digATL | The Digital Atlanta Portal

The September 1990 announcement that Atlanta would host the 1996 Olympics surprised and thrilled many Atlantans. The ’96 Summer Games would mark the 100th anniversary of the modern games, and Athens, Greece, home of the modern Olympiad, had also put in a bid. But Atlanta lawyer Billy Payne was determined. Ultimately dubbed by the President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Samaranch as the “most exceptional” Olympics thirty years later, the lasting legacy for Atlanta is still complicated. Was hosting the Games ultimately just an opportunistic business venture, or was it motivated by a real desire to show off “the city too busy to hate”? Between a serial bomber, a charismatic lawyer, and a city searching for its identity, the conclusion is still mixed to this day.

This online exhibit contains original materials donated to GSU Library’s Special Collections & Archives. These items are comprised of correspondence, legal documents, notes and research materials, photographs, and artifacts belonging to the late Civil Rights leader Lonnie King, Jr. They chronicle his life, career and involvement with the Atlanta Student Movement, NAACP, Morehouse College, and Georgia State University.

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. More content is expected to be added to this collection in the future.

Creative Loafing is an alternative newspaper covering arts, entertainment, music, news, and politics in metro Atlanta. The paper was founded in 1972 by Deborah and Elton (Chick) Eason and expanded to other cities in the 1980s and 1990s under Creative Loafing, Inc. It went through various ownerships, starting in 2009, before being purchased by Ben Eason, son of the founders, bringing the publication back to the family as Creative Loafing, LLC, in 2017. Creative Loafing Inc. was once the nation’s second-largest publisher of alternative weeklies. Creative Loafing continues to be published online as a regularly updated website, with special print editions published occasionally throughout the year. This Digital Collection currently includes all issues of Creative Loafing published between the inaugural issue of June 3, 1972 and October 1973. Additional issues will be added on an ongoing basis.

The Lucy Hargrett Draper Collections on Women’s Rights, Advocacy and the Law document state and national efforts to achieve equality for women. They include the Lucy Hargrett Draper U.S. Equal Rights Amendment (1921-1982) Research Collection, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on Feminist Activism in U.S. Politics, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on the Creation of Women’s Archives, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on the Second U.S. Women’s Movement (1963-1982), the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on Institutional Reforms for Women and the U.S. Military, 1970-1984, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Artifact Collection, and the Lucy Hargrett Draper Personal Papers. 

Photographic collection contains images of AT&T, Atlanta Gas Light Company, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, Rich’s, Shriners Yaarab Temple, and the Southeastern Fair while other images illustrate the development of Atlanta’s transportation system. During World War II, the studio produced photographic documentation of the Works Progress Administration, the Office of Price Administration, the Office of Civilian Defense, and the United Service Organization. The collection depicts Atlanta’s social and political changes with images of preparation for World War II, African Americans registering to vote, Ku Klux Klan rallies at Stone Mountain, political campaigns, sports events, labor union activities, motion picture premiers (including Gone with the Wind), disasters, and individual portraits. Notable public figures include Ivan Allen, Ellis Arnall, William B. Hartsfield, Roy LeCraw, Lester Maddox, Margaret Mitchell, Franklin D. Roosevelt, E.D. Rivers, Carl Sanders, Eugene Talmadge, and Robert W. Woodruff.

Collection contains 258,100 (196,800 4×5 inch and 61,300 2 1/2 inch) acetate negatives which are housed in 43,486 envelopes. The collection spans the years 1920 to 1976 with the bulk of the negatives dating from 1939 to 1975. Some of the images are copy negatives of photographs which date as early as 1864.

The images are organized into six series (1) Corporate bodies, (2) Geographic places, (3) Events, (4) Portraits, (5) Things, and (6) Miscellaneous-sized negatives. The collection consists of photographic negatives and prints of the Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers (Atlanta, Ga.) and its predecessor the Lane Brothers Photo News Service from ca. 1920-1976. Early materials (1920’s-1939) include glass plate negatives and photographs taken by Jack Lane and his brother W.C. Lane as freelance photographers for the Atlanta News, other newspapers, and wire services. The bulk of the collection consists of images of the Atlanta, Georgia area documenting its economic growth, social changes, and political activities over the years.

Also included is an inventory of unscanned negatives in the Lane Brothers photographic collection.

Copyright to items in this collection is owned by Georgia State University Library. Items may be used for scholarship, educational, and personal use. Additional uses will require permission of the rights holder.