————- ANNOUNCEMENT ————-
The Middle Georgia Archives and Digital Library of Georgia are pleased to announce the availability of a new online resource: The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960.

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/gastatefair

The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960 online collection consists of 151 black-and-white photographs, and four advertising fliers, from the
Georgia State Fair records held by the Middle Georgia Archives at the Macon-Bibb County Public Libraries. These photographs document the
evolution of the state fair in Macon from 1886 until 1960. A group portrait of the executive committee of the Georgia State Agricultural
Society is the earliest piece in the collection. The majority of the photographs depict county agricultural exhibits whose function was to
promote a variety of farm produce and homemade items. These displays include cotton, seeds, vegetables, preserved food, clothes, quilts,
furniture, and more. Exhibits from the early 1940s are of interest due to the appearance of slogans supporting the World War II home front
effort. One notable picture during this era shows a demonstration of a community canning project. Displays for agricultural associations and
state government agencies, such as the Highway Department and the Fish and Game Commission, can also be seen in this collection. Other
photographs capture fair culture beyond the exhibitions: 4-H clubs, farm machinery, livestock judging, amusement rides, the midway, side shows,
food booths, and parades. Macon mayor B. F. Merritt appears in several photographs along with other notable Macon citizens. Former Georgia
governor Marvin Griffin is also pictured.

The Georgia State Fair, Macon, 1886-1960 is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia in association with the Middle Georgia Archives as
part of Georgia HomePLACE. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services
through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

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The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to announce the availability
of a new online resource: The Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908).

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/telegraph

The Macon Telegraph Archive provides online access to early issues of
the Macon Telegraph ranging from its inception as a weekly newspaper in
1826, through the daily issues of the early twentieth century.
Consisting of over 50,000 newspaper pages, the archive provides
historical images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed
by date.

Launched just three years after the city of Macon was incorporated, the
Macon Telegraph provides an inside view into the initial years of the
city’s growth. Macon’s central location within the state provided the
paper with a unique perspective of the news through a period when middle
Georgia was both geographically and politically a focal point of the
state. During the early publication of the newspaper, Macon and its
surrounding areas were guided politically, economically, and racially by
the growth of cotton. Through that lens the paper provides historical
insight into the development of the state during the sectionalism of the
antebellum period, the devastation of the Civil War, and the rise of the
“New South” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Macon Telegraph Archive is a project of the Digital Library of
Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is
supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of
Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service,
a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.