On Friday, March 8 from noon-1 p.m., the Georgia Archives’ will present the Lunch and Learn program “Seeking Eden: A Collection of Georgia’s Historic Gardens” by Staci L. Catron, Cherokee Garden Library Director, Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center and Co-Author of Seeking Eden, and Mary Ann Eaddy, Historic Preservationist and Co-Author of Seeking Eden.

  Catron and Eaddy will present a lecture and sign their book, which is a colorful and informative look at Georgia’s rich garden heritage and the women who nurtured these spaces.

  Interest in gardening and garden design was strong in early twentieth-century Georgia and resulted in some of the state’s most noteworthy designed landscapes, a number of which are still in existence. Seeking Eden: A Collection of Georgia’s Historic Gardens (UGA Press, 2018) chronicles the evolution of several of these properties, all originally identified in the 1933 volume Garden History of Georgia, 1733-1933. Both publicly and privately-owned, these gardens reflect the geographic diversity of the state, a variety of garden types and designs, the significant role of women in their formation and preservation, and the impact of professional designers. They are also vital to the state’s history, essential not only for understanding Georgia’s past but also for contributing to the health and beauty of their twenty-first-century communities.

  The Georgia Archives houses the P. Thornton Marye drawings. Many of these were published in the Garden History of Georgia in 1933.

  Lunch and Learn Programs are free and open to the public and are sponsored by Friends of Georgia Archives and History (FOGAH). No registration is required.

  The Georgia Archives is a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. The Georgia Archives identifies, collects, manages, preserves, provides access to, and publicizes records and information of Georgia and its people, and assists state and local government agencies with their records management. This work is done within the framework of the USG’s mission to create a more highly educated Georgia.   For more information on the Georgia Archives, call 678-364-3710. For more information, contact Penny Cliff at Penelope.Cliff@usg.edu The Georgia Archives is located at 5800 Jonesboro Road in Morrow.