Georgia State Day 2021

This year is the 50th anniversary of Special Collections & Archives at Georgia State University. To celebrate, we are honoring our founding archivist, Dr. David B. Gracy II, with a named graduate research assistantship. 

This fund will help support a Georgia State graduate student working in Special Collections & Archives, creating innovative new ways of promoting the importance of archives throughout Atlanta.

Dr. Gracy dedicated his life to archival education and the education of the next generation of archivists. He was hired in 1971 by then library director William R. Pullen to found the Southern Labor and University Archives. In addition to building the archives at Georgia State University, Dr. Gracy taught archival enterprise and history courses at GSU and DeKalb Community College (later Georgia Perimeter College and now part of Georgia State). He went on to teach archival enterprise courses at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a lifelong advocate for the societal understanding of archives and the archival profession. The creation of this Graduate Research Assistantship is a befitting honor to his legacy of teaching and advocacy.

 As a Graduate Research Assistant in Special Collections & Archives, this potential future archivist will gain hands-on experience working with materials, planning and executing outreach efforts, and promoting the collections, under the mentorship of experienced, professional archivists.