Eb Daniels

Review of Atlanta History Center

I've been visiting the Atlanta History Center sinc...

I've been visiting the Atlanta History Center since I was a child and have reviewed it positively before, but its steady decline over the past decade has necessitated a revision of that review (and my decision to not renew my membership for a 10th year).

While the Atlanta History Center remains a premier repository for Atlanta history, that history is no longer presented in a way which I feel is helpful or educational for visitors.

Most of the exhibits are presented inconclusively and without substance; a smattering of random items with terse identifying placards. Where fuller contextualization is given, it is usually hopelessly pedantic and reductive. Interpreters and docents know bland, memorized scripts, but little else, unless one is lucky and able to find some of the few employees who seem to have a genuine love of history.

One the whole, one feels as though the History Center has embraced a new business model centered around convenience and flash - a few objects artfully arranged with some moralizing sermons for effect. The Center now seems only concerned with two things: providing a venue for weddings and being able to sell itself as a "public good" where school children can be presented with a superficial introduction to history.

A few of the permanent exhibits are an exception to this rule, and there is some value in being able to tour the impressive historic buildings on the campus, but they do not outweigh the cost of admission.

Instead of visiting the Atlanta History Center, I would encourage history-oriented tourists to instead tour the local county history centers, the statuary, portraits, and museum at the Georgia State Capitol, and Historic Oakland Cemetery. They have just as much history, and in far more pleasant settings.