The Troup County Archives is the repository of two extensive collections that are devoted to preserving every item that is related to the life and career of Athos Menaboni – the Italian-born Georgia artist who lived in Atlanta for sixty-plus years. There is also a third related collection within the TCA holdings.

Athos Menaboni, 1950, TCA Collections

A variety of art (drawings, lithographs, paintings, and sketches), artifacts, books, correspondence, ephemera, exhibition records, oral histories, periodicals, photographs, and other subject files and visual works are available.

Each collection is open to the public by appointment only to ensure our staff has the requested materials accessible in a timely manner. Finding aids provide specific details of our archival holdings.

These three collections comprise the most comprehensive body of research material assembled regarding one of Georgia’s most prominent artists.

Emily Bourne Grigsby
(1922-2020)

Emily Bourne Grigsby at home with her new Menaboni painting and her beloved Mr. Paddles, c. 1962, TCA Collections

Emily Bourne Grigsby was a personal friend of Athos Menaboni and championed every effort across Georgia to honor his life and career.

The Troup County Archives staff expresses our sincerest gratitude for her generous financial support of our Menaboni collections as well as the creation of this website.

Therefore, we dedicate the Menaboni section of our website to Emily to honor her memory and recognize her devotion to the life and legacy of her favorite artist.

Biography of Emily Bourne Grigsby

Emily Bourne Grigsby was born on January 16, 1922, and was raised in Kentucky. She attended Vanderbilt University and then Mills College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree. She also earned advanced degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Master of Science) and the Woodrow Wilson College of Law (Juris Doctor). She later studied at the Atlanta College of the Arts.

The arts were always a major part of Emily’s life. She sang with the San Francisco Opera Company and performed in leading roles with Atlanta’s Moonlight Opera Company. She served as president of the Atlanta Music Club and the Atlanta Woman’s Club. She was an accomplished artist and many exhibitions of her work were held across Georgia.

Because of her admiration for Athos Menaboni, her friend and one of Georgia’s most prominent artists, she financially supported a number of specific projects at the Troup County Archives, including professional conservation of art and other items, the purchase of archival materials that have enhanced the collections’ use, preservation, and storage, as well as the development of this website. In addition, she donated, in his memory to Kennesaw State University’s Zuckerman Museum of Art, two of his paintings and helped establish its Athos Menaboni Art Fund. She also endowed there the Athos Menaboni Art Research Scholarship for students in the College of the Arts.

Events in Georgia highlighting Menaboni’s life and art brought joy to Emily. She was a benefactor of major exhibitions mounted at the Albany Museum of Art (Albany), The Martha Berry Museum (Berry College, Rome), Goodyear Cottage (Jekyll Island Arts Association, Jekyll Island), and the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art (Marietta). Her support enabled the publication of gallery guides and catalogs.

Other notable accomplishments and interests of Emily’s included having been a licensed interior decorator, a print and runway model, and a licensed multi-engine airplane pilot. She enjoyed traveling the world, and even studied belly dancing and took saxophone lessons.

Emily was elected to Leadership America and, in 2004, was named a “Gracious Lady of Georgia.” She was a major patron of Zoo Atlanta, where the peahen and peacock are named “Emily” and “Grigsby,” and where she funded the aviary built for these birds. She also sponsored classrooms in Central and South America and helped organizations that save gorillas in Africa.

Emily Bourne Grigsby died at the age of nighty-eight on September 17, 2020. She will always be much admired for her exceptional achievements, talent, energy, intellect, and generosity.