Hargrett Gallery Guide: Overview Information
Introduction:
Welcome to the Hargrett Library Gallery. The Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library
collects, preserves, and shares materials that document the history and culture of our
state.
Among the Hargrett’s holdings are the Georgiana collection, the most complete
assemblage of published works by Georgians and about Georgia, and a distinguished
collection of rare books, maps, and broadsides. The Library holds millions of original
manuscripts and images, the raw material of history. Hargrett also contains the
University of Georgia Archives, which secures the institutional memory of America’s first
state-chartered university. The Hargrett is home to the Georgia Writer’s Hall of Fame,
celebrating the achievements of Georgia writers and promoting the state’s literary
heritage.
The Hargrett library honors two major donors here in the lobby space: the De Renne
family, whose crest appears in the tile mosaic in the floor, and Felix Hargrett, the library’s
namesake.
The De Rennes of Georgia
The De Renne family crest on the gallery floor is a reproduction of the original mosaic
tile coat of arms laid in the De Renne Library at Wormsloe on the Isle of Hope near
Savannah. The building held a collection that, at the time of its acquisition by the
University of Georgia in 1938, was the largest and most important assemblage of books
and manuscripts relating to the history of Georgia as colony and state.
The Library is the product of a family whose patriarch, Noble Jones (1723-1805), came
to Georgia with James Oglethorpe in 1733. Jones’ great-grandson, George Wymberley
Jones De Renne (1827-1880) amassed a large and important library, and by 1847 his
section on Georgia history was considered superior to all other such private collections.
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Unfortunately, the books and papers from this first De Renne Library were destroyed or
plundered during the final years of the Civil War.
The present collection is largely a result of many years of effort by G.W.J. De Renne’s
eldest son, Wymberley Jones De Renne (1853-1916), whose library greatly exceeded
that of his father. W.J. De Renne’s Georgia Library eventually encompassed
approximately 10,000 items dated 1700-1931; and he constructed a classical fireproof
library building for the collection at Wormsloe in 1907. The De Rennes owned the
original permanent Confederate Constitution. It had been W.J. DeRenne’s wish that his
library one day come to the University of Georgia, a wish fulfilled in 1938 then the family
executed its sale to the University.
Felix Hargrett 1902-1988
In 1986, the University of Georgia Libraries reconstituted its collections of rare books and
Georgiana, along with its historical manuscripts as the “Hargrett Rare Book and
Manuscript Library” in recognition of the generous philanthropy of businessman and
bibliophile, Felix Hargrett.
Tifton native Felix Hargrett earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering
from the University of Georgia in 1924 and pursued a successful career in the fire
insurance and rate-making industry. An ardent collector of books, Mr. Hargrett
assembled an extensive library of rare books and manuscripts. His collections of
Georgia history and literature and of confederate imprints were the largest in private
ownership when he presented them to the University of Georgia where they, along with
the De Renne Library, form the nucleus of the Hargrett Library’s rare book collection.
Mr. Hargrett donated 12,000 books and 10,000 historical manuscripts to the University
incalculably strengthening the Library’s collections, and he expressed the hope that
other friends and alumni would do likewise. In addition to his gifts of books, Mr. Hargrett
established two funds to endow the Hargrett Library, providing annually for the
purchase of rare books and manuscripts.
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Signature Gallery
The Signature Gallery features works from six of the Hargrett Library's premier collecting
areas: Colonial Georgia, the Native American experience in Georgia, the Civil War,
natural history, performing arts, and the history of the book. The Gallery also highlights
the Hargrett's centers of study, established with the support of philanthropists who share
the Hargrett Library's commitment to history and literature.
Colonial Georgia
British settlement of Georgia began in earnest in 1732 when King George II granted a
charter of the colony and named twenty-one Trustees to govern it. James Oglethorpe
led the original 114 men, women, and children who crossed the Atlantic on the Anne
and established a new settlement at Savannah in 1733. Envisioned as a refuge for
debtors and buffer against Spanish Florida, Georgia also banned slavery for its first
eighteen years of existence.
The Hargrett Library's holdings on the Colonial period include the original plan of the city
of Savannah, as laid out by Oglethorpe and Noble Jones and sketched by George
Jones. The papers of Trustee Sir John Perceval Earl of Egmont provide vital information
about the early colony, including the passenger list of the first settlers. The Hargrett
Library holds papers of royal governors, maps, early newspapers, and thousands of
other documents that stand as an enduring record of Colonial and Revolutionary era
Georgia.
Civil War
Between 1861 and 1865, the nation was nearly ripped apart by a bloody Civil War that
created a million casualties and freed millions of African Americans formerly held in
slavery. The Hargrett Library's holdings on the Civil War era are among its most extensive
and important. The Library holds the original Confederate Constitution, the founding
document of the Southern government. Researchers have access to more than 2,500
Confederate imprints; tens of thousands of letters, diaries, and other papers of Union
and Southern soldiers and civilians; photographs; maps; and other documents held in
more than 500 distinct manuscript collections.
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Performing Arts
The Hargrett Library houses many significant theatrical collections covering all aspects
of the performing arts with a special emphasis on costume design. The Charles Coburn
Collection includes scripts, movie stills, and publicity photographs documenting the
Savannah native's successful theatrical career. Coburn received the Academy Award
for Best Supporting Actor in 1941.
The Paris Music Hall Collection comprises over 7,000 original renderings of costume and
curtain designs created for the music halls of Paris from 1920-1938. Twenty-six
international designers are represented in this collection including the most famous of
all, Erté. The Hargrett Library houses more than 3,000 costume designs by Freddy Wittop
who won the Tony Award for Hello Dolly!
Natural History
The Natural History Collection is one of the most important interdisciplinary resources in
the Hargrett Library. Represented in this collection are a variety of rare books, prints,
original renderings, and manuscripts. These materials give insight into the historical
relationship between man and his environment.
The Hargrett Library's collection of the work of John Abbot is one of the largest in the
country. Abbot (1751-1840) lived primarily in Screven County, and devoted his life to
documenting the birds, spiders, moths, butterflies and plants he discovered in that area
of Georgia. In 1830, John Eaton LeConte recorded for posterity the Turtles, Tortoises,
Frogs and Salamanders of Georgia and South Carolina with forty-nine original drawings.
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Native Americans
Centuries before European colonization, indigenous peoples inhabited the land that
would become Georgia. Rich with their own distinctive languages and cultures,
contact with whites would fundamentally change the condition of their lives. In a nearly
one-hundred-year saga of wars and treaties that would continue to play out across the
American Western frontier long afterward, Georgia's native tribes were pushed to the
state's fringes and finally removed, altogether.
The Hargrett Library offers extensive holdings on the Native American experience in
Georgia dating from James Oglethorpe's first contacts with Chief Tomochichi of the
Yamacraw in 1733 to the forced relocation of Georgia's Cherokees to Oklahoma in
1838 known as the "Trail of Tears."
History of the Book
Books have influenced the course of history creating the impetus for revolutions and
change throughout the world, as well as providing knowledge and enjoyment. Our
collection of over 200,000 books may be used to trace the growth and development of
the book, starting with works printed before 1501 called incunabula, meaning the
“cradle” of printing and continuing throughout the centuries to the modern book arts
movement.
Within these books, researchers may study various aspects of book history such as
paper making, calligraphy, engraving, illustration, typography, design, bibliography,
and bindings. The Library's collection of small press and fine printing is one of the largest
in the country.
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