Georgia at the Turn of the Millennium (1990-present) – Page 2

The University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archive and Special Collections and the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) have made 50 years of UGA School of Law speaker and lecture materials available freely online. The presenters are well-known national and state political figures, influential legal leaders, and current and former School of Law students and professors.

The collection features photographs of U.S. and Georgia political and legal figures during the latter part of the 20th century. Former President Jimmy Carter; U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas; and U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Dean Rusk are among the prominent national figures. Important legal leaders include Lawrence Lessig, Brooksley Born, and Sarah Weddington. Georgia politicians include former Governors Carl Sanders, Roy Barnes, and Zell Miller; U.S. Senators Max Cleland and Sam Nunn; among others.

Christian Lopez, the head of Oral History and Media and the Oral History Program at the Richard B. Russell Library, outlines the significance to those researching Georgia’s legal and political history:

“This free and searchable body of images from Georgia’s oldest law school will aid those studying economics, immigration, education, desegregation, race, gender, and more. The photographs document the School of Law’s historical impact on the state during the period from the 1950s to the early 2000s.”

The King Law Library’s Metadata Services and Special Collections Librarian Rachel Evans welcomes questions about the project and can be reached at rsevans@uga.edu.

About the University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archives & Special Collections

The mission of the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library is to collect, preserve, and share the history of the University of Georgia School of Law, including all members of its community–students, graduates, faculty, and staff–and their contributions to the state and society. Visit law.uga.edu/library to search the library’s catalog and other resources; explore the School of Law’s institutional repository collections at digitalcommons.law.uga.edu; or browse highlights from the library’s physical and digital collections via the digital exhibit site at digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/exhibit.

Selected images:

Image courtesy of University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archives & Special Collections. Photograph of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1961 Law Day Address at the University of Georgia School of Law showing Kennedy at the podium with University of Georgia School of Law Dean J. Alton Hosch and University of Georgia President O.C. Aderhold in the background. The transcript of the speech is available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/lectures_pre_arch_lectures_lawday/48/

Image courtesy of University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archives & Special Collections. Flier for the 92nd John A. Sibley Lecture, held at the University of Georgia School of Law on October 31, 2000. The lecture was delivered by Horace T. Ward, the first African American student to challenge the racially discriminatory practices at the University of Georgia and the first African American to serve as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Image courtesy of University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archives & Special Collections. Photograph of attorney, law professor, Carter administration staffer, and former Texas State Representative Sarah Weddington, best known for representing “Jane Roe” in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, speaking to an audience. She delivered the University of Georgia School of Law’s 24th Edith House Lecture, titled “Some Leaders Are Born Women,” on March 23, 2006. Inaugurated in 1983, the Edith House Lecture Series brings outstanding female legal scholars and practitioners to the University of Georgia School of Law.

Image courtesy of University of Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library Archives & Special Collections. Photograph (front side) of Max Cleland, then the U.S. Veterans Administration director, seated at a dais onstage at the University of Georgia School of Law, where he delivered the commencement address on June 6, 1978. Transcribed from the back of the photo: “Max Cleland, graduation speaker.”

Tags: addresses, African Americans, Alexander Campbell King Law Library, Civil Rights & Sunbelt Georgia (1945-1980s), Clarke County (Ga.), Competitive Digitization Grant program, Georgia at the Turn of the Millennium (1990-present), graduation, judges, lawyers, legal scholars, politicians, speakers, speeches, subgrants, University of Georgia, University of Georgia. School of Law

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: