Links to Atlanta History Resources on the Web

Atlanta history has captured my imagination (off and on) for many years, but Atlanta's slash-and-burn, headlong rush toward the future
(that and some pretty significant vandalism during the middle of the 19th century) seemed to leave behind scarcely more than an oral
tradition of the prior generation.  To make matters worse, the scant physical remnants of Atlanta's past often proved difficult to locate
given our city's obsessive/compulsive penchant for changing street names (even to the point of assigning different names to different
parts of the same street).  These and other civic idiosyncrasies have made my quest for erudition a frustrating one - until recently.

Whether it is because my career is now in commercial real estate or the fact that the mundane becomes more invigorating in middle
age, I can't really say.  But what I can say for certain is that the resources now available through the internet have done more to
illuminate the physical features (both natural and man-made) of this city and its past than any I have found before.

Below are some Web sites where one can view some truly stunning historical photographs of, and interesting information on,
commercial buildings in downtown Atlanta.  I have provided multiple links to the same sites in anticipation of the inevitable changes in
URL.  If one link fails, maybe my instructions will lead you to the same source:
1.  The Charles W. Cushman Photographic Collection at the Indiana University Archive's Digital Library Program.  
These are simply some of the most amazing photographs of downtown Atlanta from this time period (1951) that I have ever seen.  This
collection contains the only true color photographs that I have ever seen of the famous Kimball House.  (I can finally forgive Atlanta for
tearing it down ... sort of.)  The 2 night scenes (notice the times) are phenomenal.

If this link doesn't work, go to: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/siteGuide/siteMap.jsp  Scroll down to "Browse", select
"Location", scroll down to "United States" and click on "Georgia".  

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/result.do?query=state%3A%22Georgia%22&action=browse
2.  The Atlanta Time Machine Web Site:  The best "then-and-now" photographs that I have ever seen anywhere and this
guy even put a link to maps of each location.  He's also got a lot of other great historical goodies tucked in there.   This guy is good.

http://atlantatimemachine.com/index.htm
3.  Capturing the Phoenix: Atlanta Area Photographs from the Lane Brothers and Tracy O'Neal
Collections from the Web site of Georgia State University Library's "Special Collections & Archives - Photographic Collections".  
Enter a search term (like: "Alabama Street") and select "Both collections".  The linked site will include online photographs wherever
there is a thumbnail photograph; just click on the thumbnail and see the full sized view of the photograph.  (Here's a tip.  Several of the
thumbnails show only a portion of the actual photograph, and it sometimes appears as if that portion is chosen completely at random,
so it's not often clear just what the complete picture will show.)  

http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/pages/pages.asp?ldID=105&guideID=552&ID=3961

If these links don't work you can try accessing each collection individually at the following or through a word search:

Lane Brothers Photographers Collection: http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/pages/pages.asp?ldID=105&guideID=552&ID=3964

Tracy O'Neal Collection: http://www.library.gsu.edu/spcoll/pages/pages.asp?ldID=105&guideID=552&ID=3967
4.  Aerial photograph collage from 1949 - this is the link to the Index Page from which you may click on any of the
numbered squares and view an aerial photograph of surprising density from 1949.   I actually stumbled on one of these high resolution
close-ups while looking for a current aerial of the Five Points section of downtown.

Notice that the construction of Plaza Park is just getting underway, and the land for the expressway is slowly being assembled (which
doesn't seem to have affected the traffic at The Varsity).

If you venture north to Buckhead you can have a look at the Cherokee Town & Country Club on West Paces Ferry when it was still a
private residence.

(Beware: you can absolutely gut the better part of a Saturday afternoon on this one.)

http://www.library.gsu.edu/maps/aerialatlas1949/html/map.htm
5.  An Overhead View of Atlanta Courtesy of the USGS aerial photographs collection, circa Jan 27, 1993.  We've made a lot of
progress since some 3 years before the Olympics.  

http://jolomo.net/atlanta/aerial/index.html
6.  The Library of Congress' Geography & Map Reading Room:
If this link fails, this may also be found by going to this page of The Library of Congress's Web site where you can go to Especially for
Researchers and then to Research Centers then select Geography & Map.  From the subsequent page, you select Online Map
Collections from the "Digital Collections" heading.  From there select Cities and Towns and figure it out from there.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/cityhome.html
5. Georgia's Virtual Vault: Digital Treasures from the Georgia Archives:
A great online cache of historical artifacts digitized for and sponsored by the office of Georgia Secretary of State, this collection has
some quirky indexing, but it appears to be adding material regularly and of better quality than I recall from just a couple of years ago.

http://content.sos.state.ga.us/index.php
8. Library of Congress’s Prints & Photographs Online Catalog: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

Simply search for “Atlanta”

For a look at 22 versions of the pictures taken by George N. Barnard in the fall of 1864, you can search for “Atlanta Campaign, 1864”, or
try this link: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=Atlanta%20Campaign,%201864,

Barnard was the official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office, and he came to Atlanta shortly after it fell.  While he was here, he
took a series of detailed photographs of the city following the siege bombardment and the destruction right before surrender.  A
surprising number of structures remained however, and his photographs offer the only (and final) gimps of the city before the Union
army finished making a mess of the place.  

Incidentally, these photographs were taken in a stereo format that were later made into “stereoview” cards that could be viewed as 3D
images with a device called a “stereoscope”.  I have taken these and others and converted them to “Anaglyphic” images that you can
view with those red and blue glasses that we used to use to watch 3D movies.  I have posted them here:

Atlanta in Amazing Anaglyphic 3D  
http://picasaweb.google.com/Robert.C.Hill.III/AtlantaInAmazingAnaglyphic3D?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7zvIakx4n9PQ&feat=directlink

I have also blasphemously colorized some of Barnard's photographs and shamelessly posted them here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106440582852968435094/AtlantaFall1864InColor?
authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL7_2pry5r30jwE&feat=directlink