Ruth Blair

On January 1, 1921, she resumed her career at the newly created[15] Georgia Department of Archives and History as a secretary[5] under Lucian Lamar Knight.[16] Knight described her as his "able assistant" and a "trained investigator with a peculiar gift for organization".[17] Knight arranged for Blair to spend a week at the state archive in Boston in June 1922 to study their methods.[17]

In 1924, as his six-year term was ending, Knight declined re-election by the Georgia Historical Commission due to ill health. Knight "strongly recommended" Blair as his successor.[16] She faced competition from two other candidates: Mildred Lewis Rutherford and educator Charles M. Neel. Blair prevailed by a vote of seven to three.[18] On January 1, 1925 she succeeded Knight as director of the department and as state historian of Georgia,[5] the first woman to do so. She was one of just a few women, including Marie Bankhead Owen and Margaret Cross Norton, who had achieved such a position in the U.S. up to that date.[18] The Atlanta Constitution hailed her appointment as an honor paid to the women of Georgia and harbinger of "the woman's age".[19][18]

She was responsible for compiling Georgia's Official Register for 1925 through 1931.[5] She also edited and published other publications through the department.[5][20][21][22] However, during her second term the pace of publication slowed due to lack of funds.[23]

Rhodes Hall

The space allotted to the department at the Georgia State Capitol had been limited.[15] Although it had been expanded in 1925, Blair campaigned for a better location for the department and its collections. Through personal connections she secured the donation[24] of the former Amos G. Rhodes home on Peachtree Street to the state for this purpose. The twenty-room stone mansion contained stained glass windows dedicated to the Confederacy. The building was renamed Rhodes Memorial Hall, and the state formally accepted the gift in 1929.[24]

One of the conditions of the transfer was that the home always be occupied. Blair fulfilled this requirement by moving into the home with her bachelor brother Hiram.[24] The formal opening took place on May 10, 1930.[25] Two of the rooms of the house were dedicated to local historical and patriotic societies including the Atlanta Historical Society, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Daughters of 1812, among others. Regular open house events were held that helped publicize the work of the department and occasionally raise additional funds for its work.[26]

In August 1929 the Georgia General Assembly called upon each of the state's counties to appoint a historian to compile a history of their county for the upcoming bicentennial of the state in 1932. Blair worked closely with the county historians to train and advise them.[27]

In May 1933 Blair was the only woman on a 21-member committee created by Joseph Henry Beale to organize the American Legal History Society.[5] In March 1936 she was one of two women on a 10-member committee to organize the Society of American Archivists (SAA). She was elected one of the five councilors of that newly formed organization.[5][28]

In 1935, alongside ten other noted women, including Martha McChesney Berry, Annie Jump Cannon, Caroline Pafford Miller, and Florence Sabin,[29] she was given an honorary Master of Public Service by Oglethorpe University.[5]

During her second term as state historian, threats of budget cuts and reorganization of the department forced Blair to lobby for her department's independence at the capitol and solicit the assistance of outside groups. She was successful, but she decided she didn't have a future at the department.[30] Blair left her job as State Historian at the end of 1936, after two six-year terms,[6] and was succeeded by Louise Frederick Hays.[31]

During her two terms, Blair had paved the way for other women, including Mary G. Bryan, who began as Blair's assistant but became state archivist in 1951 and was the fifteenth president of SAA.[32]

Ruth Blair circa 1937

Blair was a founding member[33] and secretary-treasurer of the Atlanta Historical Society starting at its founding in 1926.[6] In those days it was organized "socially".[34] On January 1, 1937, she became the first executive secretary[33] of the Atlanta organization,[5] actively managing it as a full-time employee.[4]

It was intended her hiring would invigorate the organization.[35] One early change was issuing their publication Atlanta Historical Journal more regularly.[35] Fund-raising drives were held,[34] and plans were made for the organization to obtain a permanent building in place of offices they had rented previously.[36] Blair set about curating a large collection of records and artifacts[35] that would later be displayed at the Atlanta History Center.

If we are to sell Atlanta we must first know Atlanta. I think the Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Tourist Bureau and other such organizations would render a great service if they would put more emphasis on the importance of Atlantans knowing more about their city.

— Ruth Blair, Atlanta Constitution, September 3, 1939[37]

In 1942 she helped plan a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Marthasville (Atlanta's original name), including designing a commemorative set of coffee cups for the occasion.[38]

In 1946 the organization purchased the former Willis B. Jones home (designed by Neel Reid), and once again Blair supervised an organization's move into a former home on Peachtree Street.[36] This mansion contained 10 rooms and had plenty of room for the society's collection.[39] The new headquarters was officially opened on April 19, 1947.[40]

In 1955 Blair was still in charge when the organization reached 1,000 paid members,[34] up from 44 members in the early days.[2] She achieved this without an assistant of her own until 1955.[2]

Blair retired in April 1956 and was succeeded as the head of the Atlanta Historical Society by Allen P. Julian.[41]