Online Access to Technological Aspects of Local History Through Georgia HomePLACE Collaborative Digitization Projects at the Digital Library of Georgia

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Online Access to Technological Aspects of Local
History Through Georgia HomePLACE Collaborative
Digitization Projects at the Digital Library of
Georgia

• Edward A. Johnson
• Director, Georgia HomePLACE
• Georgia Academy of Science Annual Meeting
• March 2006

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http//dlg.galileo.usg.edu
DLG Home Page
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Thars Gold in Them Thar Hills Gold and Gold
Mining in Georgia, 1830s-1940s

• www.galileo.usg.edu/express?linkdahl

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Two decades before Forty-Niners flocked to
California Twenty-Niners poured into
Georgia seeking gold!
Benjamin Parks (lum119)
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mka074
mka073
Mka075 (seeking gold in a sluice flume)
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Gold riches but at high human cost
Trail of Tears 4000 Cherokees died en route
1938-39

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• U.S. Branch Mint in Dahlonega
• Chartered 1835, opened 1838
• Produced 6 million in gold coins
• Operated until the Civil War

mka056
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Dr. Matthew Stephenson Assayer, Dahlonega Mint
Why go to California? In that ridge lies more
gold than man ever dreamt of. Theres millions
in it.
mfs002
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mka052
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Findley Gold Mining Company 1878 Prospectus
(mka045f)
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About the Rider Mine I know it is good, but
it is rather small confined in as hard a rock
as you ever saw or heard of so that it will take
capital to work to advantage -- say steam drills
pumps. -- Amory Dexter
mka014a
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Consolidated Mine (120 stamps)
lum122
lum124
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mka038b9
mka039j
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gcd10
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gcd05
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mka064
mka067
mka065
mka062
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Ships for VictoryJ. A. Jones Construction
Company Liberty Ships in Brunswick, Georgia

• www.galileo.usg.edu/express?linkvsbg

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1944 aerial photo
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Image jaj111
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Image jaj146
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Image jaj108
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Image jaj001
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Image jaj011
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Image jaj110
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Image jaj012
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Image jaj061
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Image jaj057
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Image jaj026
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Image jaj025
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Image jaj031
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Image jaj109
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Image jaj058
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Image jaj123
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Image jaj145
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Image jaj073
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Technological Understanding Within a
Humanities-Oriented Context

• Unlike typical local history interpretations,
  our two case studies recognize the role of
  technology (and its underlying scientific basis)
  in human history
• Sometimes historians trained in the humanities
  dont comprehend scientists different
  orientation in terms of content and of
  methodological approach (and perhaps vice versa)
• Unfortunate legacy of the longstanding rivalry
  between the sciences and the humanities
  sometimes described as the two cultures

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The Two CulturesSciences vs. Humanities

• Late 19th century debates between T.H. Huxley
  (Darwins Bulldog) cultural critic Matthew
  Arnold
• Scientist/novelist C.P. Snow explored the issue
  in The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
  (1959)
• Literary critic F. R. Leavis created public
  uproar with vehement (and personal) attacks on
  Snow (1962)
• Aldous Huxley confirmed dichotomy by comparing
  Snows scientism with Leavis literarism
  (1963)
• Revisit 1960s debates in June 2005 History of
  Science

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The Science Wars

• Thomas Kuhns paradigm shifts (Structure of
  Scientific Revolutions, 1962) described
  sociological influences involved in the evolution
  of science
• Transmogrified into the science wars of 1990s
  an epistemological battle with postmodernists
  who see truth as culturally-determined social
  construct
• Paul Gross Norman Levitt, in Higher
  Superstition The Academic Left and its Quarrels
  with Science (1994), attacked the postmodernists
• Comic relief provided by Alan Sokal 1996 hoax

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Toward Consilience

• The rivalry continues but we can work toward
  mutual understanding perhaps eventually
  approaching a unity of knowledge or consilience
  (the term popularized by E. O. Wilson in 1998)
• Historians (and humanities-oriented folk) should
  strive to understand scientific approaches as our
  best opportunity to discover the truth about
  reality
• Scientists should strive to understand how
  science itself evolves historically, and can be
  affected by (both obvious and subtle) social and
  cultural factors.

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Ships for Victoryhttp//www.galileo.usg.edu/expre
ss?linkvsbg
Thars Gold in Them Thar Hillshttp//www.galileo.u
sg.edu/express?linkdahl

• Digital Library of Georgia
• http//dlg.galileo.usg.edu