digATL | The Digital Atlanta Portal

Digital collection of material related to city planning and urban development in Atlanta. The collection consists of city planning maps, city planning publications, demographic data, photographs depicting planning activities, oral histories, and aerial photographs. Much of the Planning Atlanta material was created by the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Additionally, items from other agencies and entities, such as the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), are included. Planning Atlanta is a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funded project and seeks to move beyond the traditional digital library model of simply providing digital equivalents of tangible objects. This city planning focused collection provides free and open access to digitally transformed, dynamic, and engaging content with the goal of enhancing this material for educational and research uses. Many items in the collection have been transformed into digital objects that can be engaged with and manipulated. 

Aims to both preserve this unintentional archive as it was before Manuel’s Tavern underwent renovations in 2015 and provide a platform through which one might learn more about the individual items in this archive and even contribute to the knowledge about them. This project is the result of a collaboration via the Atlanta Studies Network, Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship, Georgia State University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and University Library, with additional contributions from the Savannah College of Art & Design in Atlanta and the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia. While some archives are carefully curated by experts with clear intentions and institutional resources supporting their creation, other archives are unintentional and organic collections of materials that have gathered in a corner of a city like driftwood on the beach.  One such example of the later type of archive are the walls of Manuel’s Tavern, which over the past half century have slowly evolved into a record of the local established political left that inhabited that space; where a generation of cops, soldiers, and politicians—who believed in a more representative democracy—gathered to eat pork chops in a neighborhood occupied by immigrants, hippies, and punks. And to this day neighbors still treat it like an extra living room, where they come to watch elections or play chess. The project has received both local coverage (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WABE, Creative Loafing, ArtsATL) as well as national coverage (New York Times). Note: All photographs, videos, and other materials hosted on this site are licensed CC BY NC.

Prepared by the Spring 2006 Preservation Planning students. This project, developed in a collaborative effort by the Atlanta Urban Design commission and GSU students, was designed to highlight the history of the proposed redevelopment nodes along the Beltline, which is an outer band railroad line encircling the city. The purpose was to identify the significance of the resources therein and their links to Atlanta’s history, providing assistance in the overall development process of the Beltline project.

Formed in 1971, Research Atlanta was a non-profit organization established to study public policy issues affecting the Atlanta metropolitan area. Research Atlanta served as Atlanta’s think tank for urban problems and published policy studies from 1971 to 2006 on major urban issues confronted by metropolitan Atlanta and placed Atlanta’s urban problems within a national context. During its 35 years of operation Research Atlanta produced numerous public policy studies on issues ranging from public school desegregation to creating a downtown cultural district. In 1992, Georgia State University agreed to assume responsibility for operating Research Atlanta. In 2006, Research Atlanta merged with the Regional Leadership Forum and the Metro Group to form what is now the Civic League for Regional Atlanta. 

Located in Midtown between Peachtree Street and Spring Street and constructed from September 1937 to June 1938, Rhodes Center was Atlanta’s first modern shopping center geared towards the automobile. This Historic Structure Report covers the historical significance of the property, conditions of the buildings, planning options for future use, stabilization of the property and on-going maintenance for the future. The purpose of this report is to provide a current assessment of the condition of the structures and to provide recommendations for needed repairs and options for future use.

Date created:
Fall 1990

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.