Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

In 1848, William and Ellen Craft (1824-1900; c. 1826-c. 1891) escaped from slavery in Macon, Georgia. Ellen, who was born in Clinton, Georgia, could pass for white and disguised herself as a wealthy, physically ill enslaver traveling North for medical treatments; William accompanied her as his "master's" devoted, enslaved valet; both traveled openly by train, steamship, and carriage to arrive in free Philadelphia on Christmas Day.  

Digital libraries of primary sources enrich our understanding of the sheer diversity of the American experience.

Asheesh Kapur Siddique, assistant professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is a historian of early America and the early modern Atlantic world and is currently completing a book about knowledge and governance in the early modern British empire.

2021 Georgia Writers Hall of Fame inductee Pearl Cleage will be in conversation with Valerie Boyd, Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence and Associate Professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. A Q&A will follow the conversation. 

Clarence Major, one of the 2021 inductees to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, will read selections from two works, The Lurking Place and Dirty Bird Blues (2022). Following the reading, Major will be in conversation with author John Beckman, who wrote the introduction for Dirty Bird Blues. A Q&A will follow. 

In 2026, the United States will mark the 250^th anniversary of its founding. In anticipation of this event, the University of Georgia Press has developed the Georgia Open History Library: From Colony to Statehood in the New Union. This resource provides free digital access to 45 out-of-print volumes focused on Georgia from the colony’s founding through the American Revolution.  

This family day event is now virtual!

Explore our new exhibit, Drinkable Water in Georgia, through exhibit photos, crafts, experiments, and interactive online activities hosted on our Family Day website. For more information, visit our event page on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/2x0lvBVCP

This event is made possible with support from the Stephen E. Draper Center and Archives for the Study of Water Law and Policy.

Join us for the 2021 Lillian Smith Book Awards Ceremony, which will be held virtually on September 5, 2021, at 2 p.m. ET. The Lillian Smith Book Awards are sponsored by the Southern Regional Council, University of Georgia Libraries, DeKalb County Public Library/The Georgia Center for the Book, and Piedmont College.

The LSBA committee is proud to award the 2021 Lillian Smith Book Award to:

From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-first Century by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen

Seen/Unseen is a portrait of the complex network that created, held, and sustained a community of the enslaved. It documents the people kept in bondage by the Cobb-Lamar family, one of the wealthiest and most politically prominent families in antebellum America, labored in households and on plantations that spanned Georgia. Christopher R. Lawton, Laura E. Nelson, and Randy L.

The Hargrett Library invites you and your family on a virtual exploration of our current exhibit “The Hargrett Hours: Exploring Medieval Manuscripts”. Travel back in time on our family day website, which features medieval story time, crafts, and a virtual exhibit tour. Discover the magic of manuscript creation and medieval life. Visit the Family Day website.