JRLC 5490 History of Mass Media in the United States-SP21: Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

The Walter J. Brown Media Archive & Peabody Awards Collection was started in 1995 and currently preserves over 250,000 titles in film, video, audiotape, transcription disks, and other recording formats dating from the 1920s to the present. Our mission is to preserve, protect, and provide access to the moving image and sound materials that reflect the collective memory of broadcasting and the history of the state of Georgia and its people.

The Peabody Awards Collection contains nearly every entry for the first major broadcast award given in the United States. Entries begin in 1940 for radio and 1948 for television, and we receive at least 1,000 new entries every year --programs by local, national, cable, and international producers. The collection provides a cultural cross-section of television from its infancy to the present day, featuring news, documentary, entertainment, educational, and children's programming. Georgia history is highlighted in three newsfilm collections. The WSB Newsfilm Collection focuses on Atlanta but covers the entire Southeast; the WALB Newsfilm Collection contains raw news footage from Albany and surrounding areas from 1961 to 1978; and the WRDW Newsfilm Collection features footage of the Augusta area from 1961-1976.

Our non-broadcast collection of amateur film, video, and audiotape highlighting Georgia people, places, and musicians includes the Andrew Avery Home Movie Collection; the Kaliska-Greenblatt Home Movie Collection; the Georgia Folklore Collection of field recordings of Georgia folk musicians made by  the Georgia Folklore Society; and the Foxfire Collection, among others.

University of Georgia students may use footage from collections for which Brown Media Archives holds licensing rights for their coursework at no charge. 

Students wishing to use this footage must sign a licensing agreement with Media Archives. This agreement obligates students to give proper credit to the Archives for footage used and to renegotiate the licensing agreement if other uses beyond coursework are desired.

Footage requests should be submitted at least three weeks in advance of your deadline.

The Digital Library of Georgia is a GALILEO initiative based at the University of Georgia Libraries that collaborates with Georgia's Libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions of education and culture to provide access to key information resources on Georgia history, culture, and life. This primary mission is accomplished through the ongoing development, maintenance, and preservation of digital collections and online digital library resources. The Digital Library of Georgia also provides digital library and micrographic services, and supports the instruction, research, and service missions of GALILEO and the University System of Georgia through collaboration with university faculty, students, and staff, and through participation on local and national levels in the development of digital library standards, practice, and technology. The Digital Library facilitates cooperative ventures with other organizations and provides leadership for cooperative digital initiatives throughout the state.