Special Collections in Ingram Library gathers, preserves, and publicly shares primary source to advance teaching, learning, scholarship, and community engagement in service to the University of West Georgia, the regional community, scholars, and members of the general public.
The distinctive primary source collections at the University of West Georgia's cover the topics of: Georgia's Political Papers and Political Oral History, Humanistic Psychology and Human Consciousness, West Georgia History & Culture, and the University Archives. Through these collections and through our work partnering with other community archives, Special Collections directly supports and enriches research, teaching, and learning at the University of West Georgia and promotes understanding and scholarship by members of the general public and academic communities.
Collection Strengths: Begun in the mid-1980s, Georgia’s Political Heritage Program is a growing collection of oral history interviews, and several associated manuscript collections, with prominent current and former Georgia political figures at the state and federal level. Notable collections are former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the late Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy, former U.S. Congressmen Bob Barr, Pat Swindall, and Mac Collins, and many other former Georgia state legislators. Interviews include key political figures such as Herman Talmadge, Andrew Young, Lester Maddox, Hosea Williams, and many individuals who have represented the West Georgia region during the critical civil rights era of the mid-20th century. Interviews are available on the Digital Library of Georgia website.
Collection Strengths: Notable among these collections are papers of scholars such as Sidney Jourard, who founded the American Association for Humanistic Psychology; Carmi Harari, who founded the Division of Humanistic Psychology within the American Psychology Association, and researcher and author William Roll, who was director of the Institute for Parapsychical Research at Duke University before coming to UWG and who has written extensively about poltergeists and psychical research. The papers of psychologist and University of Georgia professor Edith Weisskopf-Joelson, who studied schizophrenia, alienation, and logotherapy, are included here.
Collection Strengths: Collections include University and Carroll County, Georgia, oral histories, history of local civic, commercial, church and medical organizations, and family histories. Notable is the Benjamin M. Long collection from a local insurance agent who photographed many of Carrollton’s buildings from the 1920s to 1960s as well as keeping scrapbooks documenting local history.
Collection Strengths: Papers and memorabilia of alumni, faculty, and administrators of what began as the 4th District A&M School, then the two-year West Georgia College which expanded to four-year, then the State University of West Georgia and now the University of West Georgia. Focuses on the historical record of the university, particularly its presidents and vice presidents, notable faculty and student life. The first president kept a long-running series of scrapbooks, as did the later public relations office of the college. Collection includes master’s theses of West Georgia students.
The types of materials within archival collection areas typically include formats such as original correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, logbooks, ledgers, photographs, drawings, and other. The department does not collect secondary or reproduction source materials such as microfilm or photocopies of original materials.
Rare books, rare maps, and other printed materials such as broadsides, posters, and flyers are also collected if they pertain to the Collection Areas.
Responsibility for collecting materials for Special Collections rests among faculty members of the department who, to complement their own subject expertise, often consult faculty in other relevant academic specialties. The Head of Special Collections is responsible for the general supervision and coordination of collection development activities. Collections whose source has an already established collection at another repository will not be accepted in accordance with the ethical standards of the archival profession.
Donation is the usual method of acquisition for the Special Collections, which solicits gifts of materials from individuals and organizations. University alumni, faculty members, and other members of the university community provide assistance in identifying potential donors.