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International Women’s Year in the Georgia Archives

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The United Nations proclaimed that 1975 was International Women’s Year. In the spirit of the United Nations’ proclamation, on January 9, 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order 11832 creating a National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year “to promote equality between men and women.”
President Ford selected 1977 as the International Women’s Year in the United States and budgeted $5 million to pay for state and territory meetings and one national meeting to discuss the status of American Women.
Atlanta held its workshops on May 6 and 7, 1977.  A variety of events were scheduled from May 1-7.
Georgia Archives’ holdings include several collections on the 1977 International Women’s Year. The National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year Records collection gives a detailed overview of the event.  Included in the collection is a great deal of information on attendees’ differing opinions on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year Records, 1978-0074M
National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year Records, Georgia Women’s Meeting Posters, 1977
Georgia Archives, International Women’s Year Records, F-7289, Poster, 1977

Women’s History Month Collection Highlight: Dr. Anna Barbara Grey

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Anna Barbara Grey was a physician in Burma and India. Her collection is now available to researchers, and the collection’s finding aid appears in the American Baptist Historical Society’s online catalog.

After a period of training in the U.S. and in London, Dr. Grey was appointed a missionary of the Women’s American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1922. She was instrumental in the development of the Ellen Mitchell Memorial Hospital in Burma. When the war came to Burma in 1941, Gray and the staff evacuated the patients before she went to India in January 1942. She worked as a member of the medical staff of the Victoria Memorial Mission Hospital in Hanamkonda and the American Baptist Mission Hospital in Nellore. In 1945, she returned briefly to Moulmein under the sponsorship of the Red Cross to investigate damages. She returned to the U.S. in 1957 and retired.

Dr. Anna Barbara Grey

SGA Scholarship Opportunities

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The Society of Georgia Archivists has a vibrant and active scholarship program to enable students and archivists to attend the Georgia Archives Institute, conferences, and annual meetings sponsored by the Society of Georgia Archivists and the Society of American Archivists. These scholarships afford practitioners and students to attend such professional development opportunities that they may might not otherwise have the personal finances nor financial support from their institutions to attend.

An auction is held at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Georgia Archivists each year to benefit the scholarships; however, monetary donations are always welcomed.

Workshops & Continuing Education Scholarships:

·       Carrol Hart Scholarship– Provides funding to attend the Georgia Archives Institute in June. Deadline to apply is March 29, 2019
·       Brenda S. Banks Educational Workshop Scholarship – Provides funding to attend the SGA-sponsored Spring/Summer Workshop as scheduled by the Education Committee
·       Anthony R. Dees Educational Workshop Scholarship – Provides funding to attend the SGA-sponsored Pre-Conference Workshop (held the day preceding the SGA Annual Meeting)
Annual Meetings Scholarships:
·       Edward Weldon Scholarship– Provides the registration fee for an SGA member to attend the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting.
·       Larry Gulley Scholarship– Provides funding to attend the SGA Annual Meeting
·       Taronda Spencer Award– Provides funding for students of color to attend the SGA Annual Meeting

For more information about our scholarship opportunities or how to donate to a scholarship, please email scholarships@soga.org

Working Like a Dog: Exhibit Now on Display at Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville

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Pebble Hill Plantation’s Elisabeth Ireland Poe Gallery is currently hosting a loaned exhibition from Genesee Country Village & Museum of Mumford, New York. “Working Like a Dog” features selected works by over 20 major artists from the 17th through the 20th centuries.
The exhibit is on display through April 25, 2019. For more information, visit www.pebblehill.com or call (229) 226-2344.
Maud Earl, Old Benchers

Sarah Dunaway Scholarship to the Georgia Archives Institute

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We are pleased to announce that applications are open for the Sarah Dunaway Scholarship to the Georgia Archives Institute. The Board of Trustees of the Friends of the Georgia Archives & History established the Sarah O. Dunaway Scholarship in memory of one of its greatest friends. Over the years, Sarah consistently supported the Georgia Archives and its work. She felt strongly that the records of our heritage should be preserved and FOGAH honors her by supporting training for those who work with historical records. The Dunaway scholarship provides tuition for a student to attend the annual Georgia Archives Institute and one year’s membership in the Friends of the Georgia Archives.
The application materials are available at http://www.fogah.org/programs/dunaway–scholarship/. Completed applications and additional application materials should be sent to fogah2004@yahoo.com. Applications are due by email on March 8 at 5 pm.

We Want YOU! (To be a National History Day Georgia Judge!)

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The 2019 National History Day in Georgia State Contest will take place Saturday, April 13, 2019, at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. Middle and high school students from across the state will compete their regional award winning NHD projects, and we need people like you to serve as their judges! If you are interested in being a NHD GA Judge please follow the below link and register to be added to the judges database.
Register to Judge Here
For questions regarding NHD GA Judging please contact NHD GA Co-Coordinator Jess Burke at jburke@georgiahumanities.org.

Borders Real and Imagined: Georgia Immigration Politics in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries (New Exhibit at UWG)

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The University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library will display an exhibit on the history of immigration in Georgia in the Thomas B. Murphy Reading Room from January 24-May 10, 2019. Titled Borders Real and Imagined: Georgia Immigration Politics in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries, the exhibit will examine anti-Catholicism in the 1910s, refugees from Eastern Europe resettled in the state in the 1940s and 1950s, the Mariel Cubans cases of the 1980s, immigration reform bills presented in the US Congress in the 1990s, and the activities of the Multicultural Community Alliance in Carrollton in the early 2000s. The exhibit will reveal and illuminate the complex history of immigrants and refugees in Georgia, as well as the efforts of Georgia politicians to mold and shape national immigration policy.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Ingram Library’s Special Collections will host a panel discussion at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, February 26. It will feature Priyanka Bhatt, staff attorney for Project South, Steve Goodson, Professor of History at the University of West Georgia, and J. Salvador Peralta, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of West Georgia. It will be moderated by exhibit curator W. Michael Camp, and will be followed by a reception and exhibit tour.
For more information: 

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52nd Georgia Archives Institute
June 10-21, 2019
Atlanta, Georgia

Designed for beginning archivists, manuscript curators, and librarians or those whose positions have expanded to include the management and care of their organization’s archives or manuscript/history collection, the Georgia Archives Institute provides general instruction in core concepts and practices of archival administration and the management of traditional and modern documentary materials.  Recipient of the 2016 Society of American Archivists’ Distinguished Service Award, the Institute is a two-week program held at the Georgia Archives in Morrow, Georgia, near metro Atlanta, which includes six days of classroom instruction and a three-day internship.

Instructional topics include appraisal, accessioning, arrangement and description, reference and outreach, security, copyright, born-digital records; as well as a whole day on the preservation and care of archival materials.  To link archival theory with real-world application, students will also participate in individualized, three-day internships at local archival repositories. The internship provides an opportunity for students to observe the operations of an archival facility combined with hands-on experience processing archival collections.

Pam Hackbart-Dean, a graduate of the University of Connecticut, has been Director of the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale since 2006. Prior to that appointment, she was head of Special Collections & Archives at Georgia State University and was Assistant Head/Processing Archivist for the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Study at the University of Georgia. She has conducted a number of workshops on arrangement and description, as well as published articles and books on the subject. The Preservation of Archival Materials day-long session will be taught by Tina Seetoo, Preservation Manager at Delta Flight Museum.  The Born-Digital session will be taught by Dorothy Waugh, Digital Archivist, at the Rose Library, Emory University.

Tuition is $500 and enrollment is limited to 20 students.  Deadline is midnight on April 1, 2019 for receipt of application and $75 application fee (which is refunded if not admitted to the Institute).  Tuition scholarships are available from the Society of Georgia Archivists (SGA) (http://www.soga.org/scholarships/hart) and the Friends of Georgia Archives and History (http://fogah.org/programs/dunaway-scholarship/).  Successful applicants, who are not members of the Society of Georgia Archivists, will receive a free membership for one year.

For an application to the Institute, detailed schedule and additional information, please visit our website at www.georgiaarchivesinstitute.org or contact us at georgiaarchivesinstitute@gmail.com.

Labor Behind the Veil: Membership Event

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The tour of the Georgia’s Old Governor’s Mansion was so much fun!  We had 10 people (made up of members and friends of SGA) show up for the tour.  Matt Davis and his staff were absolutely wonderful and gave the group an in-depth tour that truly showcased the complexities of the laborers and inhabitants life experiences, during the Antebellum period.  Our tour also included a behind the scenes look into the unique climate control, lighting, and restoration structural system used at the mansion.  We ended the meet-up with lunch at The Brick which did not disappoint.
Photos Courtesy of Feechi Hall. 

Member Spotlight: LaToya Devezin

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In advance of our Annual Meeting next week, we figured it was the perfect time spotlight one of our members! 
Meet LaToya Devezin!  


With a BA in Music from Mary Baldwin College, an MA in Museum Studies from Southern University, and an MLIS from Louisiana State, LaToya is currently an archivist for the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and NARA. She loves trivia/board games, cooking, and making jewelry.



What attracted you to the archives profession?
I’m originally from New Orleans, LA and I became interested in the archives profession in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina while working on cultural preservation projects in the city.  I wanted to learn how to properly preserve items from the community, and I ended up going to graduate programs in both museum studies and archives management.
What’s your favorite part about your job?
Providing access to collections and assisting customers with reference requests.
What’s the most interesting piece that you’ve come across?
It’s a tie.  The first item is a gold tooth belonging to a famous musician that was punched out in a fight.  It was donated by the man who punched him.  The second piece is a really beautiful hand carved wooden cross that someone gave to President Carter to bless him on the campaign trail.
Did you have an alternative career path?
Yes, prior to becoming an archivist, I was an opera singer, and I spent most of my time switching between singing opera and jazz, which is difficult to do vocally because the genres are so different.  While nursing a vocal injury, I began working on the cultural preservation projects in New Orleans that led to my interest in becoming an archivist. 
What’s your advice for new members entering the profession?
I would encourage all new members entering the profession to find a mentor, gain as much experience as you can, establish good working relationships because our profession is small, and to not be afraid to contact colleagues if you have technical questions or need advice.