DLG Expands Access to Architectural Records of Segregated Health Facilities

A collection of oversized technical drawings documenting the experiences of medical and mental health care in the mid-20th century segregated South are now freely available online through a partnership between Digital Library of Georgia and Kennesaw State University’s Department of Museums, Archives & Rare Books.

The drawings are from the Gregson and Ellis Architectural Drawings Collection, which is now available at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/gkj_gead. The collection features facilities located across Baldwin, Richmond, Treutlen, Ware, and Wayne counties in Georgia.

Helen Thomas, outreach archivist at Kennesaw State University Archives, regularly works with these materials, said architectural records such as these show construction and design, but also “reflect the society in which the buildings exist.”

““Since each set of drawings shows public facilities built in Georgia before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, these drawings demonstrate how buildings were constructed to segregate not only by the facility but also within facilities.”

Read the full announcement on the Digital Library of Georgia website: https://blog.dlg.galileo.usg.edu/?p=7709