Confederate Memory and Identity at the University of North Georgia

Using Pierre Nora’s lieux de mémoire theory, this project examines the sites of memory and identity at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, GA and their connections to the Lost Cause. These sites include Price Memorial Hall, the Lewis Monument, the newly opened 1873 Shop, and institutions like the Blue Ridge Rifles. This expands on past literature that focused on these sites of memory by contextualizing its creation and examining its role in establishing memory, as well as how this memory has been contested. This project involves newspaper and archival research around the creation of each of the sites of memory and research around the figures that dominated the university during its founding years, as well as the connections between the university and the broader Dahlonega community shaping its Lost Cause memory. Lastly, this project concludes with a reflection on the contemporary presence of this memory in the university’s iconography, marketing, and language.