Special Collections News

“Poppies: Women, War, Peace” will open at the Hargrett Gallery of the University of Georgia Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries June 18.

Part of the observance to mark the centennial end of the First World War, the exhibit also pays homage to Moïna Belle Michael, originally from Monroe, who was instrumental in ensuring the red poppy flower became a symbol to remember the victims and veterans of war. Michael was inspired in her quest by the war poem ‘In Flanders Field’ written by Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae in 1915.

Wayne Flynt, professor emeritus in the department of history at Auburn University, is the author of eleven books, and one of the most recognized and honored scholars of Southern history, politics, and religion. His latest, published in 2017, is Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee. He has also published his memoir Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, in which he writes about his experiences in the Civil Rights movement.

Tyler Ortel, a student audiovisual technician in the Walter J. Brown Media Archives, was awarded first place in the UGA Student Employee of the Year Awards, sponsored by the Career Center and Office of Student Affairs. 

Ortel, an entertainment and media studies major in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications, has been employed by the Brown Media Archives for almost two years, and he has completed digitization of hundreds of hours of film, audio, and videotape in that time. This work includes inspecting archival materials to assess the condition, performing minor conservation treatments when necessary, and playing the materials on analog playback machines connected to specialized converters and adapters to capture preservation-quality digital signals. 

Friday evening, Irish poet Paul Muldoon will give a free public reading and musical performance at the 40 Watt Club to close the year-long 30th anniversary celebration of the UGA Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.



Earlier in the day, the Hargrett Library will host a display of books of poetry from its private press collection including Encheiresin Naturae, an edition of Paul Muldoon’s crown of sonnets written to accompany the wood engravings by Barry Moser.

This one-day exhibit June 2 will highlight some of the more fragile and rare items held by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Some of the items include: Babylonian clay tablets, 17th-century Persian manuscript of the Mathnawi, Reed Creek collection of Dahlonega gold coins, original Constitution of the Confederate States of America, list of Georgia settlers recorded by the Trustees for Establishing the Colony, and a 1489 edition of St. Augustine's De civitate dei.

The materials will be in the Hargrett Galleries 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Also, enjoy a “sneak-peek” of the upcoming exhibitions War of Words a look at propaganda posters from the First World War.

Parking is available in the Hull Street Deck.

Is America better served by a free trade agenda or protectionist measures? Author C. Donald Johnson will examine the history of trade politics, the focus of his new book from Oxford University Press, in a lecture on Tuesday, April 17 at 4 p.m. in the large event space of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.

Can the American Congress be ethical in an age of intense partisan warfare? Princeton University professor and CNN political analyst Julian E. Zelizer will take up the topic of ethics in Congress on Thursday, April 5 at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.

Rodney Mills and Michele Caplinger share observations of the changing face of the Georgia Music scene with the director of the UGA Music Business Program, David Barbe.

The April 12 program will begin at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Russell Special Collections Libraries, followed by a small reception with a display of artifacts from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame collection.

Mills served as chief engineer at Lefevre Sound Studios, engineered and produced at Atlanta’s Studio One before forming his own recording company. He has earned over 50 gold and platinum records for engineering, producing, and mastering and was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

The University of Georgia Libraries have suspended tours and community events in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries through March 29.

The decision is in accordance with the University System of Georgia decision to suspend classes at UGA and other universities amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The building houses the operations of the Libraries’ three special collections units, the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, and Brown Media Archive. Research activities will continue by appointment only.

In addition, the Georgia Capitol Museum, a unit of the Russell Library at the Capitol in Atlanta, is closed for tours.

For updates, visit libs.uga.edu.

What do the U.S. Navy, the National School Lunch Program, and the former Soviet Union have in common? Why, peanuts of course!