An Afternoon with Thelma

The Williamson County Public Library’s Special Collections Department invites everyone to a reception on February 10th from 2 to 4 p.m. to thank Thelma Battle for all of her hard work on the African-American photo exhibits over the years.

For over twenty years, Thelma has collected photographs from community members and made copies of them to use in creating her photo exhibits at the Library. These treasures are displayed along with relevant copies of newspaper articles, letters, and other ephemera focusing on a central theme and frequently, a family. Her exhibits have been created in collaboration with the local annual Black Tie Affair event for which she, with assistance from the Library staff and volunteers, has generated several Pioneer Family booklets. These booklets, which document a family lineage back to the original, pre-1850 settlers of Williamson County, resulted in the awarding of the attending family of the year with the Library’s Pioneer Family certificates.

Past exhibits include:

1996 Visions of the Past

1997 Photo & Verse, African American History Through Photographs and Verse

1998 Treasures of the Journey

1999 Singing the Unsung Through Photographs

2000 Keeping On Keeping On

2001 Yonder Ways – People, Places and Customs

2002 Keeping it Real

2004 Bringing it Home – A Message Through Photographs

2005 Making it Happen – “Once Upon a Time When We were Colored

2006 Visions of the Past Reprise

2007 Separate Worlds – Remembering the 50’s and 60’s in Williamson County Through Photographs

2008 Religion: Past and Present

2009 Politics; the Long Road Home

2010 Tough Row to Hoe – African American Farm Life: Past and Present

2011 Raining in the House and Leaking Outdoors

2012 Marching On

2013 Game Faces – A Photographic Review of People in Sports

2014 Gone But Not Forgotten – Local African Americans in the Civil War

2015 Goin’ and Comin’ – A Glimpse at the Migration of African-Americans in Williamson County, Tennessee

2016 Twenty Year Retrospective of Thelma Battle’s Williamson County African American History in Photographics

2017 The Eyes Have It

2018 Lest We Forget

2019 Home – Williamson County, Where The Heart Is

Thelma’s exhibits have produced a wealth of historical information in one collection from which current and future generations can learn about the African-American history of Williamson County for personal and genealogical purposes. Her collection is housed in the Special Collections Department which is open Monday to Saturday 9:00-5:30 with extended hours on Thursday until 8:00 in the evening.

The 2019 exhibit is available for touring on all days and times the Library is open, Monday to Thursday from 9:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday from 9:00-5:30, and Sunday from 1:00-5:00, during the month of February.

All library programs are free and open to the public

The Williamson County Public Library is located in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue. Branches are located in Fairview, Bethesda, College Grove, Nolensville and Leiper’s Fork. For further information about other library programs or services, call the library at 615-595-1243 or visit the library’s web site at http://wcpltn.org. To sign up to receive library events and announcements via email, send an email to reference.library@williamsoncounty-tn.gov with the subject line: Subscribe_Library_Bytes. The library can also be found on Facebook, Pinterest and on Twitter via @wcpltn.

Please be aware that photos and videos may be taken at library events and activities for library use and publicity. Anyone not wanting to have their photo taken should notify library staff at the time of the event or activity.