For our project, we will be focusing on domestic life of Americans during WWI and WWII. We will not put a whole lot of focus on to specific conflicts or battles, but rather use our findings to illustrate what life was like domestically for German- Americans (racial treatment in both wars), the Japanese- Americans (post Pearl Harbor treatment, internment), the men who were recruited to fight, the women who worked as nurses or engineers, and everyone else who kept America running. General themes will include racial tensions and social distrust, Athens- Clarke County’s role, UGA student and faculty involvement then, and commemoration efforts.

Working title:

American Homefront Response to the World Wars

Each of us will be researching specific parts, but with a few subjects that are in common. We will cast a wide net for preliminary research, and then fine- tune our results into a cohesive, multi- faceted narrative for the public:

 

Our search terms:

Matthew:

Preflight Naval School, Athens GA

UGA involvement in both wars

 

Daniel:

Internment Camps for Japanese and Germans (WWII Oglethorpe// Tybee Island Internment     Camps// Arizona camps)

[Mention of Pearl Harbor to frame internment and tension]

 

Dylan:

Recruitment posters for both wars (Who was target? What demographics?)

Memorial Hall (WWI)

Memorial celebrations and anniversaries (Newspaper Archives// Erika Doss’s Memorial Mania)

 

Faith:

Other Memorials in Athens// Blue Star Memorial

Racial tension// Changing German- sounding surnames after WWI

Dobbins ARB (Rickenbacker Field)// Lockheed// Possible local Athens bases and factories

All of us:

Social responses of UGA students

UGA students involved as nurses, workers, and in the armed services (demographics)

War bonds// War Bonds advertisements (WWI specifically)

 

Old College is the oldest building at the University of Georgia. It was constructed in 1806, modeled after Connecticut Hall at Yale. The building was the first permanent structure at the university, following a temporary log cabin that had been used for instruction while Old College was being constructed. The building served as a place of instruction and a dormitory for UGA’s first classes, and continued to be used as such intermittently until World War Two. Besides its use by the students, Old College has also served important function in several wars. Old College was the site of a Confederate hospital for war refugees during the American Civil War, and as a dormitory by the US Navy for those attending the Pre-Flight School. Though it is now referred to as Old College, the building was originally christened Franklin College. The original name fell out of favor in the 1820s when New College was built nearby, but its legacy lives on in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, which is currently housed in Old College. Despite extensive renovations, Old College remains a fixture of North Campus and a symbol of the earliest years of UGA. To commemorate Old College’s historical significance to the university, a plaque was installed outside the building by the Georgia Historical Society and the University of Georgia in 2006 on the occasion of Old College’s bicentennial.

The Site of First Classes Plaque is embedded into the outer wall of Old College, on the spot where Josiah Meigs, the second president of the University of Georgia, first held classes. The site that would become UGA was chosen in 1801 by a committee consisting of John Milledge, Hugh Lawson, George Walton, John Twiggs, and Abraham Baldwin. On a hill near the Oconee River, along which springs descended to feed the majestic oak and hickory trees, the committee selected the spot where the university would be built. In September 1801, President Meigs sat atop a stool below a white oak tree and instructed his students in the basics of Latin and Greek. These humble beginnings marked the birth of an institution. That single stool in the forest gave way to the construction the entire university. In 2001, President Michael Adams recreated the first classes near the original site and taught a class dressed as Josiah Meigs. Though the spot where the first classes were held has been built over by Old College, its legacy remains in a plaque on the outer wall of the building.