The Hammonds House Galleries & Resource Center of African-American Art
Occupying the 1857 Eastlake Victorian-style former home of Dr. Otis T. Hammonds, a black anesthesiologist and art patron, Hammonds House is a national center for the exhibition, preservation, research, and documentation of African-American art and artists. The permanent collection includes Hammonds' extensive compilation of works by African-American and Haitian artists, as well as his collection of African masks and carvings. These works are complemented by later acquisitions including pieces by Romare Bearden, William H. Johnson, Robert S. Duncanson, and Elizabeth Catlett. The permanent collection is shown on a rotating basis and is supplemented by exhibitions featuring the work of renowned black artists from all over the world. The Resource Center, housing documents on African-American art and artists, is open to the public by appointment.The house is located in the thriving West End neighborhood, which was declared a historic district in 1991. While you're in the area, take a look at the other lovingly restored Victorian bungalows and houses. A short walk away is the Atlanta University Center, the largest historically African-American education complex in the world, home to prestigious Morehouse College. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is Morehouse's most famous alumnus; a chapel was built on the campus to honor his memory.

Atlanta History Center
The Atlanta History Center chronicles the past of Georgia and the Southeast, as well as the history of Atlanta, with a vast collection of photographs, maps, books, newspaper accounts, furnishings, Civil War artifacts, and decorative arts. It occupies 32 woodland acres, with self-guided walking trails and 5 gardens. Plan to spend the better part of a day here. And call ahead, or inquire on the premises, about lectures, films, festivals, and other events that take place here on a regular basis; activities range from sheep-shearing demonstrations to decorative arts forums. When you call, also check on house-tour times for the day of your visit (house-tours are described below). The Swan Coach House is a delightful restaurant on the premises.Note: House-tour tickets are limited and can only be purchased on the day of your visit. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.Begin your visit at the Atlanta History Museum, where you can buy tickets and get information about historic house tours and other activities. The museum is the single best place to go for a cultural record of the city and the South. The major permanent exhibit, "Metropolitan Frontiers: Atlanta, 1835-2000," traces Atlanta's history from the days of Native Americans and rural pioneer settlements to the present day. Displays, enhanced by hands-on discovery areas and informative videos, feature hundreds of photographs, documents, and artifacts. Included are an entire 1890s shotgun house, a fire engine that was used in Atlanta's great fire of 1917 (when 50 city blocks were ravaged by flames), a rare 1920 Hanson Six touring car; and a model of Atlanta's most complex interstate intersection, known locally as "Spaghetti Junction."Also on the center's grounds is the recently restored Swan House, the 1928 estate of Edward Hamilton Inman, scion of an old Atlanta family. The house and gardens were designed by renowned architect Philip Trammell Shutze and are considered his finest residential work. The formal gardens include terraced lawns and waterfalls, retaining walls with recessed ivy arches, and fountain statuary. Swan House is fronted by a classical colonnaded porte cochére leading to a circular entrance hall with Ionic columns and a dramatic floating stairway. In the entrance hall, you'll notice that the fanlight over the door features a swan, announcing the theme of the house. There is supposed to be at least one swan emblem or decoration in each room -- see if you can find them. The house is interesting not only architecturally, but also for its eclectic contents and furnishings, which comprise a veritable museum of decorative arts. It's a fascinating glimpse into the lifestyle enjoyed by upper-crust Atlantans in the early 20th century.Tullie Smith Farm gives a sense of the life of Georgia's mid-19th-century farmers. A two-story "plantation-plain" house built in the early 1840s, it was brought to Atlanta along with period outbuildings in 1972. This was no Tara-like colonnaded mansion -- just an everyday farmhouse whose occupants lived in rustic simplicity.Costumed docents give tours throughout the day, and there are frequent demonstrations of 19th-century farm activities. In a bedroom with a rope bed and a crib (always occupied by the youngest baby), a docent will demonstrate how to use a spinning wheel. The basket of pomander balls in this room was typical -- the 19th-century answer to today's air fresheners. You'll find weaving demonstrations in the back room. During cooler months, demonstrations of 19th-century hearth cookery take place in the whitewashed kitchen, where herbs hang from the rafters. Additional outbuildings are a barn, corncrib, root cellar, blacksmith shop, and smokehouse. The gardens and grounds are authentic to the period.Leave some time to stroll the gardens, most notably the forested mile-long Swan Woods Trail. It includes plants native to Georgia, plus the Garden for Peace, home to a sculpture by noted Soviet artist Georgi Dzhaparidze and Atlanta artist Hans Godo Frabel.Construction has begun on a new $10 million, 20,000-square-foot addition housing an exhibition about the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. The highly interactive three-level museum is slated to open in 2006 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Atlanta games.

Fernbank Science Center
Owned and funded by the DeKalb County School System, this museum/planetarium/observatory, located adjacent to the 65-acre Fernbank Forest, is an educational partner of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Plan to visit the entire complex on the same day. There's a 1 1/2-mile forest trail here, with trees, shrubs, ferns, wildflowers, mosses, and other plants marked for identification. An extensive rose garden is located next door to the museum.The indoor facility houses exhibits such as a video display on geological phenomena (volcanoes, earthquakes, mountain formation, and so on); a gem collection; an exhibit tracing the development of life in Georgia from 500 million years ago to a million years ago; a complete weather station; fossilized trees; the original Apollo 6 space capsule and space suit (on loan from the Smithsonian); computer games; a replica of the Okefenokee Swamp, complete with sound effects; and models of dinosaurs that roamed Atlanta in prehistoric times. There are planetarium shows, and, at the Observatory, which contains the largest telescope in the world dedicated to public education, an astronomer gives talks and helps visitors to spot celestial objects.

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