Dr. A. Jefferson Lewis III slides
Scope and Contents
This collection contains slides used by Dr. Lewis in his teaching, research, and public service roles at Clemson University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Georgia. The images depict a wide range of both woody and herbaceous plants, including bulbs and plants native to Georgia and the Southeast. The slides were used to teach courses in horticulture, floriculture, plant propagation, and landscape design. Of special interest are images of historic homes and landscapes primarily in Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, which include Callaway Gardens and the Founders Memorial Garden at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.
Dates
- 1963-2004
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Permission to use some items, as noted on the slides, must be cleared through other institutions including: All-America Selections (AAS); the All-American Rose Selections (AARS) superseded by the American Garden Rose Selections (AGRS); the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (later UGA Cooperative Extension); Fleuroselect; the Southern Progress Corporation; and the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
Biographical / Historical
Dr. A. (Archie) Jefferson Lewis III (1945- ) was born in McCormick, South Carolina, to Archie Jefferson Lewis Jr. (1923-2014) and Frances Margaret Schumpert Lewis (1922-2020). He attended Clemson University and served as an officer in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. Following discharge, he returned to Clemson as an instructor in the Department of Horticulture and in 1975 received his PhD in Plant Physiology. Dr. Lewis then joined the horticulture faculty at Virginia Tech where he held teaching and research appointments. In 1983, he joined the horticulture faculty at the University of Georgia as Extension Floriculture Specialist.
From 1989 to 2009, he served as director at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, retiring in 2009 as director emeritus and professor emeritus. He authored Historic, Heritage & Heirloom Plants of Georgia and the American South
(2004) and Five Decades and Still Growing: A Brief History of The State Botanical Garden of Georgia (2019). Dr. Lewis co-founded the Southern Garden Heritage Conference in 2000, an annual conference dedicated to the study of historic gardens and heirloom plants and their preservation in the South. He also served as president of the Southern Garden History Society from 2008 to 2010, continuing as honorary director.
Extent
4785 slide(s) (4750 color slides and 35 black and white slides)
Language
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged alphabetically by titles supplied by staff.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, 2023
Bias in Description
As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information. We choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, and bias is reflected in our descriptions, which may not accurately convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materials. Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment. In working with this collection, we often re-use language used by the former owners of the material. This language provides context but often includes bias and prejudices reflective of the time in which it was created. The Kenan Research Center’s work is ongoing to implement reparative language where Library of Congress subject terms are inaccurate and obsolete.
Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or descriptions, please let us know by emailing reference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.
Processing Information
This collection was processed in 2026.
- Annual (Plants)
- Botanical gardens
- Bulbs (Plants)
- Callaway Gardens (Pine Mountain, Ga.)
- Fences
- Flowering shrubs
- Flowering trees
- Flowering woody plants
- Flowers
- Formal gardens -- Design
- Founders Memorial Garden (Athens, Ga.)
- Fountains
- Gardens -- Design
- Gates
- Greenhouse gardening
- Ground cover plants
- Herbaceous plants
- Hills and Dales Estate (LaGrange, Ga.)
- Historic gardens
- Historic gardens -- Georgia
- Historic gardens -- Southern States
- Landscape architecture
- Landscape design
- Landscape plants
- Lewis, A. J. (Archie Jefferson), 1945-
- Native plants for cultivation -- Georgia
- Outbuildings
- Outdoor furniture
- Perennials
- Sculpture
- Signs and signboards
- State Botanical Garden of Georgia
- Trees
- Wall gardens
- Water gardens
- Wild flowers
- Wild flowers -- Identification
- Woody plants
- Title
- Dr. A. Jefferson Lewis III slides
- Subtitle
- ahc.VIS554
- Author
- Thora Jordt
- Date
- September 2026
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center Repository