The Camera: Eye of History
This ambrotype was created through a similar process to a daguerreotype although an ambrotype produced a negative image that became visible when the glass plate was backed by dark material. This particular ambrotype is of Nicholas Wesley Miller and his bride, Sadie Little Miller. Their marriage was recorded in Harris County on August [...]
The FDA: Food, Drugs, and Regulations
The meat counter at Rogers Store in LaGrange, c. 1940. TCA Collections The history of the Food and Drug Administration is also the history of consumer protection as applied to food, drugs, and other products. The story began long before the letters, “F”, “D”, and “A” were household words. Scientists working to [...]
Pe-kahn or Pee-can: America’s Original Nut
Many of the foods featured in our latest exhibit, Gather ‘Round the Table: Troup County’s Culinary History, became Southern favorites after long and convoluted journeys from exotic origins. That is not the case with pecans. A colorized photograph of a praliniere sitting in Jackson Square in New Orleans, 1929. Image courtesy Louisiana Historical [...]
Beyond the Region of Bread: Early Settler and Antebellum Cuisine in Troup County
"Sowing and Reaping," was printed in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper on May 23, 1863 in response to the bread riot in Richmond, VA. Protests-turned-riots occurred in a number of cities across the South, including Mobile, AL, Columbus, Macon, Atlanta, and Augusta. Image courtesy Library of Congress The South of the early nineteenth [...]
A Fly-By of History: B-29 Superfortress
A photograph of Longshore in the blister of a B-29 Superfortress. TCA Collections donated by Guy Longshore. Guy Longshore, of LaGrange, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was a Command Gunner on a B-29 Superfortress stationed in Guam and Saipan from 1944 to 1945. As with [...]
Pimento Capital of the World
When James Bond enjoyed his martini, “shaken, not stirred,” it is likely that the pimento, stuffed in the olive that garnished his favorite cocktail was grown in Troup or a neighboring county. Of course, Agent 007 is a fictional character, but our area of Georgia, in the mid-twentieth century, produced ninety percent of the [...]
Cornbread & Hoppin’ John
CORNBREAD & HOPPIN’ JOHN The Contributions of the Enslaved Community The influences for many of the Southern foods we have come to know, descend to us from colonial and antebellum slave quarters. Southern food is derived from a blending of European, Native American, and African origins realized at the hands of enslaved cooks. Southern [...]
Christmas 1921
Vintage Christmas Greeting Card 1922 Christmas 1921 The front page of the LaGrange Graphic, December 15, 1921, was devoted entirely to children’s letters to Santa. At the time, these were simple requests from children, however, looking back on these letters from today provides insight into the lives of children in this period. [...]
