Research Services

Rich's department store clock — Clock detail, Rich’s Department Store (Schutze, 1924), Atlanta, Georgia

While relishing the sheer adventure of historical research as an investigative challenge, Laura firmly believes the ultimate goal of historical research is to communicate an understanding of the past.

Laura has experience in researching and presenting history to a variety of audiences in an array of different media, striving to identify the relationship between the past and the present, and achieving a better understanding of our world. For ten years, she worked as a volunteer costumed interpreter at the Smith Family Farm at the Atlanta History Center. She learned how to communicate to a variety of audiences the history of the Smith family and how they utilized the various buildings at the site. During her time at the History Center, she began and completed her master’s in historic preservation. As part of her school work, she compiled a document of all the historic plants being grown at that time on the farm. She also produced an historic structure report and conditions assessment of the Smith farm house and its outbuildings. Since those first school projects in the early 2000s, in addition to teaching master’s students in heritage preservation, Laura has produced a plethora of historic documentation in a variety of formats for numerous historical societies, neighborhood associations, government entities, schools, professional preservation groups, museums, cities, and individual homeowners. The culmination of her research skills was demonstrated in her Ph.D. dissertation, How the Car Won the Road: The Surrender of Atlanta’s City Streets 1920-1929; and her Ph.D. was awarded in 2021.

APPS offers the following research services:

Community histories and historic contexts
Building histories and chronologies
Mapping
History curriculum development
Exhibit research