Please welcome the Okefenokee Regional Library System as our new project partner!

Letter: Laura S. Walker Collection, 1790-1950. Laura S. Walker Collection, Okefenokee Regional Library.
Letter: Laura S. Walker Collection, 1790-1950. Laura S. Walker Collection, Okefenokee Regional Library.

Please welcome our new project partner, the Okefenokee Regional Library System http://okrls.org/ , and their two new collections, the Okefenokee Postcard Collection (available at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/CollectionsA-Z/pos_search.html) and the Laura S. Walker Collection (available at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/CollectionsA-Z/lsw_search.html ). These collections were digitized as part of the DPLA’s Public Library Partnerships Project (PLPP), connecting public librarians and public library collections with the DLG and DPLA. We have enjoyed the opportunity to work with the Okefenokee Regional Library System, and appreciate the chance to make its resources available online.

Kathleen McClure, the Systems Librarian at the Okefenokee Regional Library System explains that the Laura S. Walker Collection and Okefenokee Postcard Collection are both “of high relevance and interest to the area.”  She notes: “Walker was a civic leader and environmental advocate in Waycross in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of the documents in the Walker Collection are originals–letters, pictures–of historical significance and should be made widely available for scholars and curious minds. The Walker Collection contains documents that exist in no other place and, until now, in no other form. Laura Walker can be considered a founder not only of the environmental movement, but of Waycross, shaping the history of the area in ways that persist to this day. However, there is a sad dearth of information available on the life of this woman. The Walker Collection glimpses into the personal and civic life of Ms. Walker.”

As for the Okefenokee Postcard Collection, McClure says: “The Eames Okefenokee Postcard Collection shows a glimpse into the past of Waycross, tourism to the Okefenokee Swamp and area industries. The Eames Okefenokee Postcard Collection is unique in its completeness. It is the single largest collection of vintage postcards for Waycross and the Okefenokee area on record. This collection is not only visually and artistically interesting; it catalogs the history and development of the area.”

Plant Avenue, Waycross, Ga.: 1907, 1989. Okefenokee Postcard Collection, Okefenokee Regional Library.
Plant Avenue, Waycross, Ga.: 1907, 1989. Okefenokee Postcard Collection, Okefenokee Regional Library.

McClure recommends looking at a postcard from the Okefenokee Postcard Collection labeled “Plant Avenue, Waycross, Ga.” that “really highlights the changes that have taken place over time.” She adds “The Okefenokee Postcard Collection has given me the idea to make the collection interactive with a photo scavenger hunt, where patrons find the vantages seen in the postcards as they exist today and take a photo of themselves in each location. This would promote not only our collection, but also the Waycross area in a fun way.”

We hope you enjoy these two new collections from the Okefenokee Regional Library System!

 

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New Collections from the Middle Georgia Archives

Francis T. Tennille slave medical care accounts, 1859-1860. Middle Georgia Archives.
Francis T. Tennille slave medical care accounts, 1859-1860. Middle Georgia Archives.

We are eager to announce the arrival of four new collections from our longstanding project partner, the Middle Georgia Archives.

 

The Middle Georgia Archives, located in the Genealogy and History Room of Macon’s Washington Memorial Library, serves middle Georgia as a resource center for archival and manuscript collections. Muriel Jackson, the head of the Genealogical and Historical Department at the Middle Georgia Archives, notes that their collections include materials that represent “at least twenty-five Georgia counties.”

 

The new collections that are now available in the DLG include:

 

 

 

  • Francis T. Tennille Slave Medical Care Accounts, 1859-1860  This collection consists of a single journal page of expenses incurred by medical treatment of Francis T. Tennille’s slaves in Calhoun County in southwest Georgia just prior to the Civil War. The page details what medical treatment was given and to whom. The fees were incurred by Dr. Walter T. Murchison mainly for tooth extraction and delivery of children. The entries list the cost of medicine, doctor visits, and treatments.
  • Henry A. Hunt Letters, 1931  This collection contains two letters, with enclosures, concerning Henry A. Hunt, long-time African American educator, agriculturalist, and president of what became Fort Valley State College. The letters concern New Deal farm policies and poetry by a teacher on Hunt’s faculty.
  • Isaac Scott Diary  Diary kept by Isaac Scott of Macon, Georgia. The diary comments on Macon’s economic trends, social life, the weather, and the Scott family. The diary also provides some detail on Scott’s involvement in local banking and railroads. The entries are most heavily concentrated during 1859 to 1861, and taper off between 1862 to 1864.
  • Macon-Knoxville Store Ledger, 1825-1831  Account book of a small general store based in Macon and Knoxville, Georgia covering the period from 1825 to 1831.

 

Jackson hopes to see these collections ignite interest in research projects about Georgia history. She notes that the Isaac Scott Diary “has some very good information on Macon history from a northern businessman who made his home in Macon” and that the Francis T. Tennille Slave Medical Care Accounts are remarkable in that “even though it is only one page it is very rare to locate original documents on slaves let alone medical treatment.”

 

We hope that you get a chance to look through these new resources that are now available from the Middle Georgia Archives.

 

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