Athens, Georgia crime dockets from 1902 to 1907 now freely available online

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the availability of the City of Athens Police/Mayor’s Court Records collection at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/arl_capmcr. The collection, which belongs to the Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room, is available online thanks in part to the DLG’s Competitive Digitization grant program, a funding opportunity intended to broaden DLG partner participation for statewide historic digitization projects.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with DLG to make these documents more accessible to everyone,” said Athens Regional Library System Executive Director Valerie Bell. “These dockets provide a valuable glimpse into Athens’ past, and they tell some fascinating stories of our city’s day-to-day life.”

The digital collection consists of eight bound dockets dating from 1902 to 1907, and includes about 5,760 individual arrest cases in Athens, Georgia. Entries generally include a case number, the defendant’s name, the code violated, the date and location of the arrest, the date papers were served, the arresting officer’s name, a list of witnesses, and the dispensation of the case.

The digitization of these items makes them more widely available to researchers of economics, criminology, political science, urban development, law, sociology, history, geography, and genealogy. Because the location of arrests was included in these records, researchers are given a true picture of the city of Athens in the early twentieth century. These dockets can also be cross-referenced with resources already available online, such as newspapers, city directories, and historic maps, opening up many new opportunities to delve into Athens’ past.

Theresa Flynn, librarian at the Athens-Clarke County Heritage Room from 2007 to 2013 emphasizes the importance of these resources in helping identify historically underrepresented groups: “During my time working with the Athens Mayor’s Court docket ledgers, I found they uncovered a population of Athens that is overlooked in most books and even in some primary resource materials commonly used in genealogy research, such as the U.S. Census and city directories.”

Ashley Shull, Archives and Special Collections Coordinator at the Athens-Clarke County Heritage Room notes:Ultimately the Police/Mayor’s Court Dockets of the City of Athens reflect the cultural, political, social, geographic, and economic diversity of our community. Each simple entry contains a wealth of information, all arising from one interaction with law enforcement, giving the researcher a more complete impression of the historical city of Athens.”

The Heritage Room maintains a physical collection of 97 volumes of the court records, which are available to view by request at the library.

 

About Athens‐Clarke County Library Heritage Room

The Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room houses Athens-Clarke County Library’s local history and genealogy collections. The Athens-Clarke County Library serves as headquarters of the Athens Regional Library System, named Georgia’s Public Library of the Year in 2017. To learn more about the Athens-Clarke County Library’s Heritage Room, call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350. The Athens-Clarke County Library is located at 2025 Baxter Street in Athens, Georgia. Visit http://www.athenslibrary.org/athens/departments/heritage.

 

About the Digital Library of Georgia

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia https://dlg.usg.edu/   is a GALILEO initiative that collaborates with Georgia’s libraries, archives, museums and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture and life. This primary mission is accomplished through the ongoing development, maintenance and preservation of digital collections and online digital library resources.  DLG 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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Digital Library of Georgia awards six Competitive Digitization service grants to Georgia cultural heritage institutions across the state

Six institutions are recipients of the fourth set of service grants awarded in a program intended to broaden partner participation in the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG). The DLG solicited proposals for historic digitization projects in a statewide call, and applicants submitted proposals for projects with a cost of up to $7,500.00 The projects will be administered by DLG staff who will perform digitization and descriptive services on textual (not including newspapers), graphic, and audio-visual materials. This subgranting program was presented the 2018 Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development by a State Institution by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC).

The recipients and their projects include:

  • Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room (Athens, Ga.)

Digitization of 8 bound ledgers dating from 1902 to 1907, the earliest section of their City of Athens Police/Mayor’s Court Records, which reflect the cultural, political, social, geographic, and economic diversity of the Athens community and interaction with law enforcement and justice system.

  • Bartow History Center (Cartersville, Ga.)

Digitization of a portion of a collection of county documents that include topics such as: guardianship (1850-1929), indentures (1860-1929), lunacy (1866-1929), pauperism (1866-1879), land grants/deeds (1866-1929), and other records. The records were created by court officials to document legal proceedings and transactions.

  • Booker T. Washington High School (Atlanta, Ga.)

Digitization of Booker T. Washington High School annuals dating from 1931 to 1968 that document the evolution of African American secondary education, and feature the attendees of the first public high school for African Americans in the state of Georgia. Some notable alumni from the school include Martin Luther King, Jr., Lena Horne, Nipsey Russell, and Louis Wade Sullivan.

  • Fulton County Schools Archives (Hapeville, Ga.)

Digitization of Superintendent’s Annual Reports dating from 1929 to 1977, which contain demographic information pertaining to the growth of the school system located in and around Atlanta. The oldest portion of this collection provides evidence of a largely rural and segregated district during the Great Depression, while the latter portion is a culmination of the movement to integrate the schools after the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, a process that lasted seventeen years.

  • Thomasville History Center (Thomasville, Ga.)

Digitization of the correspondence and diaries of Hazel Beamer Cutler, a Broadway entertainer, and her family friend Candace Wheeler, founder of the American decorative arts movement, both of whom lived in southwest Georgia.

  • University of West Georgia Special Collections (Carrollton, Ga.)

Digitization of publications from the Carroll County Genealogical Society that reflect the settlers of Carroll County in west Georgia after the Indian Springs Treaty of 1824, and inventories of burial sites for both whites and African Americans throughout the county.

Preference in the selection process was given to proposals from institutions that had not yet collaborated with the DLG. Bartow History Center, Booker T. Washington High School, Fulton County Schools Archives, and the Thomasville History Center are all new partners for the DLG.

Sheila McAlister, director of the Digital Library of Georgia notes: “The subgranting program continues to be a success. We’ve broadened the DLG partner base, and the collections selected by our review team reflect the state’s diversity. The materials document schools in Atlanta and Fulton County, diaries and correspondence from Thomasville, genealogy in Carroll County, and county and court records from Bartow and Clarke counties. These materials serve a wide audience of researchers.”

About Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room

To learn more about the Athens-Clarke County Library’s Heritage Room, call (706) 613-3650, ext. 350. The Athens-Clarke County Library is located at 2025 Baxter Street in Athens, Georgia.
Visit http://www.athenslibrary.org/athens/departments/heritage.

About Bartow History Center

The Bartow History Museum, located at 4 East Church Street in downtown Cartersville, Georgia, documents the history of northwest Georgia’s Bartow County. Visit https://bartowhistorymuseum.org/.

About Booker T. Washington High School

Booker T. Washington High School, named for the famous educator, opened in September 1924 under the auspices of the Atlanta Board of Education, with the late Charles Lincoln Harper as principal. It is the first public high school for African-Americans in the state of Georgia and the Atlanta Public Schools. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visit https://www.atlantapublicschools.us/btw.

About Fulton County Schools Archives

The Fulton County Schools Archives preserves and maintains a wide range of historic materials such as board minutes, school yearbooks, and audiovisual recordings while serving the public as a repository for these historical collections. Visit http://www.fultonschools.org/en/divisions/acd/learnteach/Pages/FCS-Archive.aspx.

About Thomasville History Center

The Thomasville History Center is a non-profit community organization dedicated to ensuring that the appreciation of Thomasville’s unique history remains an intrinsic and unbroken thread connecting the past and future through settings that advance the town’s story. Visit https://www.thomasvillehistory.org.

About University of West Georgia Special Collections

Special Collections in Ingram Library gathers, preserves, and publicly shares primary sources to advance teaching, learning, scholarship, and community engagement in service to the University of West Georgia, regional community, scholars and members of the general public. Visit https://www.westga.edu/library/special-collections/.

About the Digital Library of Georgia

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia https://dlg.usg.edu/ is a GALILEO initiative that collaborates with Georgia’s libraries, archives, museums and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture and life. This primary mission is accomplished through the ongoing development, maintenance and preservation of digital collections and online digital library resources. DLG 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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