The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The University of West Georgia logo shines from the top of the Technology-enhanced Learning Center on the main campus in Carrollton. Founded in 1906 as an agricultural school, the institution became the University of West Georgia in 2005.
Photograph by Steven Broome, University of West Georgia
Students of the 1910-11 class at the Fourth District Agricultural and Mechanical School examine various farming implements. The school, which later became the University of West Georgia, opened in Carrollton in 1906.
Courtesy of Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library Special Collections, University of West Georgia
A professor instructs students in a 1941 classroom at West Georgia College (later the University of West Georgia) in Carrollton. The college was renowned for its rural education program during the 1930s and 1940s and achieved worldwide acclaim for its adult education program in the 1950s.
Courtesy of Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library Special Collections, University of West Georgia
Leaders of West Georgia College (later the University of West Georgia) in Carrollton gather for commencement exercises around 1960. From left, William H. Row, the college's second president; Irvine S. Ingram, the college's first president; and George W. Walker, administrative dean.
Courtesy of Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library Special Collections, University of West Georgia
In 1974 the men's basketball team at West Georgia College in Carrollton won the national title of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The school is known today as the University of West Georgia.
Courtesy of Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library Special Collections, University of West Georgia
Beheruz N. Sethna poses in the Technology Enhanced Learning Center on the University of West Georgia campus. In 1994 Sethna became the sixth president of West Georgia College, and he led the school through its transition to university status in 1996. As a result of this change, Sethna became the first native of India to assume the presidency of a U.S. university.
Photograph by Steven Broome, University of West Georgia
The 634-acre campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro features landscaped lawns, pine forests, and two lakes. Walkways wind through the campus and connect the main academic buildings.
Courtesy of Georgia Southern University
Georgia Southern University in Statesboro is the largest and most comprehensive center of higher education in the southern half of Georgia. Approximately 16,000 students from every state and eighty countries attend classes on the residential campus.
Courtesy of Georgia Southern University
The College of Information Technology facility includes 25 interactive learning and study rooms, 10 computer labs, 14 electronic classrooms, a 120-seat lecture hall, and a 240-seat auditorium in a building occupying 140,000 square feet.
Courtesy of Georgia Southern University
From its opening in 1913 as a normal college for women, with a two-year course in teacher preparation, Valdosta State University has grown to a thriving institution of some 9,000 students, offering degrees from the associate to the doctorate.
Courtesy of Valdosta State University
A young woman from south Georgia arrives in Valdosta to attend South Georgia State Normal College. She wears the school uniform required during the early years of the college, which opened in 1913.
Courtesy of Valdosta State University
Students at Georgia State Woman's College (later Valdosta State University) dance the minuet in costume at the college's 1939 Old English Christmas Festival.
Courtesy of Valdosta State University
Dr. Hugh C. Bailey served as president of Valdosta State University from 1978 to 2001. During his tenure the number of students doubled to around 9,000 and off-campus sites were established throughout south Georgia.
Courtesy of Valdosta State University
Valdosta State University became the second regional university in the University System of Georgia in 1993. To accommodate the rapid expansion of the university's programs, a building boom began in the 1990s, with careful attention given to maintaining the Spanish Mission style established in existing campus buildings.
Courtesy of Valdosta State University
