One of the more interesting aspects of looking into Atlanta’s history is finding out about links that Atlanta has to events and people that are larger than the city itself. On a personal note, it’s those kinds of surprising connections that I find most interesting about living in a city the size of Atlanta. This […]
Author Archives: Lance Russell
Lance Russell is an Atlanta-based filmmaker and media communicator who, for over three decades, has been entrusted by clients to tell their stories. A seasoned producer with an innate ability to cut to the heart of the matter, Lance’s instincts are tailor-made for today’s “media bite” culture. Brief, poignant and always entertaining, Lance’s current passion is bringing Atlanta’s colorful and inspiring past to life with his “rest of the story” style video series, Stories of Atlanta. “History’s best communicators,” says Lance, “have always been storytellers. It’s in our DNA. ‘Once upon a time’ is how we got to where we are now.”
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
Atlanta was one of only a few American cities to host the special visitor
When the 1895 Cotton States Exposition opened in Atlanta 120 years ago as of this writing, it represented the culmination of years of planning and fund raising on the part of the exposition’s organizers. It was a big time undertaking costing over $2 million dollars, which, by today’s currency standards, equates to around $57 million […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
The speech didn’t go exactly as he had planned
In 1895 Atlanta put its best foot forward for all to see with the Cotton States and International Exposition. It was a coming out party of sorts for Atlanta and designed to show the world, and particularly South American countries, that Atlanta had moved past its pre-civil war mentality and had taken its rightful place […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
He had a lot of nerve to come riding into town like that
In November of 1864, having occupied Atlanta for a little over two months, William Sherman left the city to continue his march to the sea. About three miles out, he paused briefly and gazed back at Atlanta. Years later he wrote of that moment, “Behind us lay Atlanta smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
It’s all in how you deliver the message
They say that when you die, whether you’re going to heaven or hell, you have to go through Atlanta first. Though made popular by Atlanta’s very busy airport, that saying actually originated back in the day when Atlanta was a major railroad junction. At its peak, over 300 trains a day came and went through […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
The dragon that reaches out and grabs you
Roger Babson is the founder of the Gravity Research Foundation, an organization with the stated purpose of studying, understanding and, ultimately, harnessing the force of gravity. It was the childhood drowning of his older sister in a river near Gloucester, Massachusetts that sparked Babson’s life-long interest in finding a way to control the effects of […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
This week, it’s a time travel story…with a twist
Time travel. It has been a part of the plot of many a movie over the years and, no doubt, the daydream of almost everyone at one time or another. Who hasn’t thought of what they could do if only time travel were possible? From sparing the world the pain of a future calamity or […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
What they felt the town really needed was an evening business school
Reconstruction was the term given to the period following the Civil War during which the United States set conditions under which the rebellious Southern States would be allowed back into the Union. Coming out of Reconstruction, the City of Atlanta was experiencing growing pains but one of the more positive results of Atlanta’s emergence as […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
If you think you’ve seen this statue before, there’s an interesting reason why
If you think you’ve seen this statue before…you’re probably right.
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
His life might have been very different without his stepfather
Donn’s father was a well-respected mathematics and psychology professor. He was, in fact, the chairman of the mathematics department of an Oklahoma university. Unfortunately for Donn, he lost his father at the age of six months to Leukemia. The family moved to Atlanta, where Donn would graduate from Booker T. Washington high school. It was […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
Alvin York Slept Here
America’s entry into World War One required the country ramp up its training efforts in order to accommodate the thousands of conscripted servicemen who were joining the war effort. Sixteen temporary camps, or cantonments as they were known, were built at locations around the country. One of those camps was constructed on the outskirts of […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
He missed the bus but eventually got to Atlanta
I was following a thread on a message board recently in which the participants were discussing the question, “What makes a city a major city?” My first thought was that the term “major city” is one of those eye-of-the-beholder descriptions, a phrase that doesn’t really have a precise definition. Something akin to Supreme Court justice […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
He used his time at Fort McPherson to do something he’d always wanted to do
Leonard Wood was what some people would describe as an overachiever. Born in 1860, he lived for 67 years and, from the evidence of his life, it is clear that he was, at the very least, a motivated man. Wood began his adult life as a Harvard educated surgeon and he put that education to […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
It is inspiring how far some will go to get what they want
It was June of 2015 when we first told the story of a young Atlantan who wanted something bad enough to make it happen despite the odds against him. It is an inspiring story and one we thought worthy of a second look. I am probably not the only one who, at one time in […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
For Underground Atlanta the beginning was almost the end
Looking at photographs of downtown Atlanta in the late 1800’s one cannot help but be impressed with the number of railroad tracks that populated the area we now call The Gulch. By some accounts, at the height of Atlanta’s railroad history there were over 350 trains a day that traveled through the city. Atlanta was […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
After five decades, Benjamin Walker decides it’s time for a change
That almost everything was something else before it became what it is today is hardly news to anyone. Knowing that fact, however, does not make the observation of the evolution of a city any less fascinating. Such is the case with the subject of this week’s Stories of Atlanta. At its heart, this story is […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
It was a dangerous place to be and everyone knew it
It is often assumed that during the American Civil War, Atlanta was destroyed by fires set by the Union Army as General Sherman led his troops on to the sea. That is only partially true. Fire did inflict substantial damage on Atlanta, but many of those fires were set, not by Union troops, but by […]
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
Despite the distinction, we’re pretty sure his mother wouldn’t be proud
Say what you will about the man but he certainly found a way to get people to remember his name.
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
A devastating fire leads to a journalistic first
For one 24-year-old Georgia Tech student, following the sound of sirens coming from Peachtree Street proved fortuitous.
Posted inMain Slider, Stories of Atlanta
Imagine What Atlantans in the Early 1900s Would Think
Water has always been at the heart of any community, especially a landlocked one such as Atlanta.
