Past Projects

The Center for Public History has been involved in projects on campus, in the community, and in the broader region. These projects have included:

• A Catalog on Georgia foodways, "Food, Family, and Community:  A Collection of Georgia Memories," for the Georgia tour of "Key Ingredients:  American by Food."  For this project, the Center conducted oral histories with one hundred people from all of the 12 exhibit venues. The Center is currently indexing all of the interviews and processing the collection for researchers to use.  To learn more about Key Ingredients in Georgia or to obtain a copy of the catalog, visit the Cener's website on Key Ingredients or the Georgia Humanities' Council website.
• An exhibit, oral history project, and website documenting the textile and apparel industry in western Georgia, especially Carroll and Haralson Counties. The eleven-panel traveling exhibit is available for use, free of charge. The Center has archived a substantial collection of materials related to cotton and hosiery mills, the apparel industry, and post-World War II textile industries in the region, including company records from Printed Fabrics Company in Carrollton. All archived materials are available for public research.
• The Center for Public History has been exploring the impact of wars on Carroll County since 1999, and we have partnered with the Library of Congress Veterans History project in this process. For information on our work and for educational materials on World War II and the Cold War, visit our website Veterans History Project.
• Regional Music Project documents music traditions in the western Georgia piedmont. We have produced four CDs of regional music traditions, from secular to sacred, that are available for sale at the Center and in other venues. In addition, we have compiled a collection of reserach and fieldwork that is archived at the Center.
• Southern Baking Traditions Oral History Project includes a traveling exhibit, again available free of charge, as well as a collection of interviews and other fieldwork related to this research topic. The exhibit is also available on-line through this web-site.
• Williams-Mitchell Farm Documentation and Interpretive Plan provides research and documentation for an 1890s dairy farm and CCC camp in Villa Rica, Georgia. Our archive includes a collection of Williams family papers.
• Our research on the Banning Cotton Mill Documentation Project is best presented in an interactive website, designed by Center alum Teresa Beyer Sherwood, that incorporates the Center's four years of research on this historic textile mill near Whitesburg, Georgia.
• Carroll County Rural Heritage Oral History Project and Exhibit is one of our first projects that documented Carroll County's history over the twentieth century. Our oral history collection includes over 500 interviews, some conducted in association with Carrollton Junior High School eighth grade students, and an extensive photograph collection.
• Changing Times: Stories and Images of the West Georgia Piedmont is an exhibit that interprets the history of the west Georgia piedmont.

One of our goals has been to stimulate students in the community to better understand their community and family history. We encourage teachers to contact us for more information about these programs. These programs and teaching materials are available free of charge.  The Center also offers both of its exhibits, on baking traditions and textile mill history, to teachers in our region free of charge.  Contact the Center for more details.

• Traveling Trunks to teach World War II and Cold War History, developed for fifth through eight grade students.
• Teaching Community History: A Teachers’ Activities Packet and Oral History Program for Middle-School Students is a notebook of teaching materials and lesson plans for eighth grade teachers.
• "Everybody's Tuned to the Radio: Rural Music Traditions in West Georgia:" Folklife Programs for Middle Schools.

Over the past four years, Center students and staff have documented the history of the University through oral histories and class projects. In addition, several class projects have focused on developing historic walking tours of the University.

• University History and Oral History Projects.
• "Fountain of Life": First 50 Years of University of West Georgia Walking Tour Brochure.
• "Journey to Equality":  Reflections of the African-American Experience at West Georgia Walking Tour Brochure.

Center staff and students, including public history courses, have assisted historical organizations around the region with various projects, particularly in planning and developing exhibits and interpretive materials. Our projects have included:

• An exhibit, publication, and oral history project documenting a historic African American neighborhood in Powder Springs, Georgia, for the City of Powder Springs and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
• A museum exhibition plan for the Polk County Historical Society in Cedartown, Georgia.
• A Proposal for Gold Mining Heritage Park for the City of Villa Rica, Villa Rica, Georgia.
• An analysis of oral histories collected by the Martin Luther King Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia.
• An interpretive plan for the Buena Vista Plantation Slave Cabin in Newnan, Georgia.
• A Commemorative History publication and exhibit for the Carrollton Chamber of Commerce 50th Anniversary, Carrollton, Georgia.