Collection Dates: 1940 – 1941

Scope and Content Note: The collection consists of one reel of film depicting the town of Fitzgerald, Georgia and its inhabitants in the early 1940s.

Biographical Note: "Fitzgerald, the seat of Ben Hill County, is located in the heart of south central Georgia, twenty-five miles northeast of Tifton. Settled in 1896 by a land company under the direction of Philander H. Fitzgerald, the town is best known as a place of reconciliation among Civil War (1861-65) veterans. Fitzgerald, a former drummer boy in the Union army, had become a pension attorney with a thriving practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. His interest in the welfare of his fellow veterans was well documented in the publication of the widely read weekly newspaper American Tribune. Through his involvement Fitzgerald conceived the idea for a soldiers' colony in the more hospitable South. Georgia governor William J. Northen was eager to settle some of the sparsely populated areas in the wiregrass region of the Coastal Plain, and after some negotiation they settled on the area around the site of the former turpentine village of Swan on the Ocmulgee River."--New Georgia Encyclopedia, viewed Oct. 7, 2010 (http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1408&sug=y)

Extent: 1 film reel : si., b&w and col. ; 16 mm.

Genre: Home movies and video

Provenance: Donated to the Walter J. Brown Media Archives by Lewis Brinson, 2009.

Cite Collection As: Lewis Brinson Fitzgerald townsfolk home movie collection, 1940-1941. Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries.