Heritage Room News
August 2014 Events and Classes
Beech Haven Presentation
August 12, 2014
6:00 p.m.
Multipurpose Rooms B & C
To date Athens-Clarke County has acquired more than 90 acres of “Beech Haven”, the Rowland family's historic rustic retreat along the Middle Oconee River. First purchased by Charles A. Rowland II over 100 years ago, Beech Haven is now surrounded by suburban and commercial development, but remains a secluded natural sanctuary, essentially unchanged since the 1930’s. The site has a long history as an important social and religious gathering place in Athens and, with new public ownership, may once again be a cultural and recreational hub for the community. In this presentation we'll trace the fascinating history of the place and discuss the Arts and Crafts design movement that influenced its development.
Representatives from Leisure Services and the Athens Clarke Heritage Foundation will be on hand to discuss on-going efforts to protect the site and Beech Haven’s exciting potential as part of the Athens-Clarke County Greenway Network.
Local History Book Club meeting
Thursday, August 14, 2014
6:00 p.m.
Heritage Conference Room
The Local History Book Club is a reading group that meets on the third Thursday of each month to discuss that month's assigned book. This month we will discuss Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road (ISBN 978-0820316611), named one of the Modern Library's 100 best novels of the twentieth century, and listed in 2002 as one of the Georgia Center for the Book's 25 Books all Georgians Should Read.
Set during the Depression in the depleted farmlands surrounding Augusta, Georgia, Tobacco Road was first published in 1932. It is the story of the Lesters, a family of white sharecroppers so destitute that most of their creditors have given up on them. Debased by poverty to an elemental state of ignorance and selfishness, the Lesters are preoccupied by their hunger, sexual longings, and fear that they will someday descend to a lower rung on the social ladder.
Copies of the book are available for circulation.
COGS Meeting
August 16, 2014
2:00 p.m.
Auditorium
Join the Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society as they welcome author and researcher Karen Thompson Ledford, author of the These Men Wore Grey series. Herbooks cover the following counties: Franklin, Habersham, Hart, Stephens, Rabun, White, Banks and Jackson. The books contain genealogical, military, and internment records of Confederate Soldiers of Northeast Georgia. Membership information will be available and light refreshments will be served.
Genealogy on the Internet
August 19, 2014
6:00 p.m.
Computer Training Lab
This is a brief introduction to the types of genealogy Internet resources. Participants will receive handouts so they can use the tools on their own. This is NOT a beginning genealogy class. Participants must know how to use a mouse and how to search the Internet with a search engine.
Registration is free, but required. Class is limited to 10 people. Please call the Heritage Room at (706) 613-3650 x350 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve your spot.
Book Bites: Georgia Women, Volume II
August 28, 2014
12:00 p.m.
Multipurpose Room A
UGA Associate Professor of History Kathleen Ann Clark will be discussing her work on the second volume of Georgia Women, which she co-edited with Ann Short Chirhart. The essays vividly portray a wide array of Georgia women who played an important role in the state’s history, from little-known Progressive Era activists to famous present-day figures such as Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Collectively, the life stories portrayed in this volume deepen our understanding of the multifaceted history of not only Georgia women but also the state itself.
Bring your own brown bag lunch to enjoy during the talk. Lemonade and cookies will be provided. Books will be available for purchase in the Library Store before and after the event.
This Side Up: Overhead Book Scanner Training
August 26, 2014
3:00 p.m.
Heritage Room
Have personal books, scrapbooks, or over-sized images you'd like to preserve digitally? Want to scan a lot of materials quickly? Or does your research require tedious copying of selections of books and citations that you could scan more efficiently? Then let us introduce you to your new best friend: the Indus Book Scanner 9000.
In this class, staff will demonstrate how to use the overhead book scanner so you get the optimum digital image. Attendees will have an opportunity to scan their own materials as well. Bring your flash drive or have your email address ready so you can take your images home with you.
July 2014 Events and Classes
Local History Book Club
Thursday, July 17, 2014
6:00pm
Heritage Conference Room
The July meeting of the Athens Local History Book Club will discuss A Killing on Ring Jaw Bluff: The Great Recession and the Death of Small-Town Georgia (ISBN 9780881464313), published by Mercer University Press in 2013. The book recounts the rise and fall of Georgia's rural population as told through the story of Charles Graves Rawlings. The growth of wealth in rural Georgia during the first two decades of the twentieth century was dramatic, as was the economic crash that accompanied and followed the so-called Great Recession of 1920-21. While the rest of the nation recovered rapidly, transitioning to the era of the Roaring Twenties, the rural South remained mired in social and financial despair. The forces that led to this economic whipsaw were multiple, including the loosening of credit and inflation that accompanied and followed World War I, the effective monetization of cotton as a commodity, the competition for labor from the industrialized North, and the bubble in cotton prices that burst in 1920. This is the story of rural Georgia that foreshadowed our own day, our own story.
Getting Started with Genealogy
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
6:00pm
Heritage Conference Room
This class will help you get started with your family research. This is a pre-beginning genealogy class. Registration is required. Please call the Heritage Room at (706) 613-3650 x350 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve your spot.
The World at Your Fingertips: Ordering Microfilm through FamilySearch
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
6:00pm
Computer Training Lab
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah 
possesses one of the world's largest genealogical collections, boasting over 2.4 million rolls and 727,000 microfiche of microfilmed genealogical records spanning the globe. These microforms can be mailed to you through FamilySearch.org. The digitized records available freely online are only a tiny fraction of the total number of microfilmed records available to genealogists.
In this class we will learn how to take advantage of this fantastic resource by using the FamilySearch catalog, setting up a free account, and learning how to order microfilm online to have it sent directly to the Heritage Room. Participants should have working familiarity with a computer and the internet.
Please call the Heritage Room at (706) 613-3650 x350 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve your spot.
Got Ether? The Curious History of Anesthesia
Part of the Lunchtime Learning @ Your Library series
Thursday, July 31, 2014
12:15pm
Multipurpose Room B
"What do Queen Victoria, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and frolic parties have in common? They are all part of the rich and sometimes controversial history of anesthesia." Join Sherri Burgess of the Crawford W. Long Museum as she covers the history of anesthesia from early uses of alcohol and cocaine up through some modern medical practices. After the lecture, we’ll draw for the grand prize winner of the Adult Summer Reading Program, and have a few crafts.
