The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) DLG is soliciting proposals for historic digitization projects costing up to $7500 in DLG services from non-profit Georgia cultural heritage institutions. To encourage applications from community- based archives, we have removed the requirement that applicant organizations be open to the public, and that their collections be available for public research either by appointment or through regular hours. Project metadata will be included in the DLG portal and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Projects may include the reformatting of textual materials (not including newspapers), graphic materials, or audio-visual materials. Applicants should have materials prepared for a project start date of July 1, 2023. For more information about the program and application materials, go to the program homepage.
The 2023-2024 subgrant applicant timeline is as follows:
We are seeking two review panelists for our 2023/2024 subgranting program. These reviewers will join DLG and Georgia HomePLACE staff as well as representatives of GPLS, GHRAC, and Georgia Humanities in selecting subgranting projects.
Reviewers will have approximately four weeks to review the proposals (due date of May 3). The committee will meet virtually on May 11 at 10 am to determine the program’s awardees for FY 2023/2024. We discuss each of the proposals in light on therubricand weigh in on each proposal’s strengths and weaknesses. Awards committee members will recuse themselves from review of a proposal should a conflict of interest exist.
Selected by statewide cultural heritage stakeholders and funded by the DLG’s competitive digitization grant program, over 3,000 pages of digitized African American funeral programs from Evans County, Georgia, and other Southeastern towns and cities are now freely available in the Digital Library of Georgia and can be seen online here:
The collection of 637 individual programs dates between 1961-2022, with the birth dates of the people represented going back to 1870.
Pharris D. Johnson, former mayor of Bellville, Georgia, chairman of the Savannah College of Art and Design Board of Trustees, and Vice President of the Evans County Historical Society says:
“The Evans County Community Center and African American Archive Museum serves our community in an outstanding manner. They accomplish their mission with a small budget and through dedicated volunteers. As we know, funeral programs provide valuable social and genealogical information. [These materials from] the Evans County Community Center Archives are an important resource for the residents of Evans and surrounding counties.”
Documenting an underrepresented region of Georgia, this collection provides important information for genealogical research and for understanding African American life during different time periods.
Funeral programs provide valuable social and genealogical information and typically include a photograph of the deceased individual, an obituary, a list of surviving relatives, and information about the funeral service. Some programs provide more extensive genealogical information such as birth and death dates, maiden names, past residences, accomplishments, affiliations, and burial locations. For marginalized populations, this information can often be difficult to find, as the records of many in these communities were often either destroyed, kept privately, or never created in the first place.
The Evans County African American Archive Museum has collected funeral programs for over twenty years. Since then, residents have contributed to the collection.
Darin McCoy of the Evans County Historical Society notes:
“[Our] facility operates within an under-served rural county in terms of digitized African American history. However, the Evans County Historical Society alumni and the Evans County African American Archive Museum leadership team are well-known advocates for the preservation and collection of local African American history and artifacts. Our featured displays, public events, and family presentations are unique and emphasize the historical value of these entities. The vision, collections, and the preservation of artifacts, begun over twenty (20) years ago, have now come to fruition.”
Digitization and access have been made possible through the Digital Library of Georgia’s competitive digitization subgrant program and are displayed and searchable within their online portal. The Digital Library of Georgia has also partnered with local libraries and the Georgia Public Library Service to digitize African American funeral programs for people connected to the Atlanta, Augusta-Richmond County, and Thomas County areas.
About the Evans County African American Archive Museum (Claxton, Ga.)
The mission of the Evans County African American Archive Museum is to provide means for all citizens of Evans County to obtain an excellent quality of life through programs and services. The Archive was the recipient of a 2021 GHRAC Award for History Advocacy. Their Facebook group is: https://www.facebook.com/Evans-County-Community-Center-343942125941003/
Selected images from the collection:
Title: Funeral program for Charles L. Bailey URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/eccca_aafp-ec_ecaaam-470 Collection: African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022 Courtesy of the Evans County Community Center (Claxton, Ga.) Description: Funeral program for Charles L. Bailey. Date of funeral service: June 18, 2011. Location of funeral service: St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Claxton, Georgia, 11:00 a.m. Birth date: November 19, 1916. Death date: June 12, 2011.Title: Funeral program for Earlene Harris URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/eccca_aafp-ec_ecaaam-632 Collection: African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022 Courtesy of the Evans County Community Center (Claxton, Ga.) Description: Funeral program for Earlene Harris. Date of funeral service: November 4, 2021. Location of funeral service: Beulah Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, 11:00 a.m. Birth date: April 8, 1935. Death date: October 28, 2021.Title: Funeral program for Reverend Lee Jones URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/eccca_aafp-ec_ecaaam-402 Collection: African American Funeral Programs, 1960-2022 Courtesy of the Evans County Community Center (Claxton, Ga.) Description: Funeral program for Reverend Lee Jones. Date of funeral service: June 5, 2008. Location of funeral service: Pittman Park United Methodist Church, Statesboro, Georgia, 1:00 p.m. Birth date: October 6, 1926. Death date: June 02, 2008.
DLG 2023-2024 Subgrant Call For Proposals
