Atlanta History

This morning I met up with our guide, Travis Hanks (yes, he's a distant cousin of Tom) and some of my fellow travelers. I'm rooming with Rita from Toronto and we also have Fiona from Cambridge, England.

One the things I found appealing about the description of this tour was a focus on Black American history. Today we visited some sites in Atlanta that told part of that story. 

Our first stop was the Atlanta History Center. It's located in Buckhead so we passed some pretty fancy homes on the way, including the Governors mansion.

The History Center has exhibits on Atlanta, the Olympics, local folk art, railroads, and a beautiful garden and farm buildings. There is a steam train locomotive that told the story of how the railroad  built the city. 

The highlight of the Center is the Cyclorama, a 360 degree 50' high oil painting & diorama that was originally created in the late 1800s by German artists in Milwaukee. It served as the movie of its day. At the History Center, there is a film that tells some of the story of this impressive art work. The painting technique gives an incredible impression of being 3 dimensional in places and the addition of the diorama figures really adds to this effect.

The Center also had a lovely folk art exhibit with all different kinds of craft types from quilts to pottery to musical instruments. 

The cafe at the Center had a particularly delicious selection of items made with local ingredients. 

After the Center we headed to the MLK National Historic Site. We weren't able to join the tour of the birthplace but their exhibits on his life and times were very well done. Travis guided us a bit around the area, explaining how the post Reconstruction segregation laws affected this community and showed us MLKs family home. 

The original Ebenezer Baptist church building is in this area, as well as a more modern and larger church building. The MLK memorial includes his and Mrs King's tombs and exhibits of his personal effects, awards, clothes and other ephemera that really humanizes this great man. 

After a rest break, I met up with Travis for dinner. We were joined by Han from the Netherlands, who had missed our morning meeting! 

Travis took us to Twisted Soul for some delicious soul food. I had a wonderful pulled pork sandwich and delicious cornbread along with some stimulating conversation about all of our travels.

Tomorrow is a relatively early start to get on the road to Savannah.