Gainesville Tornado Film Collection


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Collection Details

Collection Dates: 1936
Scope and Content Note: The collection consists of a 32.5 minute film, probably shot for insurance purposes, which focuses on the devastation of the commercial and governmental center of Gainesville, but also includes footage of damage to nearby residential areas. In particular, it features the damage to the public square, the county courthouse, the Georgia Power Company, the Cooper Pants Factory, and the First Methodist Church. The 1936 Gainesville tornado (part of a massive tornado outbreak across the Deep South that also heavily damaged Tupelo, Mississippi) is generally regarded as the fifth deadliest in U.S. history. Extensive recovery efforts involving many local, regional, state, and national resources eventually rebuilt Gainesville, culminating in the 1938 dedication of the new city hall and county courthouse by President Franklin Roosevelt.
Biographical Note: "Gainesville, the 'Queen City of the Mountains,' is located fifty-two miles northeast of Atlanta on Interstate 985, on the shore of Lake Lanier. Lying at the southern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is a center of economic activity for the northeastern part of the state."--"Gainesville" from the New Georgia Encyclopedia, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-766&sug=y (Viewed December 9, 2009)
Extent: 1 film reel : si., b&w ; 16 mm.
Genre: Documentaries and factual works;Home movies and video
Provenance: Deposited at the Walter J. Brown Media Archives by Steve Gurr, 2007.
Cite Collection As: Gainesville tornado film collection, 1936. Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries.

Objects in the collection


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