Essential local history materials for Lee County, Georgia now available freely online

The Digital Library of Georgia has just made the Lee County Library Local History Collection available freely online. The collection contains essential historic print items belonging to the Lee County Library in Leesburg, Georgia dating from 1784-2000. Among the materials are local and regional Baptist and Methodist church histories, histories of the historic towns of Smithville and Starkville, Lee County oral histories, and documentation of the Great Flood of 1994 caused by Tropical Storm Alberto that caused significant damage in Southwest Georgia. 

Bobbie Yandell, Director of Archives at the Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, Georgia notes: 

“The church histories, as well as the histories of Smithville and Starkville provide important information to early life in Lee County. These resources describe the roots of the county as well as the citizens that resided in it. The materials concerning the Flood of 1994 display how our communities came together in a time of disaster. They show what our community is capable of when a collective effort to come together is mad. It is important that future generations are able to revisit these histories in order to both honor and remember what has been achieved by those who came before us.”

Yandell continues: “Lee County has a rich local history which mostly resides in physical materials. The fear of degradation is a threatening reality for the collection. With assistance from the Digital Library of Georgia, digital preservation allows these materials to be used for generations to come, In my efforts, I have found that small towns frequently suffer from their histories disappearing or being forgotten. It gives me hope that methods such as digitization exist so that rural histories may persist and be remembered.”

Featured images:

Flood of the century: southwest Georgia, by Michael Brooks
Book about the damage Tropical Storm Alberto in 1994 brought to Albany, Georgia, and to neighboring Lee County, Georgia
https://dlg.usg.edu/record/lep_lclhc_lclhc04
The Leesburg Methodist story 1874-1974 a century of Christian witness, by Curtis C. Roberts and Rebecca V. Gibson
Book about the centennial history (1874-1974) of the Leesburg Methodist Church in Leesburg, Georgia
https://dlg.usg.edu/record/lep_lclhc_lclhc11

About the Lee County Library 

The Lee County Library is a public library serving the Lee County, Georgia area. Learn more on their website at leecountylibrary.org/

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Historical aerial photography indexes that chronicle changing land use in all of Georgia’s 159 counties from the 1930s to 1990s are now available freely online.

Along with our partners at the University of Georgia Map and Government Information Library (MAGIL), the Digital Library of Georgia has made the Georgia Aerial Photography Index Collection available at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/gyca_gaphind, now providing online access to more than 1200 indexes produced by U.S. government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS). Indexes covering all 159 Georgia counties are available with coverage ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s. The Georgia Aerial Photograph Index Collection provides access to digital versions of all Georgia county indexes in MAGIL’s physical collection. Previously-digitized indexes of select counties in the State of Georgia, along with approximately 50,000 black and white photographs, are available in the Georgia Aerial Photographs database.

Aerial photography depicts the physical and cultural characteristics of land at a specific time. The images can provide insights into various fields from ecology and geography to history, archeology, and urban planning. In addition to aiding in the mapmaking process, aerial photographs can be used to settle legal issues such as property disputes and even identify ancestral sites for people researching genealogy, according to the National Archives website https://www.archives.gov/research/cartographic/aerial-photography.

“MAGIL’s aerial photography collection is heavily used by researchers looking for everything from the existence of the old family farm to the first appearance of a bridge to the development of an intersection over time,” said Valerie Glenn, the head of UGA’s Map and Government Information Library and Federal Regional Depository Librarian. “By making these indexes available through the Digital Library of Georgia, we are greatly improving access for those users interested in how Georgia land has or has not changed and providing them the ability to conduct preliminary research on an area without having to travel to Athens.”

Allison Haas has used these materials in her research, working for EDR/Lightbox. “Daily I use materials from the Map and Government Information Library for historical property research on commercial real estate sites as part of the environmental due diligence process,” Haas said. “Historical aerial photographs are key elements in the reports we provide to our clients. Quick turn around on these reports is very important. Online access to this collection has improved workflow and helps get the reports to our clients quickly.”


Selected Images: 

Dekalb County, 1938: Aerial photography index
https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gyca_gaphind_dekalb-1938
[attachment: gyca_gaphind_dekalb-1938-00001.png (page 1)]

Dekalb County, 1938: Aerial photography index



Glynn County, 1981: Aerial photography index
https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gyca_gaphind_glynn-1981
[attachment: gyca_gaphind_glynn-1981-00001.png (page 1)]

Glynn County, 1981: Aerial photography index



About the University of Georgia Map and Government Information Library (MAGIL)

The Map and Government Information Library (MAGIL), a unit of the University of Georgia Libraries, acquires, organizes, and provides access to cartographic and government information. It is located in the sub-basement of the Main Library on North Campus.

The UGA Libraries serves as Georgia’s regional depository for documents published by the Federal government as well as the official depository for documents published by the State of Georgia. Its collections also include select international and United Nations documents. Cartographic resources include maps, aerial photography and remote sensed imagery, atlases, digital spatial data, and reference materials, with a particular emphasis on the state of Georgia. 

Maps and government documents have been an integral part of the University of Georgia Libraries for more than 100 years. For more information, read about the history of MAGIL. 

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