Georgia’s first lady Sandra Deal will be joined by her co-authors Oct. 28 on a visit to the UGA Libraries to discuss Memories of the Mansion: The Story of Georgia’s Governor’s Mansion, published by the University of Georgia Press. Open to the public, the talk will be held at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries at 10 a.m.
“All homes have a story to tell, and the Georgia Governor’s Mansion is no exception,” Deal said.
Deal wrote the book with Kennesaw State University history professors Jennifer W. Dickey and Catherine M. Lewis to chronicle the history of the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, which opened in 1968 and includes a distinguished collection of American art and antiques. The book contains personal anecdotes and more than 200 photos from the collections of former first families.
Former first families Maddox, Carter, Busbee, Harris, Miller, Barnes and Perdue shared stories and photographs about what it was like living in the “people’s house.” The foreword by Betty Foy Sanders details the complicated process of planning the new mansion. Atlanta architect A. Thomas Bradbury’s neoclassical design features a 30-column colonnade to evoke Southern charm and grandeur while accommodating state functions and family living quarters.
“The mansion has one of the most valuable collections of early federal-era art and antiques in the world, and its origin is now recorded for posterity,” said UGA Press Director Lisa Bayer. “As a unit of Georgia’s flagship university, the UGA Press is honored to have published this rich, meticulously documented, utterly engaging story of our state’s current history through its first families.”
