News From Around the South 9/22 – 9/29

Georgia: $1.1M Expansion Underway for Southern Museum

KENNESAW, Ga. — During a groundbreaking Friday, Mayor Mark Mathews said the city of Kennesaw is seeing another of its dreams fulfilled.

The Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History kicked off a $1.1 million project, which will add an 8,700-square-foot expansion to the museum’s research center that Mathews said has been in the works for several years.

“The Smithsonian declared this collection the best archaeological find from the Industrial Revolution they have ever seen,” he said. “This (project) will provide much needed archival space and improved public access to a museum collection that has grown significantly.”

The museum’s collection includes more than 45,000 rare photographs of southeastern railroads, an artifact collection from Glover Machine Works and thousands of southern railroad-related documents.

Richard Banz, executive director of the museum, is extremely proud of its collection.

“You can’t find a collection like this anywhere,” he said. “Our goal is to be the national center of southeastern railroad research.”

Banz said the collection outgrew the 50,000-square-foot museum years ago, resulting in many items remaining unseen by the public.

“Many of our artifacts have never been seen before,” he said. “We’re processing them now so they’ll be available when we open in March.”

Banz said the idea for to expansion came up in 2007, but the recession made it hard to receive funding.

“It was a real challenge dealing with things on the state side,” he said. “We had various problems with bidding, were repeatedly told our concept was over-designed, but it was all worth the wait.”

Banz expects the project to wrap up by March 17.

Of the $1.1 million, $500,000 is coming from a transportation project grant, and the remaining amount is coming from private funding through the Kennesaw Museum Foundation, Banz said.

Paul Chastain, president of the foundation, said this project is “a fine example of what a true public and private partnership can do.”

“We, as private citizens, have a heart to promote quality of life in this city,” he said Friday. “This foundation is the envy, in big letters, of every other organization in this state because of the work it has done to preserve this collection.”

Prime Contractors of Douglasville will be handling construction.

-Marietta Daily Journal

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CALIFORNIA: Confederate Flag Banned

   Starting in 2015 in the State of California, the confederate flag will no longer be for sale or on display in government buildings or  agencies.

The Governor of California Jerry Brown signed off on the new law prohibiting the sale or display of the confederate flag.

The bill, which is now a law in the State, was started by Democratic Assemblyman Isadore Hall of Compton. He said he was in the    gift shop of Capital Hill and saw a replica of the Confederate flag on sale and thought the state should avoid promoting symbols of    racism.
This law is for state and government officials, agencies and lawmakers only, so it stops short of banning the flag from personal citizens. Therefore, it doesn’t violate anyone’s free speech rights in this country.

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VIRGINIA: The Seedy Side of Richmond

Let’s imagine for a moment that Richmond’s population doubled or even tripled in a few months. Then add huge amounts of alcohol. Sound like fun? Now add a large number of guns. No subtract much of the male population and subtract even more arms and legs of the men that remain. Then throw out social rules. Finally, shake the whole thing like a snow globe.

What you would be left with would probably look something like Civil War Richmond.

In the newest episode of History Replays Today, The Richmond History Podcast, Ashley Luskey, park ranger at the Richmond National Battlefield Park, talks about the seedy side of the Capitol of the Confederacy. It is true that not everyone in Richmond became a prostitute, a drunk or a murderer (or any combination of the three), but the influx of an unseemly element in the city made folks adjust their perspective and actions.

Some of Richmond’s seedy side during the Civil War was focused in expected places like Shockoe Bottom, which at the time was the heart of the slave trading district (and is still a good place to find the occasional drunk person). But Luskey also talked about other areas that have shaken their old reputations and some yet like Sugar Bottom that is still known by its Civil Ware title.

richmond.com 

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