THE HOWELLS OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA

INTERVIEW WITH MISS ROSALIE HOWELL IN THE SUNDAY MAGAZINE, ATLANTA JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 27, 1959

Rosalie Howell (1877-1970) was my great-great aunt, sister to Effie who married my great-grandfather Robert L. Foreman and daughter of Evan P. Howell who founded the Atlanta Constitution. Rosalie was one of the founders of the Atlanta Historical Society and built a Japanese house in Highlands, North Carolina.

July, 2023

FDR AND THE HOWELLS

Yolande Gwin was for many years the Society Editor of the Atlanta Constitution. In her book Yolande's Atlanta (1893), she describes her encounter with FDR when he asks after the Major (Clark Howell, Jr.) and his wife. Miss Gwin is pictured here.

From Rosalie Howell's collection (held at the Historical Society) here is a picture autographed by FDR for her brother, Clark Howell, Sr.

Posted March, 2018.

HOWELL PHOTOGRAPH

Circa 1920, L to R, Clark Howell, unknown, Comer Howell, Julian Howell, Clark Howell Sr,, Albert Howell, at Pine Hill.

October 2016.

EVAN P. HOWELL by ROSALIE HOWELL (1917)

The first regularly printed journal of the Savannah-based Georgia Historical Society was published in 1917 and contains a wonderful biography of Evan P. Howell.

This document, belonging to my great-great Aunt Rosalie Howell, somehow never made its way to the huge mass of papers she donated to the Atlanta Historical Society. It was held by my father Robert L. Foreman, Jr. who was likely given it by his father Trot.

Although the article is anonymously credited to "A Georgian," there is no doubt in my mind that this loving tribute was authored by none other than Aunt Ros. Ros later become a prime mover in the creation of the Atlanta Historical Society, so that her Howell papers would have a safe and permanent haven.

Aunt Ros pictured here (center) at a 1954 Atlanta Historical Society tea in honor of the Howells:

ATLANTA'S CARNEGIE LIBRARY SCHOOL 1907

My great-great Aunt, Rosalie Howell, whose life coincided with mine and whom I knew, graduated from the Carnegie Library School in Atlanta's new library building.

The sample questions from the previous class were given out to Ros and her fellow students (girls only) to give them a suggestion of the final examination. The level of General Knowledge required to pass this test is astonishing by today's standards, not to mention that a fluency in French was also required.

After receiving the Croix de Guerre for her nursing work in France during the Great War (and presented to her by General "Blackjack" Pershing on his visit to Atlanta), for about twenty years she ran the extensive East Coast library system for the US Army, administered from Governor's Island in New York Harbor.

Aunt Ros, as I knew her, was the fierce keeper of the Howell history. She's shown here in her apartment in the (now-demolished) Pershing Point Hotel, named after Pershing following his visit here to meet her. Her scrapbooks are held by the Atlanta Historical Society which she helped to found so she'd have a place to give her scrapbooks.