The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is dedicated to offering trustworthy resources that support K-12 teachers’ digital classrooms. Over the coming weeks GHS will be working diligently to provide educators and parents valuable tools and information to meet the needs of students during the Covid-19 school closures. The “Digital Resources for Georgia’s Students” blog series will explore GHS’s extensive catalog of online resources for learning Georgia and American history and offer strategies for using them at home or in a digital classroom.

The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) preserves an unparalleled collection of Georgia history. The GHS collection includes millions of manuscripts, and thousands of photographs, architectural drawings, rare and non-rare books, maps, portraits, and artifacts. Although the GHS Research Center is not currently accessible, many of GHS collection items are available via the GHS Digital Image Catalog.

While not a complete representation of the entire archival collection, the Digital Image Catalog contains a wide variety of digitized resources including photographs, prints, artifacts, portraits, and other types of primary source collection materials.

Teachers may use the Digital Image Catalog to find materials to teach with primary sources specific to Georgia and American history. The Catalog is also an excellent option for students to conduct research using primary sources.

Searching the Digital Image Catalog

The following search tools enable you to find primary source materials from GHS collections.

• The Keyword Search allows you to perform a general search across multiple fields. This search tool works best when using a few, very specific terms. (Go here for more Keyword Search tips)
• The Advanced Search can help you be more specific with your search. You can search for a word or phrase within a particular search category or use multiple categories to further narrow down your search results.
• The Random Images feature is a great way to just browse our collections.

Understanding the Catalog Record

For each item in the Catalog there is a record that provides source information including collection name, object type, item title, description, and date. Clicking on the thumbnail images in the catalog record allows you to view a larger version of the image.

Using Finding Aids

Items in the Digital Image Catalog are typically part of a larger collection. To find out more information about a collection you can check out the GHS Archival Collection Finding Aids.  The Finding Aids provide information such as the collection’s creator(s), biographical or contextual information related to the collection, and the scope and content of the collection.

Digitized Primary Sources in Blog Posts

If the Digital Image Catalog seems challenging, but you are still interested in exploring items from GHS collections check out the GHS Collection Highlights blog and explore collection items based on themes. The blog series highlights the history behind each item and how items relate to Georgia and American history.

This week the Collection Highlights blog focuses on items related to President Franklin Roosevelt’s impact on the state of Georgia in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of his death on April 12, 1945, at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. Through digitized primary sources, you will learn about New Deal programs that impacted Georgia through the Works Progress Administration including a photo of the Chatham County Bookmobile (part of the Library Extensions program in 1940) and a photo of women preparing lunches for school children for the Nutritional Lunch Program in 1939.