Georgia Department of Archives and History : a division of the Office of Secretary of State

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY
Archives and Record Building, 1965 Ben W. Fortson Jr .. Secretary of State

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF
ARCHIVES AND HISTORY A DIVISION OF
THE OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE
INFORMATION BULLETIN
BEN W. FORTSON, JR. SECRETARY OF STATE

INTROPUCTION
Benjamin Winh Fortson, Jr +:!_ Secretary of State
Mr. Fortson, a native of Tignall, Wilkes County, Georgia, a banker by profession and a Mason, Moose and Democrat by affiliation, has served as State Senator and as a Member of the House of Representatives from Wilkes and as Secretary of State of Georgia since 1946. He is a past President of the National Association of Secretaries of State and is a member of its executive committee.
The Secretary of State is authorized by law to appoint and supervise the Directors of the Georgia State Museum of Science and Industry, the Georgia Historical Commission and the Department of Archives and History.
The Archives performs, under the direction of the Secretary of State, many custodial, preservation and research duties concerning State and local records. The growing need in Georgia for a safe and functional depository for the State's permanently valuable records and for the servicing of these records for State officials and the public led the Secretary of State and the late Director of the Department of Archives and History, Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, to go before the Legislature and present the need for a modern fireproof building to house Georgia's priceless heritage of records.
As a result of this effort, during the administration of Governor Marvin Griffin in 1958 a legislative committee was appointed to study the need for the construction of a new Archives building. On the committee were A. A. Fowler, Jr., Douglasville; Robert G. Stevens, Athens; George B. Brooks, Crawford; Mobley Howell,

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Blakely; C. L. Moss, Calhoun; and Robert Culpepper, Jr., Camilla. ~ommittee advisors were the Secretary of State, State Auditor and Chairman of the State Office Building Authority, B. E. Thrasher, now deceased, and Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, Archivist. Groundbreaking ceremonies, held on June 7, 1962, were performed by Governor S. Ernest Vandiver during whose administration a $6 million appropriation for the new Archives building was granted by the Legislature. A. Thomas Bradbury and Associates were appointed Architects and J. A. Jones Construction Company, Contractors. On August 16, 1965 the Archives moved into its new quarters.
Adequate space for storage of records is a chronic problem of all Archives. The removal of Georgia's records from the cramped Capitol quarters to the A. G. Rhodes residence on Peachtree Street in 1930 relieved this situation temporarily. Former Historians and Directors, Lucian Lamar Knight, Miss Ruth Blair and Mrs. Louise Frederick Hays all struggled with the problem of inadequate housing of the State's records with improper temperature and humidity control.
Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, Director from 1951 to 1964, cognizant of the problems of previous Directors in this regard, worked tirelessly for years to arouse public awareness to the need for a new Archives building to protect Georgia's records which date from 1733. With the aid, support and guidance of Georgia's Secretary of State and the vision of its Legislature this monumental plan was realized in 1965.

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HISTORY
The Georgia Department of Archives and History was established by legislative act in 1918, and an act of 1931 placed it under the control of the Secretary of . State. The Department was housed from 1930 to 1965 in the A. G. Rhodes residence at 1516 Peachtree Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia. In August 1965 the Archives moved into its new building near the Capitol. Rhodes Memorial Hall is still maintained as a branch of the Archives.
PURPOSE
The purpose of an Archives and Records Department, whether it be State or National, is to preserve, protect and make available for research the official records of a State or Nation. This is the purpose of the Georgia Department of Archives and History. In addition to the above the Georgia Archives also acts as a depository for the valuable archival records of Georgia's counties and municipalities. The records in the State Archives fall into various categories, and the Archives is organized along the patterns of service and storage related to the nature of the records. Besides the four public service departments, several internal departments handle the processing, preservation, inventorying and storage of Archives' records. The Archives has catalogs and various finding aids to its holdings, and it invites all Departments of State government to avail themselves of these resources.
DESCRIPTION
The Archives and Records Building is a seventeen story, steel-reinforced concrete structure with a facade of white Cherokee

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Georgia marble. A colonnaded podium or porch surrounds the building on three sides. Only two stories have windows. The windowed floors contain the Search Room, Memorial Hall, auditorium and administrative offices on the first floor, and the microfilm division and the editorial office of Georgia's Official and Statistical Register on the second floor. The ground floor immediately below the colonnaded porch is used for receiving, cleaning, fumigating, laminating, photocopying and microfilming records. These departments surround a central vault. This central tower contains eight levels of storage vaults above the ground and four levels below. All vaults are air-conditioned with humidity and temperature control best suited for the storage of records. All vaults and the Rare Manuscript Room are equipped with a smoke detection system.
HOLDINGS
The holdings of the Georgia Department of Archives and History include over 8000 books, 19,500 manuscript book records and approximately 1,000,000 manuscripts as well as 14,000 reels of microfilm and 5,000 record center boxes. Available to the public and to the State Government are Georgia's land records, Civil War records, state and county documents, church records, genealogical material, including Bible, cemetery and lineage records, pictures, and the microfilmed records of over one hundred Georgia county record groups which include wills, deeds, marriages, etc. up to the year 1900. Also contained on microfilm are numerous census records of Georgia and other Southeastern states.
The Archives serves as a depository for the State's records of permanent value.

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These materials are -available fo:r::...use in the building but they are not loaned or circulated. Trained personnel assist the public in the use of the records. Photocopies of documents may be obtained at cost.
REGISTRATION
All patrons wishing to do research in the Archives must register in the Search Room. A permanent registration card is issued to all registrants. Patrons are requested to present this card at each visit to the building. Persons desiring merely to tour the building are not required to register but are requested to sign the tour book at the Receptionist's desk in Memorial Hall.
BRIEF CASES
All briefcases must be checked with the receptionist in Memorial Hall before entering the search area.
PUBLIC SERVICE AREAS
The Archives contains four public service areas: Search Room on first floor, Microfilm Library on second floor; Surveyor-General Department and Cartographic Section on second vault; and Civil War Records Section on fourth vault.
Books, periodicals, manuscripts and State records are available in the Search Room. Georgia county and census records, newspapers and miscellaneous church and private records are serviced in the Microfilm Library. Maps and the State's land records are housed in the Surveyor-General Department and Cartographic Section. State records of the Civil War era and soldier service and pension records are

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located in the Civil War Records Section.
STATE RECORDS SECTION
This department surveys records in the State agencies and inventories those of permanent value deposited by agencies with the Archives. It also maintains a complete and current inventory of all Archival holdings. This office is located on the first floor of the building.
LOCAL RECORDS SECTION
In 1957 Secretary of State Ben W. Fortson, Jr. initiated a County Records Program for the preservation and restoration of Georgia's county records through microfilming and laminating. A Local Records Section was set up in the Archives to handle this program. The County Records Archivist, in cooperation with the official county custodians, surveys and arranges for the microfilming of county records. Books in fragile condition are brought to the Archives for restoration by lamination, are rebound and returned to the county courthouse. An additional duty of this division is to survey for storage the permanently valuable records of Georgia's municipalities. This department is located on the ground floor. Apply at the information desk in Memorial Hall to contact the County Records Archivist.
LABORATORIES
The Archives has three technical divisions: Cleaning and Fumigating Laboratory, Laminating Department and Photoduplication Laboratory. All records coming into the Archives and Records Building are first cleaned and fumigated in a ground floor laboratory. Documents to be restored through the laminating process are handled

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by the Laminating Department . Ph.Qtoduplication Laboratory personnel microfilm records and make photocopies from films, manuscripts and books. Orders for photocopies should be placed with the department servicing the records.
TOURS
Regular tours of the building are conducted at 9:30, 11:00, 1:30 and 3:00, Monday through Friday. Arrangements for group tours may be made in advance with the Archives tour guide. These tours begin in the entrance vestibule and include a visit to the auditorium, conference room, Rare Books and Manuscript Room, Search Room, Microfilm Library, two vault floors and the technical area on the ground floor.
Highlights of the tour are the State seals, cast in aluminum, portraits of the former Directors of the Archives, 18th century records collection, miniatures collection, historic exhibits and the stained glass windows depicting the rise and fall of the Confederacy. These windows are located in the auditorium and contain three panels of reproductions of the firing on Fort Sumter, Jefferson Davis taking the oath of office as President of the Confederacy, General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson at the Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) and General Robert E. Lee, seated on his horse, Traveler, bidding farewell to his troops at Appomattox. The windows are illuminated by back . lighting which brings out the colorful design made of more than 1250 leaded pieces of glass. Besides the dramatic scenes listed above, each panel bears the seal of one of the Confederate states. The windows rise above a handsome, handcarved Honduras mahogany circular stair-

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way. The stairway and windows were formerly located in the A. G. Rhodes residence on Peachtree Street. Joseph D. Rhodes and Mrs. Louana Rhodes Bricker, heirs of A. G. Rhodes, following the bequest of Mr. Rhodes in his will, tendered the home to the State to be used for historical purposes.
When the Archives was moved to its new building in the Capitol area, the Rhodes heirs donated the windows and stairway to the State of Georgia to be preserved as a memorial to Mr. Rhodes in the new State Archives and Records Building. The auditorium was designed in a traditional manner to complement these gifts.
GIFTS
Persons desiring to give books, manuscripts or maps or to establish memorial collections are invited to inquire at the Director's office. These gifts are shelved with the appropriate archives collections and are always available in the search room. A special book plate is placed in all gift volumes. Gifts to the Archives are tax-deductible when given for public use without restrictions.
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
LOCATION - 330 Capitol Avenue, SE Atlanta, Georgia 30334
HOURS - 8:30 A.M.-4:30 P.M. Monday through Friday
TELEPHONE - 522-0010
PARKING - Public parking is available adjacent to the building, but patrons are required to enter through the main entrance on Capitol Avenue.

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REST ROOMs - Public rest rooms ar~ located off hallways on floors one and two.
SMOKING - Smoking is permitted in the lounge area off the Search Room near Memorial Hall.
A smoking lounge is also located in the Microfilm Division on the second floor.
COFFEE BAR - Food and drink machines are located in the Coffee Bar off Memorial Hall.
Food and drinks are not permitted elsewhere in the building.
CLOAKROOM - Coat racks are provided for patron use opposite the Coffee Bar off Memorial Hall.
TELEPHONES - A public telephone is located in the Coffee Bar off Memorial Hall.

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