From the Mansion to the University, and Now, the World: Armstrong’s History Available from Digital Commons@Georgia Southern

October 8, 2019

“Everything has a history,” colleague Olavi Ahrens reassured Janet Stone as she embarked on her scholarly history of Armstrong Atlantic State University. The history that Janet uncovered is interesting and important; the stories often heartwarming and fun.   Stone’s history was published by the Armstrong Foundation in 2010 as From the Manion to the University: a history of Armstrong Atlantic State University, 1935-2010.  This year, Janet Stone and the Georgia Southern Foundation have made the work available via the Digital Commons@Georgia Southern under a Creative Commons license. Interested readers may now download a pdf copy of the book to read from anywhere in the world they access the internet. 

Who might want to peruse and use this work?  Certainly faculty, staff, and alumni will enjoy the stories and many photos that document their Armstrong experiences.  Current and future students, faculty, and staff may dive or dip into the work to learn about our institutional history. How did their academic program or student organization get its start?  Did Armstrong ever field a football team? What is the story of the health professions on our campus? When did the first African American students attend? What is “the Dyches case” all about?  Scholars may be drawn to Savannah’s experience of the integration of higher education, an important issue that Stone unpacks and examines. Armstrong’s close connection with Savannah, starting with its founding as a city college, is a take away.  As is the close knit community among students, alumni, faculty and staff, throughout the years.

The timing of this history—just eight years before Armstrong’s consolidation with Georgia Southern—is fortunate, the first chapter in our unfolding history is written. And placed in the Digital Commons, this work is preserved and widely available to inform and inspire the next generation, the next chapter.