Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection

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.

The James U. Steele Vintage Broadcast Microphone Collection is one of the most comprehensive collections of American made microphones from the first half of the 20th century.

Since the birth of broadcast radio in 1906, the microphone has been the centerpiece of emerging technologies that allowed the human voice to be heard live by vast audiences. Many microphones became icons of the radio and television industry, including the RCA 44 and 77 series microphones which seemed ubiquitous in the early television era, and the Shure 55 series, dubbed “The Elvis Microphone” for its frequent appearance on stage with Elvis Presley.

A popular exhibit of microphones has debuted online via the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection. In displays at the Russell Special Collections Libraries room allows for only a portion of the Steele Microphone Collection but the  online exhibit shows the entire collection and puts the microphones in more historical context.

In addition to a look at the advent of broadcasting history and evolution of the microphone, biographical information on the collection creator, the late James "Jim" U. Steele, is provided. 

https://digilab.libs.uga.edu/scl/exhibits/show/steel_vintage_mics

Amateur films and filmmaking will be the stars of the day Oct. 21 when National Home Movie Day 2017 will be observed  in Athens at the UGA Special Collections Libraries.

National Home Movie Day is a worldwide celebration of amateur films and filmmaking, held annually in October.  The event provides an opportunity for attendees to bring in their home movies, learn more about their own family films, how to care for films and videotapes, and how home movies have helped capture personal history.

The event will be 2-4 p.m. at the Richard b. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries, 300 S. Hull Street, on the University of Georgia campus.  Free parking is available in the Hull Street parking deck. This year’s event is being sponsored by the University of Georgia Libraries’ Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.

An extraordinary educator who took over operations of the family farm after his father 's death, Andrew Avery helped create the Decatur County Peanutorama, highlighting the crop and the surrounding county's contribution to its marketing.

Avery’s family has donated his papers to the University of Georgia Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, including correspondence, photographs, printed material, notes, legal documents, plats, and various ephemera.  Of note is the scrapbook documenting farm improvements he made for the Atlanta Constitution's Plant-to-Prosper contest of 1938, which he won, as well as many photographs of schools he was involved with in southwest Georgia.

The Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries at the University of Georgia will host its bi-annual reception celebrating new exhibitions April 13 at
5:30 p.m. The event will include live music, spotlight tours, light refreshments and gallery games. The reception is free and open to the public.

Exhibitions highlighted are: “Necessary Words & Images: 70 Years of the Georgia Review,” “Slavery at the University of Georgia,” “Equality Under the Law: History of the Equal Rights Amendment,” “A Championship Tradition: The NCAA Tennis Tournament in Athens,” "The Art of the Press Kit," and “On the Stump: What Does it Take to Get Elected in Georgia?” and “Olympic Lens: Exploring the 1996 Atlanta Games”

Cinema Politique, a program which aims to introduce and discuss international and national political developments on the basis of documentaries and movies, will begin a trial run at the University of Georgia Jan. 18.

Led by Cas Mudde of the School of Public and International Affairs, and Mary Miller, Peabody Awards Collection archivist with the UGA Libraries, the series will draw largely from the vast Peabody Awards Collection, and will take place once a month. A UGA faculty member will introduce each film, lead a discussion afterwards and make additional reading suggestions. January’s selection is the 1939 classic Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.