Graduate Research Assistants
Over the past six years, students at the Center for Public History have been involved in documenting the history, archaeology, and architecture of the historic Banning Mill, a late-nineteenth-century cotton mill and mill village located near Whitesburg, Georgia.
Since 1999, over forty interviews have been conducted with former textile workers and residents of Banning. The research collection has tripled in size and includes, not only a detailed history of Banning, but valuable information about the surrounding community.
Former
graduate students have made valuable and lasting contributes in the research
of Banning. Carey Tilley (M.A., summer 2001) prepared a report on the archaeological
resources of the site. His thesis focused on the evolution of company housing
in the mill village. Arden Williams (M.A., summer 2002) studied the labor
history and occupational folklife of the mill. For her thesis project, she
prepared an exhibit plan to interpret the history of the mill and mill village.
Mark Barron (M.A., spring 2002) prepared an architectural study of the development
of the mill and its current buildings. Teresa Beyer will complete her thesis
in May 2004 on gender, family and community within the village with an emphasis
on workers' leisure activities. For her thesis project, she used materials
from the Banning Mill Documentation Collection to develop this web site.
(All research and projects completed by students can be found in the Center
for Public History Archives).
Please visit http://www.westga.edu/~history/pubHistory.htm for more information about Graduate assistantships at the Center for Public History and job opportunities in Public History.