Augusta Public Library Local History and Genealogy

Join the Georgia Room’s expert genealogist, Tina Rae Floyd on Thursday, August 20th at 2:00 pm in Auditorium A of the Headquarters Library for this intermediate level genealogy tutorial. Call (706) 826-1511 to register.

Is Something Fishy in the Augusta Canal?
Wednesday, August 5
2:00 p.m.
Are trout living in the canal? Do rare plants lurk in the shoals? Are alien invaders choking out the natives? Through a program sponsored by the National Park Foundation, Davidson Magnet School high school students have been studying the canal and its environment. The young citizen-scientists will share their discoveries and reveal their findings including the potential for establishing a trout fishery in the Augusta Canal. Program will take place in the auditorium of the headquarters library.
Call the Georgia Heritage Room at (706) 826-1511 for details.

GRU libraries win $10,000 Latin American history grant

June 30, 2015 

Did you know that Martinez, Georgia, was named after a wealthy Cuban refugee? If not, you’re not alone, but a recent grant bestowed to the Georgia Regents University libraries is looking to change that.

In June, GRU’s Reese and Greenblatt libraries received a $10,000 programming grant from the American Library Association called “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History.” Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the grant’s mission is to spread and preserve Latin American culture and history throughout various communities across the United States.

Erin Prentiss, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Reese Library, said the grant has provided both libraries with a tremendous outreach opportunity.

“As you know, we live in an ever-diversifying country,” said Prentiss. “There is a growing Latino population in the Augusta area, and it’s important for us all to appreciate one another’s histories.”

In addition to following the grant’s stipulation of hosting screenings of “Latino Americans,” an NEH-sponsored Public Broadcasting System documentary, the libraries will also host lectures and the recording of local oral histories. Lectures will be presented by GRU’s own Heather Abdelnur, Associate Professor in the Department of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy, and Christopher Botero, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages.

The Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System and the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System will also host related events.

Programming for the grant is set to begin in September and will run until mid-April.

GRU wishes to thank its community partners, the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System, the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System, and the Hispanic American Cultural Association, for making these events possible.

For more information regarding programming, please contact Erin Prentiss at eprentiss@gru.edu.

In February of 2014, the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library was honored to screen the historical documentary, Discovering Dave: Spirit Captured in Clay, based on the life of enslaved Edgefield potter, David Drake. The film tells the story of a discovery made in 2006 when archaeologists from Savannah River Archaeological Research Program unearthed several shards of alkaline-glazed stoneware from a 1950s era archaeological site within the boundaries of SRS. Each fragment was painstakingly fitted together until the entire pot was reassembled, revealing a signature etched into the clay. The name spelled out in beautiful script was “Dave.” The discovery inspired Archaeologist, George Wingard to begin researching David Drake’s life, which culminated, with the assistance of filmmaker Mark Albertin, in the making of the film. Since its screening at the Augusta Public Library in 2014, Discovering Dave has been entered into film festivals all across the United States and won multiple awards. Please join us on Tuesday, July 14th at 6:00 pm in the auditorium of the Headquarters Library as we once again screen the film, and welcome George Wingard who will discuss David Drake’s life, the film, and the pot discovered by SRARP.

Join us on Tuesday, June 16th at 6:00 pm in the main auditorium of the Augusta Public Library for a lecture by Wendy Venet, Ph.D, which will be given in conjunction with the traveling exhibition, “Lincoln: The Constitution and The Civil War.” Dr. Venet is a professor of history at Georgia State University, where she teaches classes on nineteenth century U.S. history, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and American Women’s History. Her research focuses on the Civil War period. As part of an advisory board of historians, she helped to conceptualize exhibits for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. It opened in 2005. She is the author, editor and co-editor of six books; the most recent, A CHANGING WIND: COMMERCE AND CONFLICT IN CIVIL WAR ATLANTA (Yale University Press, 2014.) Wendy Venet’s presentation will focus on how Georgians reacted to Abraham Lincoln, including his election in 1860, his handling of the secession crisis, issues involving civil liberties during the war, slavery, and the Lincoln assassination.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2015-05-18/help-us-learn-more-about-way-we-were

Wednesday, May 20, 2015
6:00 pm
Join the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library for the opening of the traveling exhibition Lincoln: The Constitution and The Civil War. Our guest speaker for the evening is Orville Vernon Burton, Ph.D. Dr. Burton is Creativity Professor of Humanities, Professor of History, Sociology, and Computer Science at Clemson University, and the Director of the Clemson CyberInstitute. His 2007 work, The Age of Lincoln won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction and was selected for Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and Military Book Club. One reviewer proclaimed, “If the Civil War era was America’s ‘Iliad,’ then historian Orville Vernon Burton is our latest Homer.” Dr. Burton’s lecture, “Lincoln and Liberty,” will address the changes made to the Constitution during this tumultuous time in American history. The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the exhibit with the help of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.

The Augusta Richmond County Historical Society is soliciting bids for a new cumulated index of the Society’s journal, Augusta Richmond County History. The index should include author, title and subject links. A controlled vocabulary can be deduced from prior indexes. The journal has been published since 1969, one volume per year, consisting of two issues. Each issue is 20 to 40 pages long. There are usually four to six articles on local history in each issue. Several print indexes have been issued; one covers volumes 1-15 (1969-1983) an other covers volumes 16-20 (1984-1989), and the latest covers volumes 21-39 (1990-2008). See the Society’s web site (http://www.thearchs.org/), under the link to ASU for a link to the existing indexes. It is desirable to have the updated index both in print and machine readable over the internet. The journal is available at Reese Library, GRU, Augusta-Richmond County Public Library, and the High School and Middle School Libraries of Richmond County. Other libraries also hold this journal. A set of issues could be made available to an indexer.

Interested indexers should call or email Tom Sutherland, 706-738-3885, c.sutherland44@comcast.net.

©2009 Alusiv, Inc.

“Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” a national traveling exhibition which focuses on Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to meet the constitutional challenges of the Civil War, opens at the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library on May 13th and ends on June 26th.
Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth President of the United States in 1860, at a time when the nation was falling apart. By the time he took the oath of office, seven states had already seceded from the Union. The exhibition vividly evokes Lincoln’s struggle to resolve the basic questions that divided Americans at the most perilous moment in the nation’s history: Was the United States truly one nation, or was it a confederacy of sovereign and separate states? How could a country founded on the belief that “all men are created equal” tolerate slavery? In a national crisis, would civil liberties be secure?
The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the exhibit with the help of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.
The Augusta-Richmond County Public Library is offering free programs and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition. Please call 706-826-1511 for details, or visit www.arcpls.org

April is National Poetry Month, so the Georgia Heritage Room today honors Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Steven Vincent Benet, who was born in 1898, and spent his early years living in the Benet House, built sometime between 1827 and 1829 and serving as officer’s quarters at the old arsenal. The house was named for Steven Vincent Benet’s father, Col. James Walker Benet.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/stephen-vincent-benaet