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 […]
Tag: Atlanta History
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It had everything to do with necessity
Necessity is the “Mother of Invention.” Not much to argue with there. If it weren’t for necessity there would never have been a MacGyver. The crew of Apollo 13 could probably tell you a thing or two about the motivation provided by necessity. And we’re pretty sure that if it weren’t for necessity, Ron Popeil […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A familiar face comes to town
Watching this week’s story one can’t help but pause to consider the burdens that life places on some people. It is a story that flew under the radar two months ago and, we feel, it deserves a second look because most of us can relate to the relationships we don’t get to pick. We start […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
The layers of history
It probably goes without saying that pretty much everything was something before it became what it is today. An examination of any city’s past is an exercise in peeling back the layers of, as the Beatles might have put it, the long and winding road. Because of our city’s particular penchant for casting out the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
An out-of-towner raises the roof
The term “carpetbagger” is defined as one who is an unscrupulous opportunist. But just as it is true that all that glitters is not gold, it is also true that not all who came to Atlanta following the Civil War were solely unscrupulous, opportunistic carpetbaggers. Take the case of Hannibal Ingalls Kimball. H.I. Kimball was […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Survival in a fast-paced world
Atlanta’s business history is filled with the records of companies that did not stand the test of time. Evidence of that fact is all around but, to put a positive spin on things, where would all of the hip offices, trendy loft condos and tech startups turn for space if Atlanta’s large warehouses and manufacturing […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It’s the story of an ineffective Good Samaritan
If tomorrow you take a stroll down Peachtree street, the chances are better than pretty good that, at several points during your walk, you will be photographed. There are cameras everywhere, not just downtown but, well, everywhere.
Posted inStories of Atlanta
She found what she wanted
They say it was Benjamin Franklin who uttered the oft repeated phrase that nothing is certain except death and taxes. He supposedly said that in reference to the life span of the recently written United States Constitution, which he felt had the appearance but not the certainty of permanency.
But surely there are other examples in life that are certain.
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Downtown became more challenging
Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” However, in true Henry Ford style, he did not ask for opinions and what we got was the “horseless carriage.” And the world has never been the same. Americans have long had a love affair with the […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A familiar face comes to town
“The play’s the thing.” You’ve heard that phrase. Shakespeare wrote it. Hamlet says it. So it must be true. And, though probably not in the same vein that Hamlet meant it, the play certainly was the thing when it came to 19th century Atlantans. Opera and the theatre captured the attention of 1800s Atlanta in […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Who among us hasn’t made a mistake
Mistakes are a part of life, that’s the way it is and that’s the way it has always been. “Errare Humanum Est,” to err is human. The hope is that our mistakes aren’t too visible and, in general, are of the minor variety and not of the George Custer variety. But it doesn’t always go […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
A college football legend starts a tradition
They say that football is a contact sport. Those who’ve actually played the game disagree. Basketball, they say, is a contact sport…football is a collision sport. Football is a tough and strategic game and the difference between winning and losing on any given Sunday often comes down to a thin, undefinable characteristic. There are no […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It was the country’s first but it didn’t last
Today, a visit from the President of the United States often means traffic jams and inconvenience. But, in the early days of the City of Atlanta, a visit from the Commander in Chief was an occasion for great fanfare. Probably because such visits were few and far between and the opportunity to see, first-hand and […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It’s probably not what he had in mind
Atlanta’s history is intertwined with Atlanta’s religion. Houses of worship have not just been a presence in Atlanta, they have been one of the forces that helped shape and support our community. This week, we tell the tale of Leonard Broughton who came to Atlanta to lead a church and ended up building one of […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
One day you’re the hammer, the next you’re the nail
Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. That’s pretty much how it goes in life. You can’t win them all. Fortunately, not everything is a contest and, sometimes, being second is still pretty cool. To be sure, as Mel Brooks once said, “It’s good to be the King.” But if you […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
Look! Up in the sky…
“Twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are.” You might ask, what in the world does a 19th century English lullaby have to do with a picture of a Coca-Cola sign stuck in the middle of nowhere? Good question, if you’re a first time viewer. But if you’ve been here before, you know […]
Posted inStories of Atlanta
It’s a game of Six Degrees of Atlanta
This week we play a game of “connect the dots” as we trace the family connections of two famous Georgians who each played a role in Atlanta’s young but stellar past. We start with the birth of Crawford Long in 1815 and take a brief look at why we all owe him a major debt of gratitude. You […]
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Georgia’s road policies draw fire from Muscogee (Creek) Nation
A potentially messy battle over Georgia’s road projects could unfold if the Muscogee (Creek) Nation pushes hard over its concerns that artifacts of ancestors could be paved over by state road projects.
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Sapelo Island midwife among those honored at annual Georgia Women of Achievement induction ceremony
This week, guest columnist BETTY HOLLAN, executive director of Georgia Women of Achievement, recognizes the achievements of Sapelo Island midwife Katie Hall Underwood.
If you visited Sapelo Island from 1920 until 1968, you may have seen a strong, lean woman briskly walking from one end of the island to the other, a long seven-mile stretch, her mind set on delivering another baby into this world. Born into a family of freed slaves in 1884, Katie Hall Underwood was the last of a long line of Sapelo midwives. Her skilled hands and soothing demeanor brought generations of proud Gullah-Geechee people into the world.
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Atlanta hosts Irish centenary celebrations
This week, guest columnist MARILYNN RICHTARIK, professor of English at Georgia State University shares the story of Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916 and the ways Atlanta is commemorating its centenary.
100 years ago this month, after a small group of activists seized key buildings in central Dublin during the Easter Monday holiday, poet and schoolmaster Patrick Pearse stood outside the rebels’ headquarters in the General Post Office and read aloud a Proclamation declaring an Irish Republic to a handful of bemused passers-by. Within days, the British Army had quashed the Rising; within weeks its most prominent leaders had been summarily executed. This brutal reaction, though, turned what had been a fringe movement in favor of the complete separation of Britain and Ireland into a popular cause with martyrs. As Irish poet W. B. Yeats put it in “Easter, 1916,” a “terrible beauty” had been born.
