What it does
Atlanta history center seeks to connect people, history, and culture to build a stronger community. Through exhibitions, collections, historic houses, gardens, archives, educational school tours, public programs, and digital and virtual programs and content, we encourage our constituents to consider our shared past in a dynamic context, providing opportunities for broader perspective. Atlanta history center-buckhead is comprised of the atlanta history museum, which is one of the largest history museums in the country and features signature, temporary, and traveling exhibitions; goizueta gardens including 33 acres of curated gardens, woodlands, and trails; three historic houses and associated buildings: swan house, smith farm, and wood cabin; and kenan research center. Atlanta history center-midtown includes margaret mitchell house, which contains the apartment where margaret mitchell wrote gone with the wind, along with exhibition galleries; and commercial row, which contains a tempora
Atlanta History Center consists of a 33-acre campus in Buckhead that includes the Atlanta History Museum, Goizueta Gardens, Kenan Research Center, and three historic houses, and Atlanta History Center-Midtown, which includes the Margaret Mitchell House, exhibition space, and event space. Atlanta History Museum is one of the largest history museums in the country. Through signature, temporary, and traveling exhibitions, visitors can explore the history of Atlanta and the southeast from the land's original inhabitants until the present day. The museum also includes the fully-restored The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama painting in the multimedia experience Cyclorama: The Big Picture. All exhibitions and digital content are supported by the museum collections. The museum artifact collections are particularly strong in American Civil War and Reconstruction, Atlanta businesses and home life, period furniture and decorative arts, and a significant collection of fashion and textiles. The living collections of the Atlanta History Center are presented throughout Goizueta Gardens, containing 9 distinct thematic gardens: Gilbert Quarry Garden, Smith Farm gardens, Swan House Garden, Swan Woods, Sims Asian Garden, Rhododendron Garden, Olguita's Garden, Veterans Park, and the Entrance Gardens. For people looking to conduct research, Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center is a free public archives and special collections library offering a multitude of resources for the study of Atlanta and Southern regional history and culture. Dedicated collections include decorative arts, Southern architecture, genealogy, military history, railroads, and southern gardens. Copies of historic photographs, prints, and other archival materials can be purchased through Kenan Research Center. The historic houses provide unique and interactive access points to history, and include Smith Farm, Swan House, Wood Cabin, and Margaret Mitchell House. The Smith farmhouse (listed on the National Register
Atlanta History Center produces a rich array of interactive, dynamic programs and exhibitions. Community Days, such as Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, activate our entire 33-acre campus with museum theatre performances, educational simulations, guest lectures, historical crafting demonstrations, and opportunities for children and adults to experience history firsthand, while also including digital and virtual components. Atlanta History Center also hosts a Fulton County University of Georgia 4-H Extension Office and the StoryCorps Atlanta recording studio through onsite partnerships, which allows those institutions to further their complementary missions and increase awareness of Atlanta History Center and our mission Our school tours take schoolchildren through interactive experiences to help them learn about civil rights, the Civil War, Native Americans, and Georgia farm life, while school outreach programs and Travel Trunks take history out into the classroom through presentations and activities. School programs are also offered virtually. School programming served over 44,000 children this year. Toddler programs, summer camps, and Homeschool Days bring engaging, interactive fun to learning about history. For adults, Author Talks bring engaging speakers to Atlanta, virtually and in person. Each year, more than 48 author talks at both campuses and online focus on a variety of genres, including biography, history, memoir, cooking, historical fiction, literary fiction, and more. Thousands of people attend these talks each year. Each program includes time for a question and answer session as well as a book signing with the author at in-person events.