All in-person events are subject to modification and/or cancellation due to the pandemic.
Please check back for more details.
Super Museum Sunday
May 2, 2021, Multiple sites across Georgia
The Georgia History Festival’s Super Museum Sunday will take place Sunday, May 2, 2021. This highly anticipated annual event allows visitors the opportunity to become reacquainted with the historic sites, museums, and cultural institutions in their community and around our state. A list of participating sites can be found on our website but check back often as more sites are being added daily. We encourage you to review each participating site’s COVID-19 protocols before your arrival to ensure the best experience. We hope you enjoy all that our amazing historical and cultural sites have to offer!
Sponsored by
Trustees Gala
June 5, 2021, Savannah
The Festival culminates in Savannah with the Trustees Gala on June 5, 2021, when Governor Brian Kemp will induct the 2021 Georgia Trustees. The Trustees Gala reigns as one of Georgia’s most successful non-political black-tie events, bringing together business, philanthropic, and community leaders from across the state and nation as the Governor and the Georgia Historical Society induct the newest Georgia Trustees, the highest honor the State of Georgia can confer.
Other Education Events
Classroom Conversations: The Rise of Media in the Late 20th Century: A Q&A with Dr. Stan Deaton
Online Dates TBD
GHS Education staff will host a conversation with Dr. Stan Deaton about the rise of media in the late 20th Century. Students and teachers can submit questions for Dr. Deaton prior to the program. Education Coordinator, Lisa Landers will facilitate the conversation and pose student questions exploring the impact of new media in the late 20th Century. The program is a companion piece to the Cold War inquiry kit and historical investigations into late 20th century leaders.
Past Events
Virtual Conversations Series
The Cold War at 75: A Conversation with Sam Nunn
United States Senator from Georgia, 1972-1996, Co-chair and former CEO, Nuclear Threat Initiative
October 14, 2020, 1:00 P.M., Online
Sponsored in part by
Join us for a wide-ranging discussion on the impact of the Cold War on American foreign policy and national security with a man who worked with the leading Cold War warriors, from Henry Kissinger to Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev. Nunn served in the U.S. Senate for twenty-four years and was Chairman of the Armed Services Committee from 1987 until 1995. Upon retirement from the Senate, Nunn joined the law firm of King & Spalding. In 2001, Senator Nunn co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to reduce the risk of use and prevent the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In 2011, Senator Nunn was inducted as a Georgia Trustee by the Office of the Governor and the Georgia Historical Society.
William Hitchcock, Presidential Leadership During the Cold War
October 21, 2020, 1:00 P.M.
UVA William W. Corcoran Professor of History, author of The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s (Simon & Schuster, 2018). A conversation with one of the leading Cold War scholars about presidential leadership during the era. With the presidential election coming in November, we will focus on the Cold War’s impact on American politics and presidential elections—and how presidential politics have been impacted by the end of the Cold War as well.
Presentation co-sponsored by
With support from
Kevin Gaines, The Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement
November 19, 2020, 1:00 P.M.
Professor Kevin Gaines of the University of Virginia is the Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice, with a joint appointment in the Corcoran Department of History and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies. Professor Gaines is the author of Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture During the Twentieth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 1996).
The Civil Rights movement in America was carried out during the height of the Cold War, and with the fight against Communism as a backdrop. This conversation with a prominent Civil Rights scholar will focus on the tendency to equate the fight for racial equality and justice with America’s “enemies,” from Communism to Socialism to the antifa.
Presentation co-sponsored by
With support from
Grace Elizabeth Hale, The Cold War and Popular Culture
December 3, 2020, 1:00 P.M.
Grace Elizabeth Hale is the Commonwealth Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Virginia, and author of A Nation of Outsiders: How the White Middle Class Fell in Love with Rebellion in Postwar America (Oxford Univ Press, 2011).
The Cold War’s impact was felt across all of American culture, from cinema and film (where the villains were often Communists) to television, to America’s consumer culture, to the race to beat the Soviets in space. This conversation will examine how the Cold War shaped American culture for over 40 years, the enormous impact it had on American society, and how it changed when the Cold War ended.
Presentation co-sponsored by
With support from
Teacher Webinar: Historical Inquiry with GHS
October 29, 2020, 3:00 p.m., Online
Want to learn more about historical inquiry and how to implement it into your classroom? Join GHS Education Coordinator Lisa Landers in a one-hour, interactive webinar where she will illustrate inquiry-based strategies from the new “‘And That’s the Way It Is’: Television and the Cold War” Inquiry Kit.
This professional development webinar will take a deep dive into how to utilize the “‘And That’s the Way It Is’: Television and the Cold War” Inquiry Kit in your classroom. Learn about the Inquiry Design Model, including inquiry-based strategies and activities designed to help students explore uniquely curated primary source sets from late-20th-century Georgia and United States history.
Teacher Webinar: History and Art: Teaching Women and Girls of the Civil Rights Movement Through Children’s Books and Primary Sources
November 3, 2020, 4:00 p.m., Online
In this special collaboration, Kate McLeod of the High Museum of Art and Lisa Landers of the Georgia Historical Society will host a teacher webinar that takes a deep dive into the roles of women and girls during the Civil Rights Movement and present strategies for examining art and primary source historical documents in elementary-school classrooms.
Featuring the Picture the Dream: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Picture Books exhibition at the High Museum of Art and learning strategies from the Georgia Historical Society, participants will learn to teach history through art in this free, interactive session.
Teacher Webinar: Georgia Day Parade Banner Competition: Theme, Resources, and Teaching Strategies
January 12, 2021, 4:00 p.m., Online
GHS Education staff will host a one-hour webinar providing instruction for teachers who want to participate in the annual Georgia Day Parade Banner Competition. Teachers can ask questions, register for the competition, and learn how to use GHS resources created to support teaching the banner competition theme, “Georgia on the World Stage: Leadership in the Late 20th century.”
Colonial Faire and Muster
February 2021, Wormsloe State Historic Site, Savannah
Explore Wormsloe State Historic Site during weekends in February as audiences of all ages enjoy special living-history programs and demonstrations in an historic outdoor setting. Pandemic-related capacity limitations will apply, and some programs may have fees attached.
Sponsored by
With additional support from the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Georgia
Georgia Day Parade
February 12, 2021, Statewide
Since the earliest days of the colony’s founding, Georgians have commemorated the landing of James Edward Oglethorpe and first English settlers at Savannah on February 12, 1733. While the COVID-19 pandemic requires an alternative to the traditional parade, Georgia students will have the opportunity to celebrate Georgia Day through an exploration of the parade theme, “Georgia Leaders on the World Stage,” supporting the Cold War focus of the 2020-2021 Festival. Classroom activities, art contests, and videos featuring greetings from state and local leaders throughout Georgia history will encourage today’s students to honor the spirit of the original Trustees whose motto, Non Sibi, Sed Aliis (Not for Self, but for Others) inspired Georgia’s founding.
Sponsored by
Local History Webinar Series
GHS is pleased to introduce a new series of webinars for its Affiliate Chapters. Focusing on issues facing local history organizations across Georgia during the current period of economic and social upheaval, this series of virtual sessions will include resources, strategies, and a forum for discussion among GHS Affiliate members.
Creating Educational Resources Using Collections
January 21, 2021, 3:00 p.m.
Social Media Management for Historical Institutions
February 17, 2021, 1:00 p.m.
The Georgia Historical Marker Program
February 25, 2021, 1:00 p.m
Sponsored by
Future Events
2022 Trustees Gala
April 30, 2022
2023 Trustees Gala
February 18, 2023
2023 Trustees Gala – tentative
April 29, 2023
2024 Trustees Gala
February 17, 2024
2024 Trustees Gala – tentative
April 27, 2024