Thank You, Charyn Darby Foundation

Thank you to the Charyn Darby Foundation for your recent donations.  

They enabled the Smyrna Public Library to purchase 50 new board books for our youngest patrons to check out!

Their generous donation also made it possible to purchase 50 new read-along kits for young readers. These kits include a picture book and audio recording of some of the most popular picture books. The first set are available now and we'll have more ready over the coming days.

FIRST SUNDAY LECTURE: Mary Moore Speaks on the Life of Susie King Taylor

Yesterday’s First Sunday Lecture was entitled Susie King Taylor: An African-American Woman’s Civil War Experience.  It was presented by Mary Wallace Moore, Smyrna Public Library Director. 

In 1902, native Georgian, Susie King Taylor published a memoir of her experiences as a newly freed slave working for African-American Federal Troops during the Civil War. Mrs. Taylor provided a window into camp life from a unique perspective. Re-visiting Mrs. Taylor's memoir is an excellent way to celebrate this year's theme for African-American History Month -- "African Americans in Times of War."

Speaker Biography:

Mary Moore has been the director of Smyrna Library for five years. Mrs. Moore ran across a mention of Susie King Taylor while reading online. Surprised that she had never heard of Mrs. Taylor before, Mrs. Moore began researching Mrs. Taylor's life and work.

The First Sunday Lecture series is sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library and Smyrna Library.

Smyrna, Georgia: An Episodic History 6-week Lecture Series Announced

Local historian, Dr. William P. Marchione, Ph.D., is to present a six-part lecture series on the history of Smyrna.  Each lecture will address two broad themes, with a half hour devoted to each. The series will begin on Monday February 5, 2018 and conclude six weeks later on March 12, 2018. The class will meet in the first floor meeting room of the Smyrna Public Library from 6:30-7:30 p.m.

This lecture series is free to attend.  Pre-registration is required. Space is limited. RSVP: sreference@smyrnaga.gov.

Topical Outline:

Lecture #1. Native Society: Assimilation & Expulsion, 1825-1837; Transportation Challenges and Economic Opportunities, 1837-1851. (Monday, February 5, 2018)

Lecture #2. The Antebellum Economy, 1851-60; The Impact and Legacy of the Civil War, 1861-1880. (Monday, February 12, 2018)

Lecture #3. Agricultural Diversification, 1880-1905; The Suburbanizing Impulse, 1905-1930. (Monday, February 19, 2018)

Lecture #4. The Nadir of Race Relations, 1918-38; The Impact of the Depression Era and the New Deal, 1930 to 1942. (Monday, February 26, 2018)

Lecture #5. The Economic Stimulus of the World War II and Cold War Economies, 1943-70; An Era of Fevered Development, 1970-1985. (Monday, March 5, 2018)

Lecture #6. The Transformative Years, Smyrna since 1985; Looking Backward and Forward (Monday, March 12, 2018)

Reading material:

Marchione, A Brief History of Smyrna, Georgia (History Press, 2013). The library owns eight circulating copies of this history. Copies are also be available for purchase at the Library’s circulation desk and from on-line booksellers like Amazon. Also, a kindle version of the book can be ordered online.

Material posted on the instructor’s blog, “Local Historian North & South,” which can be accessed via wpmarchione.com.

Recommendations will be made from time to time of books and other material housed in the Smyrna Public Library’s Local History Collection.

Smyrna, Georgia: An Episodic History is sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library and the Smyrna Public Library.