Atlanta Fulton Public Library Collection, 1850s-1980s
This digital collection contains digitized versions of items that are owned by the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library. Currently, the collection contains historical maps, dating from the 1850s to the 1980s, of Atlanta and the surrounding area. The maps were created by a variety of entities and for various purposes.
Historic Atlanta Guidebook Images, 1898-1907
The images in this collection, which date from 1898 and 1907, show buildings, streets, homes, and parks in the city of Atlanta. The images were originally published in two books: Hand Book of the City of Atlanta: A Comprehensive Review of the City's Commercial, Industrial, and Residential Conditions, 1898, and Atlanta Standard City Guide: A New and Complete Handbook of Atlanta with Map, Panorama, and 80 Views, 1907, which are accessible through the HathiTrust Digital Library.
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Collection
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), formed in 1965, is the principal rapid-transit system in metro Atlanta. This collection includes a selection of historical maps and publications documenting transit station plans and the impact of MARTA on Atlanta communities. These items are owned by MARTA and were digitized by GSU Library.
Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1949 Aerial Mosaic and Photographs
The 1949 Aerial Mosaic and Photographs in the Planning Atlanta collection consist of 124 individual aerial photographs of Atlanta and a unified mosaic composite of each aerial. Each aerial photograph and the mosaic composite can be viewed as overlays in both Google Maps and Google Earth and can also be downloaded as a GeoTiff image file. The mosaic overlay serves as a detailed record of Atlanta at its most densely populated point in time. It also provides a portrait of the city as a compact urban environment in which the central business district is the clear economic nucleus and where the urban fringes only hint toward the suburbanization that would later turn Atlanta’s urban form inside out.
Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1930s-1990s - City Planning Maps
The City Planning Maps in the Planning Atlanta collection consist of over 1,500 maps from the City of Atlanta, Atlanta Regional Commission, MARTA, and other agencies. About half of the collection consists of sheet maps and the other half are planning maps from within the Planning Atlanta collection’s publications. This collection of maps provides a vivid portrait of the city’s built environment and depicts structural conditions of buildings, segregated neighborhoods, land use patterns, clearance areas for urban renewal projects, proposed plans for redevelopment and outlined areas to be cleared for highway construction.
Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1930s-1990s, Photographs
Photographs in the Planning Atlanta collection illustrate many planning activities, ideas, and events that are depicted, described, discussed, and written about in many of the Planning Atlanta maps, publications, and oral histories. These photographs are included in this collection, in part, because they allow users of the Planning Atlanta collection to view actual images of planning activities that appear in abstract form in both the planning maps and publications.
Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1930s-1990s, Planning Publications
The City Planning Publications in the Planning Atlanta collection consist of over 300 publications from the City of Atlanta, Atlanta Regional Commission, MARTA, and other agencies. This collection of city planning publications, most of which relate to and build upon each other, provide highly detailed descriptive information at the neighborhood, city and regional levels. These city planning publications also provide contextual information that allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the maps and other material found within the Planning Atlanta Collection.
Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1930s-1990s, Population-Housing Data
The Population and Housing Data in the Planning Atlanta collection consists of 49 Population and Housing publications and datasets from the Atlanta Regional Commission. Compiled by the Atlanta Regional Commission, this unprecedented dataset provides regional, county, city/municipality, and census tract level demographic and housing estimates for nearly each year from 1955 to 2003. Originally a print-only dataset, the University Library digitized each volume and then partnered with Geographic Research, Inc. to extract all data tables in the series. Data from each Population and Housing volume can be downloaded in CSV and Excel formats. Additionally, full-text versions of each volume can be downloaded as PDFs.
Research Atlanta, Inc. Reports
Formed in 1971, Research Atlanta was a non-profit organization established to study public policy issues affecting the Atlanta metropolitan area. Research Atlanta served as Atlanta’s think tank for urban problems and published policy studies from 1971 to 2006 on major urban issues confronted by metropolitan Atlanta and placed Atlanta’s urban problems within a national context. During its 35 years of operation Research Atlanta produced numerous public policy studies on issues ranging from public school desegregation to creating a downtown cultural district. In 1992, Georgia State University agreed to assume responsibility for operating Research Atlanta. In 2006, Research Atlanta merged with the Regional Leadership Forum and the Metro Group to form what is now the Civic League for Regional Atlanta.
Works Progress Administration of Georgia Atlanta Maps
The Works Progress Administration of Georgia Atlanta Maps collection consists of several detailed map series of Atlanta from the late 1930s. These include the Report of the Real Property, Land Use, and Low income Housing Area Survey of metropolitan Atlanta (1940), a 1936-1938 Atlanta Cadastral Survey, and a partially incomplete series of Fulton County land use maps from 1937-1940. The Atlanta Cadastral Survey was made publicly available through a partnership between the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management and Georgia State University Library. This rare and highly detailed survey is housed in the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management’s map collection and was digitized by Georgia State University Library.
Georgia Government Documentation Project Oral Histories, 1971-2002
Planning Atlanta - A New City in the Making, 1930s-1990s, Oral Histories
The oral histories in the Planning Atlanta collection consist of audio recording and transcripts from interviews with current and former residents of three Atlanta neighborhoods: Thomasville, Buttermilk Bottoms, and Vine City. These three neighborhoods were, in varying capacities, affected by urban renewal during the 1960s and were often portrayed in dire terms by the media. In these interviews, residents share their experiences, recount stories of daily life, and provide a more balanced perspective on the past and current state of their neighborhoods.
Mike Trotter, June 9, 2009
Michael H. Trotter was born in Atlanta in 1936 and attended the Clark Howell School and later the Henry Grady High School. He trained at Harvard University's School of Law and was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1961. Mike Trotter is a leading corporate and finance attorney, and has been recognized in the Best Lawyers in America since 1998. Trotter's civic engagement has included establishing a number of committees and groups, including being a founding member of the Atlanta Action Forum, a committee comprised of civic minded businessmen working to resolve social problems facing Atlanta.
Digital Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.
Digital Library of Georgia
The Digital Library of Georgia is a GALILEO initiative based at the University of Georgia Libraries that collaborates with Georgia's Libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture, and life.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Library of Congress Digital Collections provides access to digitized American historical materials, and includes images, maps, manuscripts, prints, photographs, film, sound files, and legal materials.
Living Atlanta Oral History Recordings at the Atlanta History Center
The interviews in this collection cover a broad array of topics relevant to the history of Atlanta between World War I and World War II. Prominent subjects include race relations, segregation, popular music, baseball, neighborhoods, the Jewish community, police, healthcare, and education. Major events that are covered include the Great Fire of 1917, the 1906 Race Riot, and the 1916 Streetcar Strike. The Atlantans interviewed represent a broad cross section of society, including streetcar workers, musicians, professors, politicians, police chiefs, school teachers, railroad executives, and sports figures.
Walter P. Reuther Library Image Galleries: Urban Affairs and Planning
Collections focus on the history of Detroit from the late 19th century to the present, including such topics as urban development, social welfare, health care, education, politics, civil rights, women’s rights, and metropolitan Detroit communities.
Special Collections and Archives
Phone: (404) 413-2880
Fax: (404) 413-2881
E-Mail: archives@gsu.edu
Mailing Address:
Special Collections & Archives
Georgia State University Library
100 Decatur Street, SE
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3202
In Person:
Library South, 8th floor
Contact Lisa Vallen, Southern Labor Archivist for questions related to this topic.
Email: evallen@gsu.edu
Phone: 404-413-2886
Zoom Office Hours Wed 10-11 (see syllabus for the link)
