Donnie Summerlin – Page 34

Farming has been, and continues to be, an integral part of the Georgia experience. The Digital Library of Georgia’s collections represent centuries of life on farms around the state through photographs, diaries, correspondence, newspapers, and even moving images. Some of the more endearing collection photographs involve interactions between children and farm animals. Below is but a small sampling of what you might find amidst our wealth of digital media.

Photograph of a girl milking a cow for a cat in Cobb County, Georgia, circa 1915. The image is from the Vanishing Georgia Collection, a collaboration between the Digital Library of Georgia and the Georgia Archives.

Photograph of a child sitting on the back of a hog in or near Richmond County, Georgia, in the late 19th century. The image is part of the Robert E. Williams Photographic Collection: African Americans in the Augusta, Ga. Vicinity, circa 1872-1898. The site is a joint effort between the Digital Library of Georgia and the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Photograph of young Russell McCants holding a chicken at the Georgia State Fair in Macon, Georgia, in October of 1955 (by anthony at dress-head ). The image can be found at the Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960 website, a collaboration between the Digital Library of Georgia and the Middle Georgia Archives.

In May, the Digital Library of Georgia and the Cuba Archives of the Breman Museum announced the expansion of the Southern Israelite Archive:

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/israelite/

The Southern Israelite Archive now includes issues from 1959-1983, and spans the years 1929-1986, including over 48,000 images. Rabbi H. Cerf Straus established the Southern Israelite as a temple bulletin in Augusta in 1925. The publication was so popular, he expanded it into a monthly newspaper. Later in the decade, Straus sold the paper to Herman Dessauer and Sara B. Simmons, who moved the paper to Atlanta, where it began circulating state-wide and eventually throughout the South. In 1930, M. Stephen Schiffer, a former employee of the Atlanta Georgian, took over as sole owner of the Southern Israelite. Even in these earliest years, the paper not only covered the news of the southern Jewry, but also the issues that involved Jewish populations throughout the nation and world, including the Holocaust and later the creation of the Jewish state of Israel.

In October of 1934, the Southern Israelite began publishing a four page weekly edition, supplemented by its established monthly magazine edition. Ownership of the paper was turned over to a corporation headed by Israelite editor Adolph Rosenberg in 1951, while the paper continued its mission as the voice of the Jewish community in Atlanta. In October of 1958, the paper was at the forefront of the coverage of the Temple bombing in Atlanta, giving its readers a unique first hand perspective. The monthly edition of the paper was discontinued in 1973 in favor of its increasingly growing weekly edition. In 1987, the paper changed its name from the Southern Israelite to the Atlanta Jewish Times and guaranteed at least thirty-two page issues moving forward. The paper is today owned by Jewish Renaissance Media and continues as a weekly publication with a readership of over 25,000.

The Southern Israelite database is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia, a GALILEO initiative that shares Georgia’s history and culture online. Digitization is made possible by the Cuba Archives of the Breman Museum and the generosity of the Srochi family of Atlanta.

Other newspaper archives available through the Digital Library of Georgia include the Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive (1847-1922), the Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), the Columbus Enquirer Archive (1828-1890), the Milledgeville Historic Newspaper Archive (1808-1920), and the Red and Black Archive (1893-2006). These archives can be accessed at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes/Newspapers.html

Author: Donnie Summerlin

Kids and Farm Animals

The DLG has been busy, part 2