Atlanta History Center

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The Swan House

The Atlanta History Center is located in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia. It is one of America's premier history museums.

The Atlanta History Museum was founded in 1926, and currently consists of 12 exhibits. There are also historic houses and gardens located on the grounds. The Kenan Research Center includes 3.5 million resources and a reproduction of historian Franklin Garrett's office.

The Museum has one of the largest collections of civil war artifacts in the world, and the Swan House and Tullie Smith Farm are located there.

1 Exhibits
2 Historic House Museums
3 History
4 Criticisms
5 Visiting Information
6 Accesibility
7 External links

[edit] Exhibits

The Atlanta History Center operates are three types of exhibits - permanent, temporary, and traveling. There are six permanent exhibits,

Centennial Olympic Museum
Turning Point: The American Civil War
Metropolitan Frontiers
Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South
Down the Fairway with Bobby Jones
Phillip Trammell Shutze: Atlanta Classicist, Connoisseur, and Collector

The current temporary exhibits are:

I Have A Dream Exhibition
Designs of the Times: Twentieth-Century Georgia Quilts
Old Money, New Money: the Rise of Southern Capitalism

The traveling exhibits include:

Native Lands: Indians in Georgia
The Power of the Press: the History of the Atlanta Daily World
Success & Segregation: Black Leadership under Jim Crow

The Kenan Research Center includes 3.5 million resources and a reproduction of historian Franklin Garrett's office.

[edit] Historic House Museums

The Tullie Smith Farm is an antebellum farm built by the Robert Smith family and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was origanaly a small farm with 11 slaves, comprising 200 acres. The farm was moved to the Atlanta History Center grounds in 1969, and it currently comprises the farm house, kitchen, blacksmith shop, smokehouse, double corncrib, log cabin, and barn, and several gardens. The barn contains several animals. The Tullie Smith Farm page on the Atlanta History Center website is located here.

The Victorian and Lee playhouses are miniature houses. The Lee playhouse is located between the McElreath Hall and the Tullie Smith Farm. It was donated to the Atlanta History Center in 1998. The Victorian playhouse is located beside the Boxwood Garden. It was donated to the Atlanta History Center in 1980, and has gone through 6 owners. The Playhouse page on the Atlanta History Center website is located here.

The Swan House, designed by Philip Trammell Shutze in the 1920s, is named for it's many swan designs. It is surrounded by the Boxwood Garden, based upon Italian gardens as created in 18th century England by Lord Burlington and William Kent. The front lanscape, two cloverleaf fountains and a terraced lawn, is one of the most photographed places in America. The Swan House page on the Atlanta History Center website is located here

The historic gardens are located next to the historic houses. The Cherry Sims garden contains Asian and native south-eastern plants. The Frank A. Smith Rhododendron Garden and the Swan House Boxwood Garden feature native plants. The Quarry Garden features pre-settlement plants only. The Tullie Smith Farm Garden features plants used in 1860s gardening, and includes two parts: a field, filled with profitable vegetables, and a smaller slave's garden. The garden page on the Atlanta History Center website is located here.

[edit] History

The Atlanta History was founded in 1926 by 14 men, when it was known as the Atlanta Historical Society. It was lead by Walter McElreath, who has McElreath Hall named after him. They collected arifacts and published bulletins, until 1986, when it received the DuBose Collection of Civil War artifacts. In 1989, the Society built the current museum to house the DuBose collection. In 1990, the Atlanta Historical Society was renamed the Atlanta History Museum. The 15 million dollar museum opened in 1993 with 5 exhibitions, including Metropolitan Frontiers. At the same time, a second, 11 million dollar expansion, finished in 1996, added two new permanent exhibits, Shaping Traditions: Folk Arts in a Changing South and Turning Point: The American Civil War and a 220 car parking deck. Later, the library was expanded, the gardens were reorganized, and a fourth permanent exhibit was added- Down the Fairway with Bobby Jones. In 2006, the Centennial Olympic Museum was finished. The history page on the Atlanta History Center website is located here.

[edit] Criticisms

The Atlanta History Center is unable to display all of its arifacts in the current museum. The Chick-Fil-A Cafe is closed on Sundays, although the main museum is open. It also has long waits during lunch hours. The admission price is more expensive than several other Atlanta landmarks, such as the World of Coca-Cola and the Cyclorama.[1]

[edit] Visiting Information

Hours: Monday - Saturday: 10 AM - 5:30 PM Sunday: 12 AM - 5:30

The Chick-Fil-A cafe is closed Sundays, and the Gardens close daily at 5:15. The Atlanta History Center is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day, and is open from 12 AM- 5:30 on Martin Luther King Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans' Day.

Kenan Research Center: Tuesday - Saturday: 10 AM - 5 PM Sunday - Monday: Closed McElreath Hall (Archives Gallery): Tuesday - Saturday: 10 AM - 5 PM Sunday - Monday: Closed

General admission includes the Atlanta History Museum, historic gardens and tours of the Swan House and Tullie Smith Farm.

Tickets are:

$15 for adults
$12 for seniors 65+ and students 13 and up
$10 for youths 4 to 12
Free for members and children under 3

[edit] Accesibility

Paved pathways through the historic gardens connect to the Swan House and the Tullie Smith Farm, but most paths are unpaved. Large-print books are available for a few exhibitions in the Atlanta History Museum and videos have subtitles. Maps are available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.