Thomasville History Center’s Cutler Collection now freely available online

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the availability of the Cutler Collection at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/tchs_cutcol. These resources belong to the Thomasville History Center and have been made 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. 

The digitized items from this collection consist primarily of diaries, letters, and family papers dating from 1800-1980 belonging to Hazel Beamer Cutler, a dancer on Broadway who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1920s, and who resided in Thomasville, Georgia throughout much of her life. Included in the materials is genealogical research on the Quarterman and Baker families, pioneers of South Georgia; correspondence with visual artists Dora Wheeler Keith and Ben Ali Haggin, III, and Vermont banker Henry Miles Cutler. There is also some information about Candace Wheeler, founder of the American Decorative Arts movement. 

These materials are useful to researchers looking into the history of American illustrator, portrait artist, and muralist Dora Wheeler Keith (1856-1940), who was Hazel Beamer Cutler’s guardian in New York City; and portrait painter and stage designer Ben Ali Haggin, III (1882-1951). Some materials in the collection refer to Candace Wheeler (1827-1923), Dora Wheeler Keith’s mother, who founded the Society of Decorative Arts in 1877 and was associated with the Colonial Revival, Aesthetic Movement, and the Arts and Crafts Movement throughout her long career. The Thomasville Baker and Beamer families developed a friendship with the New York Wheelers and Keiths while the Wheelers vacationed in Thomasville, Georgia during the Resort Era of 1875-1905. These items will shed light into the early twentieth century happenings within the field of decorative arts as well as the artistic work of Ben Ali Haggin, III and Dora Wheeler Keith. The Georgia-related materials on the Quarterman, Baker, Mallard, and Schaffer families collected by Hazel Beamer Cutler’s aunt, Sallie Baker (1862-1953), a Thomasville, Georgia educator, will be useful to genealogists. Hazel Beamer Cutler’s diaries provide a rich history of life in New York City and Thomasville, Georgia during the 1920s.

Anne McCudden, executive director of the Thomasville History Center, notes:  “Having these items digitized will allow our staff and outside researchers to more fully engage with the collection. Currently, we only have a cursory knowledge of the content. Being able to access the collection (specifically the diaries) will allow interested parties to see into the daily life and of Hazel Beamer [Cutler] while she was living in New York City in the early 1920s…This collection also documents her time spent with Ben Ali Haggin III, who was from a prominent Kentucky family of artists and authors.”

About the 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. The History Center is supported by approximately 300 personal and business members, hosts approximately 3,000 visitors each year, and engages another 2,000 through community outreach.  Nearly twenty percent of the Thomasville History Center’s audience are students and teachers. Visit the Thomasville History Center at https://www.thomasvillehistory.org/.

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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Carroll County, Georgia genealogical resources now freely available online

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the availability of volumes 1 and 2 of Carroll County Georgia Cemeteries at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/uwg_ccgc and 53 issues of the Carroll County Genealogical Quarterly published from 1980 to 1994 at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/uwg_ccgq. These resources belong to the University of West Georgia Special Collections and have been made 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.

Carroll County Georgia Cemeteries is a guide to cemeteries in the western (volume 1) and eastern (volume 2) parts of the county published by the Carroll County Genealogical Society. Together they provide transcriptions of names as they appear on tombstones within the 292 cemeteries located in Carroll County. The digitization of these volumes makes family names keyword searchable, which greatly aids researchers’ ability to perform genealogical research in their own homes and other settings.

The Carroll County Genealogical Quarterly (1980-present) is another publication of the Carroll County Genealogical Society that compiles, collects, and creates genealogical information for Carroll County, Georgia. The University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library’s Special Collections has a complete set of these newsletters in which members have written articles on their research into various aspects of the county’s history, which includes information on the land lottery of 1827, Carroll County’s old militia districts, early post offices and postmasters, early settlers and marriages, rural churches and cemeteries, family histories and genealogies, wills and family records transcribed from bibles, census records, ownership of enslaved people of African descent, military history, tax digests, and more. The Carroll County Genealogical Quarterly is an invaluable resource that can be used in learning, teaching, and research of Carroll County history by students, genealogists, local historians, and descendants of Carroll County who live outside of the area.

Keith Bohannan, a professor in the department of history at the University of West Georgia notes:

“The books and periodicals being digitized were only published in small numbers and are not easily available to the public outside of the county library or Georgia State Archives. The resources being digitized will be very helpful to people both inside and outside of the community doing genealogical or historical research.”

About the University of West Georgia Special Collections

University of West Georgia Special Collections serves as the repository for rare materials in the Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library, housing manuscripts, books, films, photographs, sound recordings, and other formats in a number of specialized areas. Special Collections also holds the University Archives. Through these collections, the department supports the research, teaching, and service mission of the university and its constituents. Visit University of West Georgia Special Collections at https://www.westga.edu/library/special-collections/index.php

About the Carroll County Genealogical Society

The mission of the Carroll County Genealogical Society is to promote genealogical research among members of our society and the Carroll County Georgia community. Visit the Carroll County Genealogical Society at http://www.ccgsga.org/

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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