Jackson EMC Records, 1939-2004

Summary

Creator:

Jackson Electric Membership Corporation (Jefferson, Ga.)

Date:

1939-2004

Extent:

26 box(es) (23.9 linear feet and 60 audiovisual items)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Jackson EMC Records, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia, 30602-1641.

Background

Scope and content:

Jackson EMC Records document the work of the cooperative to provide and promote the use of electricity throughout its service area and more broadly the changes ushered in by electrification. The records include photographs, industry publications, histories, scrapbooks, news clippings, and financial reports as well as some scant correspondence and membership information.

Biographical / historical:

Jackson Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) is a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative chartered in 1938 to serve electricity to the then-rural areas of northeast Georgia. The cooperative was made possible through the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a program of the Roosevelt Administration's New Deal. Workers broke ground in Jefferson, Georgia, in January 1939 for construction of Jackson EMC's first transmission lines. In April of that year, power was delivered for the first time to farms and homes in the rural counties of Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson and Madison. By 1960, electricity had reached 98% of homes and businesses within Jackson EMC's service area. The next several decades saw increasing growth, despite the economic downturn of the 1970s, with the cooperative tripling in size between 1980 and 2000. As of 2013, Jackson EMC provides electric service to more than 210,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 10 metro Atlanta and northeast Georgia counties.

Arrangement:

The records are arranged in six series: I. General, II. Newsletters and Magazines, III. Scrapbooks, IV. Photographs, V. Artifacts, and VI. Audiovisual Materials.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Oral histories.
Rural electrification.
Electric utilities -- Georgia
Jackson Electric Membership Corporation (Jefferson, Ga.).
Audiovisual materials

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

Library acts as "fair use" reproduction agent.

Before material from collections at the Richard B. Russell Library may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permissions. Persons wishing to quote from materials in the Russell Library collection should consult the Director. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.

Preferred citation:

Jackson EMC Records, Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia, 30602-1641.