The Coastal Georgia Historical Society was formed in 1965 by a small group of residents with an ambitious vision: to lead in the preservation of the artifacts and buildings that are the treasures of our coastal heritage. Their goal was to match the best historical societies in existence. The momentum and enthusiasm generated in the Society’s first year has never abated.
Now, 60 years later, the Society has achieved a level of quality and professionalism that is recognized and celebrated locally, regionally, and nationally. Full accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums is the highest honor a museum can receive and CGHS is currently one of only 15 AAM-accredited museums in Georgia. The addition of the World War II Home Front Museum, and over a decade of enhancements to CGHS exhibits, collections, technology, facilities, and programs have provided the basis for continued growth and excellence. At the Society’s Winter Program, they shared their plan for ongoing outreach to the broader community and region and a greater investment in Archaeology which will enable the Society to collect, preserve, interpret, and share all aspects of Coastal Georgia’s rich and fascinating history with residents and visitors alike.
The 2030 vision for the Society’s future is the goal of becoming a top-notch regional research and education center. Over the next five years, CGHS will focus on: growing partnerships and community collaborations; deepening educational programming and research; expanding and enhancing collections; and innovating for a sustainable and scalable future. To achieve their vision, CGHS must be able to attract, hire, and retain highly qualified and experienced staff—which requires significant investment. As such, they introduced a plan for endowments to fund a senior leadership team. This also provided the unique opportunity to recognize the 2025 retirement of a highly valued and respected senior staff member, Mimi Rogers, the Society’s Curator and Chief Historian.
Mimi’s lifelong dedication to Coastal Georgia history has created a robust legacy of education and preservation. Her professional roles have included Chief Curator on Jekyll Island, Advisor on Collections and Interpretation at the Isaiah Davenport House Museum in Savannah, Archivist on Sea Island, and since 2010, Curator of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. In honor of her extraordinary service to our area’s history, the Board of Directors established an Endowed position in her name. The Ellen H. “Mimi” Rogers Director of Collections & Education was announced at the Winter Program. Fundraising continues to raise the outstanding $500,000 of their $1,000,000 endowment goal.
In addition to announcing the endowment, CGHS Executive Director Sherri Jones introduced two new staff members: Director of Collections & Education Whitney Nell Stewart and Archeologist Aaron Ellrich. “Aaron and Whitney are scholars and experts in their fields who see the enormous opportunity that the study of our regional history provides. We look forward to the meaningful contribution that they will make to the study of Coastal Georgia history,” said Jones.
Whitney is an author, educator, and scholar of Southern history. After receiving her PhD in History from Rice University in 2017, she taught at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she attained tenure in 2024. She is author of This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), which won the 2024 Broussard Best First Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, the 2024 Ramirez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Work from the Texas Institute of Letters, a Choice Outstanding Academic Title from the Association of College and Research Libraries, and an Honorable Mention for the Willie Lee Rose Prize from the Southern Association for Women Historians. Whitney also writes for academic and public audiences in outlets like Smithsonian Magazine, Time, Winterthur Portfolio, and Journal of the Early Republic. Her work has been supported by research and writing fellowships from prestigious institutions like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian, and most recently by the International Center for Jefferson Studies and George Washington Presidential Library, among others. She is currently working on a book about the Southern origins of the American wine industry.
Aaron holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Florida and an M.A. in Museum Studies. His passion for archaeology and museums began during his undergraduate studies in anthropology and art history. Since 2015, he has contributed to fieldwork projects across the Southeast, including community museum development in northwestern Tanzania and historical research at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum in South Florida. Dr. Ellrich has also played a key role in digitizing archaeological collections for the Florida Museum of Natural History’s (FLMNH) Historical Archaeology division. He is enthusiastic about working in our region and eager to further integrate archaeology into the CGHS activities. He also looks forward to expanding the laboratory's capabilities to better serve the needs of the coastal region.
Even award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in history and the guest speaker for the Winter Program, remarked on the incredible accomplishments of the Society and the impressive community support. “This is not your typical little historical society!”
For more information about the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, their museums, programs, and membership, visit coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
