Stone Mountain collection > Caroline Helen Plane papers

Biographical Note

Caroline Helen (Jemison) Plane (1829-1925) was born on a plantation near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1854 she married Captain William F. Plane and they moved to Georgia. Her husband was killed in the Civil War. Following the war, Mrs. Plane organized the Atlanta Chapter and later the state division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and was awarded an honorary life presidency after her retirement. In 1915 she proposed that the UDC establish a memorial to the Confederacy at Stone Mountain and arranged for sculptor Gutzon Borglum to undertake the work. Mrs. Plane died in Atlanta in the midst of the dispute over Borglum's dismissal.

Scope and Content Note

Series 4, the Plane papers, contains the earliest material in the Stone Mountain Collection and the fullest documentation of the origins of the memorial. Much of the correspondence is between Borglum and Plane and relates to preliminary arrangements for the monument. The correspondence also includes letters from Samuel Venable in regard to leasing part of the mountain, some UDC correspondence, birthday greetings, and correspondence from supporters and critics of the project. Other correspondents include Mary Borglum, Hugh Manson Dorsey, Eugenia Dorothy Blount Lamar, and Hollins Nicholas Randolph. The clippings are concerned mainly with Borglum, his plans, progress, and dismissal. Arrangement is by type, then chronological.

The Plane Papers were acquired prior to 1942 from Mrs. Wirt Plane. They were originally arranged into a separate C. Helen Plane collection, and were incorporated into the Stone Mountain Collection in 1983.

Arrangement Note

The materials in this series have been separated by type, and each type is arranged chronologically.