Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Athens, Ga. -- As players and fans prepare for the start of a new football season, the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library invites them to look back at seasons past in the new exhibit “Fighting Spirit: Wally Butts and UGA Football, 1939-1950.” Opening Friday, Aug. 31 in the Rotunda Gallery of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries, the display will explore the team during the tumultuous years surrounding World War II.

World War I (1914-1918) was different than any previous war. It was a total war that required all members of the nation to be involved in the war effort. All of the resources of the state were mobilized for war. Ultimately, 65,000,000 soldiers from 30 countries fought in World War I and tens of millions citizens across the world would be involved in the conflict one way or another.

James Forman, Yale law professor, and Nancy MacLean, history professor at Duke University, are the 2018 recipients of the Lillian Smith Book Awards.

The Southern Regional Council established the Lillian Smith award after Smith's 1966 death. Internationally acclaimed as author of the controversial novel, Strange Fruit (1944), Lillian Smith was the most outspoken of white, mid-20th century Southern writers on issues of social and racial injustice. Today the University of Georgia, the Georgia Center for the Book and Piedmont College join the SRC in presenting the awards. http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/lilliansmith/index.html

“Poppies: Women, War, Peace” will open at the Hargrett Gallery of the University of Georgia Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries June 18.

Part of the observance to mark the centennial end of the First World War, the exhibit also pays homage to Moïna Belle Michael, originally from Monroe, who was instrumental in ensuring the red poppy flower became a symbol to remember the victims and veterans of war. Michael was inspired in her quest by the war poem ‘In Flanders Field’ written by Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae in 1915.

Friday evening, Irish poet Paul Muldoon will give a free public reading and musical performance at the 40 Watt Club to close the year-long 30th anniversary celebration of the UGA Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.



Earlier in the day, the Hargrett Library will host a display of books of poetry from its private press collection including Encheiresin Naturae, an edition of Paul Muldoon’s crown of sonnets written to accompany the wood engravings by Barry Moser.

This one-day exhibit June 2 will highlight some of the more fragile and rare items held by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Some of the items include: Babylonian clay tablets, 17th-century Persian manuscript of the Mathnawi, Reed Creek collection of Dahlonega gold coins, original Constitution of the Confederate States of America, list of Georgia settlers recorded by the Trustees for Establishing the Colony, and a 1489 edition of St. Augustine's De civitate dei.

The materials will be in the Hargrett Galleries 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Also, enjoy a “sneak-peek” of the upcoming exhibitions War of Words a look at propaganda posters from the First World War.

Parking is available in the Hull Street Deck.

Rodney Mills and Michele Caplinger share observations of the changing face of the Georgia Music scene with the director of the UGA Music Business Program, David Barbe.

The April 12 program will begin at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Russell Special Collections Libraries, followed by a small reception with a display of artifacts from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame collection.

Mills served as chief engineer at Lefevre Sound Studios, engineered and produced at Atlanta’s Studio One before forming his own recording company. He has earned over 50 gold and platinum records for engineering, producing, and mastering and was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

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.

“White Ribbon Army: Women’s Crusade Against the Saloon” takes a look at the Temperance Movement of the 19th century.

The exhibit, in the galleries of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library through May, draws material from several collections and is sponsored by the Lucy Hargrett Draper Center & Archives for the Study of the Rights of Women in History & Law (circa 1550-1920).

As the United States became urbanized and industrialized, many became concerned with social issues such as poverty and the perception of declining morals. A series of social and religious reforms, including the Temperance Movement, swept the country.

The 2018 UGA Women's History Month keynote address will be presented by Andrea J. Ritchie. Her talk is co-sponsored by the Lucy Hargrett Draper Center and Archives for the Study of the Rights of Women in History and Law.

Andrea Ritchie is a black lesbian immigrant and police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, and advocacy around criminalization of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color over the past two decades. She recently published Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color now available from Beacon Press.

Ritchie is a nationally recognized expert and sought after commentator on policing issues. 

She will speak March 1 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Russell Special Collections Libraries. It is open free to the public.