Title: Lamartine Griffin Hardman Papers, Series II: Business
Creator:
Hardman, Lamartine Griffin, 1856-1937
Inclusive Dates: 1849-1953
Language(s): English
Extent:
106 box(es)
(54.25 linear feet), 50 reels of microfilm
Collection Number: RBRL137LGH_II
Repository:
Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies
Abstract: Lamartine Griffin Hardman Papers, II. Business files consist of Governor Hardman's business and personal papers from 1880 to 1956. The Commerce Office files subseries include such topics as temperance, the 1904 Jackson County primary election returns, Hardman's campaign expenses for 1914, Georgia State College of Agriculture finances, dam and water mill specifications, land surveys, tuberculosis treatments, and monthly reports from the Hardman Roller Mills. The General correspondence files feature miscellaneous materials related to Hardman's multiple business and personal interests. Highlights include a petition for a wage increase by Harmony Grove Mills workers in 1917, papers documenting Hardman's medical experiments with Indian hemp (cannabis indica) as an anesthetic, and correspondence concerning the planning and subsequent dedication of a monument to Dr. Crawford W. Long. Finances includes cancelled checks, tax returns, and asset reports. The Ledgers subseries contains business ledgers for Harmony Grove Orchards, Lake Alcoyne Farm, the Hardman Estate, and the Hardman Plantation. The Lamartine Hardman, Jr. papers document his activities at Harmony Grove Orchards, personal correspondence, and minutes from the Sarepta Baptist Association. The J. N. Griffin files contain correspondence and bills relating to mutual business interests held by Governor Hardman and his father-in-law, Mr. J. N. Griffin.
Dr. Lamartine Griffin Hardman was born April 14, 1856 in Harmony Grove, GA (now Commerce, GA). His father was both a physician and a minister, and Hardman followed in his father's footsteps by attending medical school at the Georgia Medical College in Augusta. He received further medical training at Bellevue Hospital in New York and also conducted post-graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania Polyclinic Hospital, and the Guy Hospital in London. In 1899, Hardman and his brother William established the Hardman Sanatorium in Harmony Grove.
Hardman achieved nationwide fame for his pursuit of the latest advances in medical science, especially his experiments in the new field of anesthesiology. Hardman was also a proponent of phrenology, the practice of measuring cranial features to predict mental traits. Phrenology was used throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to provide pseudoscientific defenses of white supremacy.
Aside from medicine, Hardman also had an interest in agriculture and manufacturing. He established the Harmony Grove Cotton Mill in 1893 and began investing in farmland, eventually becoming one of the largest farmers in Georgia by 1900. He used scientific processes to develop new agricultural practices, which he shared with other farmers around Commerce.
Hardman was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1902 as a representative from Jackson County. He served in the House of Representatives until 1907, when he was elected to the State Senate. In 1909 he returned to the Georgia House for a final term. During his time in the General Assembly, Hardman introduced bills to support agricultural education in public schools and establish the State Board of Health. Drawing on his upbringing as the son of a Baptist minister, Hardman was also an author of Georgia's 1907 prohibition law.
Hardman launched two unsuccessful campaigns for governor—in 1914 and 1916—before finally being elected in 1926. In 1928 he defeated E. D. Rivers for re-election. As governor, Hardman attempted to apply "scientific" processes to the administration of the state, which included establishing the Allen Commission on Simplification and Coordination to reorganize the state's government. Hardman proposed initiating a nutritional study of north Georgia to address reported shortcomings in the average diet. However, he also applied what he believed were scientific processes to capital punishment, using phrenology and a belief that fingerprints could be used to predict mental ability and criminality to determine which condemned prisoners would be spared from the electric chair.
Hardman left the governor's office in 1933. He returned to Commerce, where he lived with his wife Emma Wiley Griffin until his death on February 18, 1937.
Lamartine Griffin Hardman Papers, II. Business files consist of Governor Hardman's business and personal papers from 1880 to 1956. The Commerce Office files subseries include such topics as temperance, the 1904 Jackson County primary election returns, Hardman's campaign expenses for 1914, Georgia State College of Agriculture finances, dam and water mill specifications, land surveys, tuberculosis treatments, and monthly reports from the Hardman Roller Mills. The General correspondence files feature miscellaneous materials related to Hardman's multiple business and personal interests. Highlights include a petition for a wage increase by Harmony Grove Mills workers in 1917, papers documenting Hardman's medical experiments with Indian hemp (cannabis indica) as an anesthetic, and correspondence concerning the planning and subsequent dedication of a monument to Dr. Crawford W. Long. Finances includes cancelled checks, tax returns, and asset reports. The Ledgers subseries contains business ledgers for Harmony Grove Orchards, Lake Alcoyne Farm, the Hardman Estate, and the Hardman Plantation. The Lamartine Hardman, Jr. papers document his activities at Harmony Grove Orchards, personal correspondence, and minutes from the Sarepta Baptist Association. The J. N. Griffin files contain correspondence and bills relating to mutual business interests held by Governor Hardman and his father-in-law, Mr. J. N. Griffin.
This series is organized into six subseries: A. Commerce Office files, B. General, C. Finances, D. Ledgers, E. Lamartine G. Hardman, Jr., and F. J. N. Griffin files.
During the arrangement and description process, archivists noted that many of the manuscripts were very fragile and in need of preservation work. After Hardman's death in 1937 his papers were moved to Harmony Grove Mills for storage. When the Hardman family sold the mill in 1990 the papers were transferred to the basement of the First Commerce Bank in Commerce, GA. Shortly after the papers arrived at the Russell Library, archivists observed that the collection had suffered serious deterioration from poor paper quality. Additionally, many of the pulp paper carbons of Hardman's correspondence had become very brittle and were literally breaking into pieces. The more these originals were handled, the more fragile they became. These papers required transfer to an additional format to ensure the information would be available for current and future researchers. After discussions with the Hardman family in 1997, Russell Library archivists proposed a project to microfilm the collection.
Thanks to a generous grant through the Harmony Grove Foundation, the Hardman Preservation Microfilming Project began in January 1998. The library hired a microfilm preservation specialist to prepare the collection for filming and to supervise the filming project, which was conducted in cooperation with Computer Hardware, Imaging and Preservation Services (CHIPS) at the University of Georgia Libraries. Items in each folder of the collection were re-arranged alphabetically or chronologically (depending on the nature of the material), a task that took well over a year to complete. Items not selected for filming routinely included duplicates, household bills and receipts, cancelled checks, invitations, greeting cards, photographs, advertisements and promotional pamphlets, and non-print memorabilia. Material to be filmed was then counted, programmed onto individual reels, targeted and microfilmed according to Research Libraries Group (RLG) guidelines--a process that ultimately produced 153 reels of microfilm, or roughly one reel per linear foot of manuscript material. Reels for research use are housed at the Russell Library. Master negatives are stored at the Georgia Department of Archives and History in Atlanta; copy negatives are housed at the University of Georgia Libraries. A microfilm reel finding aid, keyed to the collection finding aid, is available to assist researchers.
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.
