ECW Honors Gordon Jones with 2024 ECW Award for Service in Civil War Public History

Emerging Civil War is recognizing Gordon L. Jones of The Atlanta History Center as the recipient of the 2024 ECW Award for Service in Civil War Public History.

The award recognizes the work of an individual or organization that has made a significant impact on the field of Civil War public history in a way that better helps the general public connect with America’s defining event.

“The Atlanta History Center is a world-class attraction, and Gordon helped situate the city’s Civil War history as one of the center’s crown jewels,” says ECW Editor-in-Chief, Chris Mackowski. “With such show-piece artifacts as the Atlanta Cyclorama and the locomotive Texas—part of the ‘Great Locomotive Chase’—Gordon has made the most of the Center’s treasures to share a full, balanced, and remarkably rich story.”

Jones is the Atlanta History Center’s Senior Military Historian and Curator. He is responsible for the care and interpretation of more than 12,000 objects relating to the American Civil War era, including the DuBose, Dickey, and Wray Collections. He’s been on staff at the Center since 1991.

Gordon led the completion of a five-year project to move, restore, and exhibit the 1886 cyclorama painting, The Battle of Atlanta, which opened at the Atlanta History Center in 2019. He also curated the accompanying exhibition, Cyclorama: The Big Picture, as well as the 9,200 square-foot permanent exhibition Turning Point: The American Civil War.

He has curated a number of other temporary exhibitions on a variety of subjects, and he is the author of Confederate Odyssey: The George W. Wray Jr. Collection at the Atlanta History Center (UGA Press, 2015).

Gordon holds an M.A. in Public History from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University where he specialized in Civil War memory, performance, and popular culture.

“Gordon Jones is the consummate public historian,” says ECW alumnus Steve Davis, whose work has focused on the Atlanta campaign. “Professionally trained, he wields decades of experience as curator of the Atlanta History Center’s vast military collection. He’s also a highly respected authority on the Atlanta Campaign, ranking him among the nation’s top Civil War scholars.”

ECW contributor Dave Powell, who is working on a multi-volume study of the Atlanta campaign, expressed “delight” at Jones’s selection. “Dr. Jones’s work at the Atlanta History Center has been instrumental in preserving the important history of that city’s role in the struggle and making those resources available to historians and the public,” Powell says. “I owe Gordon a personal debt of thanks for his help in facilitating the use and access to the Wilbur Kurtz Papers, which are invaluable for anyone studying the Civil War in Georgia.”

Past recipients of the Emerging Civil War Award for Service in Civil War Public History include Civil War Trails, Inc,: The American Battlefield Trust; Dr. Gary Gallagher; Dave Ruth, former superintendent at Richmond National Battlefield; John Coski, former historian at the American Civil War Museum; the late D. P. Newton, founder of the White Oak Civil War Museum; Dave Roth of Blue & Gray Magazine; and the late Ted Alexander, former historian at Antietam National Battlefield and director of the Chambersburg Civil War Seminar.

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About Emerging Civil War

Emerging Civil War is the collaborative effort of more than thirty historians committed to sharing the story of the Civil War in an accessible way to the general public. Founded in 2011 by Chris Mackowski, Jake Struhelka, and Kristopher D. White, Emerging Civil War features public and academic historians of diverse backgrounds and interests, while also providing a platform for emerging voices in the field. Initiatives include the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series of books published by Savas Beatie, LLC; an annual symposium; a speakers’ bureau; and a daily blog: www.emergingcivilwar.com.

Emerging Civil War is recognized by the I.R.S. as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation.