For Immediate Release
Date: July 25, 2014

Historian John Duncan on Friday donated his collection of Savannah postcards to City Government and unveiled a City Hall exhibit displaying some of his maps and prints tracing the community’s growth through the 18th and 19th centuries.

“These maps help us learn about our past, but they also teach us how we came to the present and where we may be going in the future,” John Duncan said.

The collection of maps, which trace Savannah’s development from the days of Oglethorpe through the 1890s, will be on display in the City Hall Rotunda through the end of the year. They are on loan from Virginia and John Duncan’s V. & J. Duncan Antique Maps and Prints, as part of the ongoing celebration of Savannah City Government’s 225th anniversary, which will be Dec. 23, 2014.

“As they say, If these walls could talk, the stories they would tell. Well if these maps could talk, they would tell quite a story,” Mayor Edna Jackson said. “We appreciate the contributions of Mr. Duncan, and his efforts to continue to tell Savannah’s story.”

In addition to the exhibit, a special digital postcard collection has been made accessible to the public through the City’s Research Library & Municipal Archives. The V. & J. Duncan Postcard Collection features over 2,090 postcards of the Savannah area dating from the late 1800s through the 20th century. The collection includes images of Savannah’s parks and squares, prominent streets, historic homes and public buildings, and much more.

A selection of 352 postcards from the collection is featured through the Library & Archives new Digital Image Catalog accessible at www.savannahga.gov/DigitalCollections.

For more information contact Luciana Spracher, Research Library & Municipal Archives Director at 912-651-6411.