Stories

As baseball fans across North America rejoice over the opening of the 2025 Major League Baseball season, Atlanta History Center celebrates baseball heroes of the past by examining the teams and players of the Branch Rickey League. From 1956 to approximately 1969, Black baseball players from Atlanta and surrounding areas participated in highly competitive amateur leagues filled with future professional baseball players. Atlanta History Center has launched a project to locate and interview former players and participants in these leagues.

Founded in 1985, Atlanta-based Ichiban Records played a pivotal role in shaping Southern hip-hop, nurturing iconic artists, and fostering a distinctive sound. The label, led by visionary John Abbey, was a crucible for talent like MC Shy-D and Kilo, blending diverse musical influences. Despite challenges, including a risky partnership with EMI and internal issues, Ichiban’s impact on the music industry, especially in nurturing local talent and promoting diversity, is undeniable. The story is a compelling narrative of ambition, innovation, and the complexities of the music business.

In September of 1963, Vincent Anthony, a young actor living in New York City answered an ad in Backstage magazine for an audition with the Nicolo Marionettes, a puppetry company. His audition would be his first experience with the vast and varied world of puppetry. It would also set in motion events that changed the art scene in Atlanta, Georgia. Read more about The Center for Puppetry Arts’s history.

Explore our Civil Rights reading list as recommended by our own Director of Community Collaborations, Dr. La’Neice Littleton.

Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center provides a unique opportunity for researchers and enthusiasts to explore the life and times of Jimmy Carter through a significant collection of archives and books.

Atlanta History Center mourns the loss of former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter. During their 75 year marriage, they supported each other through a governorship, presidency, and more than forty years of humanitarian work.

The original Rich’s twin pig monorails and their iconic smiles made Christmas bright for five generations. The Pink Pig lives on in the hearts and minds of everyone who experienced it—and in the permanent collection at Atlanta History Center.

Atlanta Urban Design Commission Records are now available for public access. This collection provides valuable insights into Atlanta’s visual arts and urban development. It includes artwork, sketches, photographs, and other materials that document the city’s design and architectural evolution.

Listen to an excerpt of Chase Evans’ essay for the Forsyth Descendants Scholarship.

Listen to Patrick Phillips, author of Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, explain the events of 1912 .

Atlanta Negro Voters League: Strength in Unity explores the history and legacy of the grassroots voting rights organization that influenced Atlanta elections from 1949 to 1965.

We created a guide to help Georgians prepare to exercise their right to vote, select the method by which they vote, and to identify and report instances of voter intimidation.

On October 23, 2024, the US Navy announced that after twenty-five years, a ship commissioned the USS Atlanta will once again sail the seas of the world. The last USS Atlanta, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, was retired in 1999, the fifth such ship to bear the name of the city.