worked on the founding of the Georgia State Landscape Architects Board.

Clermont Lee passed away in 2006 on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

About the Georgia Historical Society

Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is the premier independent statewide research and educational institution responsible for collecting, examining, and teaching Georgia history.  GHS houses the oldest and most distinguished collection of materials related exclusively to Georgia history in the nation. Visit georgiahistory.com/  

Selected Images:

North Way and Adams Street triangular plat, page 1 of 2, (Darien, Georgia) by Clermont Lee.
North Way and Adams Street triangular plat, page 1 of 2 (Darien, Georgia).  Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society
Chief Vann residence, page 1 of 2 ,(Murray County, Georgia) by Clermont Lee
Chief Vann residence, page 1 of 2 (Murray County, Georgia). Courtesy Georgia Historical Society
Frame Company- Realtors (Ridgeland, South Carolina) by Clermont Lee
Frame Company- Realtors (Ridgeland, South Carolina). Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society
Historic Madison Square, page 1 of 4 (Savannah, Georgia) by Clermont Lee
Historic Madison Square, page 1 of 4 (Savannah, Georgia). Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society
Isaiah Davenport House, page 4 of 4 (Savannah, Georgia) by Clermont Lee
Isaiah Davenport House, page 4 of 4 (Savannah, Georgia). Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society
Troup Square, Habersham Street, and Macon Street, page 1 of 5 (Savannah, Georgia) by Clermont Lee
Troup Square, Habersham Street, and Macon Street, page 1 of 5 (Savannah, Georgia). Courtesy Georgia Historical Society
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It’s National Library Week and School Library Month 2022!

Happy National Library Week and School Library Month 2022!

National Library Week is April 3 – 9, 2022

Books are great, but for us to fully appreciate the value of libraries, we also need to recognize that they offer a broader spectrum of opportunities to promote proactive models of learning through access to technology, multimedia content, and educational programs. 

A perfect example of this kind of work comes from our partners at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, who planned an exhibit around the Atlanta Student Movement, the 1960s civil rights movement whose heart was centered within Atlanta’s six historically black institutions of higher learning – Atlanta University, Clark College, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College.

AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library built programming around an exhibit titled “Start Something: Activism and the Atlanta Student Movement,” and invited American lawyer, historian, and academic administrator Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin to speak on Atlanta’s protracted struggle for civil rights from World War II to 1980 as covered in her award-winning book, Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement

Responsive library staff not only recognized this opportunity to build physical space for learning around this event for the communities they serve, but they also saw the potential for these resources to serve future users.

They made this happen by recording Dr. Brown-Nagin’s presentation, making it accessible online, and enabling its aggregation through the Digital Library of Georgia. 

You can see this talk now at: https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/auu_auc-lib-lectures.

It’s part of the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library Lectures collection, one of several collections of work created by librarians held by that library.

 

Photo of Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin speaking at a lectern
Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin Lecture and Q and A Session, November 9, 2017

With all of that to think about, let’s all celebrate National Library Week 2022 the way the American Library Association recommends

Visiting our libraries, which may include: 

  • Your local library
  • Your school library
  • Your favorite virtual and digital libraries

You can follow us in the following places, and interact with the hashtag #MyLibrary.

April is School Library Month 2022

If you would like to learn more about what school librarians do, here is a brief bit of information from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL)’s web site: “School librarians work with both students and teachers to facilitate access to information in a wide variety of formats, instruct students and teachers how to acquire, evaluate, and use the information and the technology needed in this process, and introduce children and young adults to literature and other resources to broaden their horizons. As a collaborator, change agent, and leader, the school librarian develops, promotes, and implements a program that will help prepare students to be effective users of ideas and information, a lifelong skill.”

School Library Month is AASL’s celebration of school librarians and their programs. April 2022 marks the 37th year that school librarians have celebrated school library month.

For more information about school librarians here in Georgia and nationwide, visit the following websites:

AASL – The American Association of School Librarians
The division of the American Library Association that advocates for school librarians and media specialists.
https://www.ala.org/aasl/

GLMA – The Georgia Library Media Association
The largest professional association in Georgia advocating for school librarians and media specialists.
http://www.glma-inc.org

Georgia Association of School Librarians
The Georgia Association of School Librarians seeks to bring together information professionals from all patron and student age groups to improve information literacy in Georgia.
https://gla.georgialibraries.org/divisions/georgia-association-of-school-librarians/

A big thank you to all of our school librarians for all of the work they do to manage school libraries and provide resources amidst changing school library environments!

School Library Month 2022 poster by the Digital Library of Georgia.

Download our School Library Month 2022 poster here

and interact with the hashtag #AASLslm

Digital Library of Georgia social media:

GALILEO social media:

Have a great week!

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