Two History Projects Get Local Honors

October 3, 2019

Two projects related to the local history of Savannah and the Georgia Southern History Department are being honored by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council and the USG Chancellor’s Office.   Susan Earl, Tom Kohler and Professor Robert Batchelor have received the 2019 Award for Excellence in Local History Advocacy for the “Waddie Welcome Archive—Savannah Signs Project.” (https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/savannah-signs/) The archive contains over 700 pictures of hand-painted African-American signs from Savannah, GA dating from the 1970’s to the present.  A Georgia Humanities Council grant made digitization possible. Autumn Johnson (Special Collections, Henderson Library) and photographer Emily Earl (Sulfur Studios) helped enable recent public exhibitions.  Retired professor of history John Duncan will also be receiving an award for his book The Showy Town of Savannah: The Story of the Architect William Jay (Mercer University Press, 2019), co-authored with Sandra Lee Underwood, a retired professor from St. Marys in Maryland.    

#africanamericanhistory, #blackhistory, #savannahhistory, #southernculture, #publicart, #telfairmuseums, #sulfurstudios, #waddiewelcome, #williamjay, #williamjayarchitect, + Georgia Southern