Materials from the Augusta Jewish Museum documenting more than two centuries of Jewish life, culture, foodways, and tradition are now available online.

Selected by statewide cultural heritage stakeholders and funded by the DLG’s competitive digitization grant program, this collection is the Augusta Jewish Museum’s first collaboration with the DLG and is available here:

Augusta Jewish Museum Collection

The collection contains historical materials dating from 1850 to 2022 that come from a diverse group of Jewish creators, including youth, women, clergy, fraternities, and congregations that offer unique insights into the greater Augusta, Georgia region’s Jewish life, philanthropy, foodways, and experiences.

Rabbi David Sirull of the Adas Yeshurun Synagogue in Augusta emphasizes the importance of making this work accessible freely online.

“It is important that we remember our place in history as we move to the future. The Augusta Jewish Museum allows for valuable content to be procured, preserved, and disseminated that tells the story of Jewish heritage in the Central Savannah River Area that encompasses the Augusta, Georgia area…This content is invaluable to researchers in defining the ways of Jewish life in the Southeast.”

About the Augusta Jewish Museum 

The Augusta Jewish Museum and its programming chronicle the life, history, and contributions of the Jewish community in the Central Savannah River Area. The museum also educates about Jewish traditions, remembering the Holocaust, and Israel–the land and its people. Their website is: https://www.augustajewishmuseum.org/.

About the Digital Library of Georgia

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia 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 by developing, maintaining, and preserving 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. Visit the DLG at dlg.usg.edu.

Selected images from the collections:

Title: Book of Handwritten Poetry, Rosina Hendricks Levy URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/augjm_augjmc_2019-003-010 Collection: Augusta Jewish Museum Collection Courtesy of the Augusta Jewish Museum Description: Paper-bound book of poetry bound with twine into a single volume, handwritten pages. Rosina’s Book of Poetry is an essential part of local Jewish history as a rich, female, first-person perspective of the beginning of the Jewish congregation in Augusta. Rosina Hendricks, daughter of the first Jewish family who arrived in Augusta in 1802, authored this book that remains unpublished. Written throughout her adult life, the book includes poems written to her husband and children, on life in Georgia and the South, and on Judaism and her experiences as a Jewish woman. She played a key role in establishing the religious school that would eventually become the Congregation Children of Israel.

 

 

Title: “United for Worship and Charity” by Jack Steinberg
URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/augjm_augjmc_2022-005-004
Collection: Augusta Jewish Museum Collection
Courtesy of the Augusta Jewish Museum
Description: Staple-bound booklet about the history and community of Congregation Children of Israel, authored by Jack Steinberg
Title: Daughters of Israel Cook Book, page 8 of 88
URL: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/augjm_augjmc_2021-054-001
Collection: Augusta Jewish Museum Collection
Courtesy of the Augusta Jewish Museum
Description: Synagogue Cookbook (1950s), Paper spiral bound with plastic spine, published by the Adas Yeshurun Synagogue’s (AYS) Daughters of Israel.
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Historic holiday menus created at the former Army post at Fort Oglethorpe from 1925-1940 are now available freely online in the Digital Library of Georgia

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) has partnered with the 6th Cavalry Museum to digitize its collection of historic holiday menus created at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia from 1925-1940, thanks to a digitization grant awarded by the DLG. 

The collection is available at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/scm_scthm.

Holiday menus combine economic, cultural, and social histories of holidays as well as food and cooking history. Some of these menus also include rosters of US military personnel, as well as guests and family members. In some cases, the menus include a “year in review” section, providing key insights that aren’t offered elsewhere in materials held by the 6th Cavalry Museum.

These materials have proved to be particularly helpful to genealogists who have made use of them as a source of historical information, thanks in part to rosters recorded inside of the menus.

Food historians will be able to consult these resources for a history of food or a study of ritualized meals, and menu highlights provide critical information about military life and help provide a better understanding of the loss, change, and growth that took place during the 1920s and 1930s. 

Camilla Canty, a family historian doing research on her family, notes:

“My father joined the 6th Cavalry for officer’s training in 1940 at Fort Oglethorpe and eventually attained the rank of Major by the end of World War Two. Fort Oglethorpe held special memories for my parents because they met there when my father was in training and my mother worked for Col. James Troutt in the Office of the Surgeon.”

Selected Images

1933 Troop A Thanksgiving Menu
Thanksgiving dinner menu for troop A of the 6th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. 
https://dlg.usg.edu/record/scm_scthm_1933-11-30-troop-a
1935 Troop B Christmas Menu, page 4
Christmas dinner menu for troop B of the 6th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. This page identifies members of the troop. 
https://dlg.usg.edu/record/scm_scthm_1935-12-25-troop-b

About the 6th Cavalry Museum

The 6th Cavalry Museum preserves the rich military history of the Fighting Sixth Cavalry, the former Army Post at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia (1902 – 1946), and the Third Women’s Army Corps Training Center. Located on the Post’s original parade ground, the area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, surrounded by officer’s homes and other Post buildings. The 6th Cavalry Museum was founded in 1981 by members of the 6th U.S. Cavalry Veterans Association and continues the mission of Sharing History for All. 

About the Digital Library of Georgia

Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia 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. 

Visit the DLG at dlg.usg.edu. 

Twitter: @DigLibGA 

Facebook: facebook.com/DigitalLibraryofGeorgia/

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