Project History

Geographic Scope

Bibliography

Research & Reports

About the Collector

Valdosta State University
Archives and Special Collections

External Resources

Georgia Archives

The Georgia Archives is the official repository of archival records for the U.S. state of Georgia.

Folklife Digital Library of Georgia

The Digital Library of Georgia is a gateway to Georgia's history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, government documents, newspapers, maps, audio, video, and other resources.

New Georgia Encyclopedia

A program of the Georgia Humanities Council in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, and the Office of the Governor.

South Georgia Folklife Digital Library of Georgia

The South Georgia Folklife Collection Digital Library of Georgia website includes both published and unpublished materials reflecting ten years of field documentation and public programs from 1996-2006 which document traditional culture drawn primarily from the southern third of Georgia.

Georgia Stories

This website supports the Georgia Social Studies curriculum for 8th grade students and is for anyone interested in Georgia history. The site complements the Georgia Stories video series produced by Georgia Public Broadcasting Education.

Vanishing South Georgia Photography by Brian Brown

Vanishing South Georgia exists primarily to bring attention to the myriad forms of vernacular architecture once common throughout the region. Many of these structures were built during the sharecropping and tenant farming eras, and as a result have long ago been abandoned.

American Turpentine Farmers Association minute books, 1936-1999

The American Turpentine Farmers Association Minute Books, 1936-1999 collection offers a glimpse into the pine gum turpentine and rosin farming industry. The collection includes over eight hundred pages of the organization's board of directors meeting minutes, which document over sixty years of ATFA history.

Blues in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley Emory University

In this multimedia presentation, Steve Bransford collects the field recordings and photographs of George Mitchell. Bransford combines original documentary footage of area musicians with contextualizing quotations from related scholarship to offer an introduction to the rich and varied blues traditions of the Lower Chattahoochee Valley.

Finding Aids

This finding aid itemizes the contents of the South Georgia Folklife Collection, housed in the Archives and Special Collections of Odum Library at Valdosta State University. This multi-genre and multi-format ethnographic collection is an outgrowth of the South Georgia Folklife Project, founded by folklorist and ethnomusicologist Dr. Laurie Kay Sommers in 1996. It reflects ten years of field documentation and public programs from 1996-2006. Highlights of the collection include Southeast Georgia Sacred Harp, Okefenokee Music Survey, Flint River fisheries, Traditions of Turpentiners, Folkwriting (Lessons on Place, Heritage and Traditions for the Georgia Classroom), online exhibits, and a radio archives of documentary programs originally broadcast on Georgia Public Radio and other public radio affiliates.

The SGF collection includes more than 350 field sound and video recordings (both music and oral interviews), over 1500 photographs, manuscripts, fieldnotes, books, commercial recordings, and vertical file materials from a wide array of genres. Although the collection is multi-genre, music materials predominate. Only a portion of these materials are currently available online. For more information about the collection, or to arrange an appointment, please contact the VSU Archivist. For additional information on the collection, see below.

Browse the Folklife Collection on Archon

COLLECTION SERIES

The following links direct to brief overviews of each of the series (assigned unique PRJ or "project" numbers)

Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections