Marietta's Gone With the Wind Museum at Brumby Hall and Gardens and the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro are inviting the public to a three-day Jubilee Weekend marking 90 years since Margaret Mitchell's novel first hit shelves. The celebration runs November 6 through 8, spanning both Cobb and Clayton counties with museum tours, guest talks, shopping, and a film screening.
The anniversary being celebrated traces back to June 30, 1936, when Macmillan published Mitchell's sprawling Civil War-era novel, which went on to sell more than one million copies within six months and earned the Atlanta author the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, according to History.com. The Jubilee Weekend itself was announced by the City of Marietta, Ga., Government, which described it as a collaboration between the Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum and the Road to Tara Museum.
Festivities kick off Friday, November 6, with a reception in the Historic Brumby Gardens from 4 to 7 p.m., featuring a private gift shop sale offering access to rare items. The gardens themselves sit behind a building with a past far older than the novel they now celebrate: Historic Brumby Hall was built in 1851 as the residence of Colonel Arnoldus V. Brumby, superintendent of the Georgia Military Institute, and the home reportedly survived Union General William T. Sherman's 1864 March to the Sea because Sherman spared it out of respect for his West Point classmate, per the City of Marietta.
Saturday Brings Tours, Talks and a Film Screening
Saturday, November 7, is the busiest day on the schedule. A tour of the Marietta Gone With the Wind Museum begins at 11 a.m., overlapping with a vendor market in the gardens running from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. At noon, Megan Tatum Miller, an educator and historic costume specialist representing Pegee of Williamsburg, gives a talk.
The afternoon continues with a 2 p.m. tour of the Marietta History Center, followed by an informal screening of the film at 3 p.m. At 5 p.m., film historian Pauline Bartel takes the stage. Bartel is the author of multiple books on the production, including The Complete Gone With the Wind Trivia Book and Gone With the Wind: 1939 Day by Day, which chronicles the making and premiere of the film adaptation, according to Reel Travels.
The Marietta museum's collection of screen artifacts, including Vivien Leigh's original Bengaline honeymoon dress, belongs to Texas collector Vicky Rogers, who also runs the Gone With the Wind Remembered Museum in Cleburne, Texas, according to Cobb In Focus. The Marietta museum itself first opened in April 2003 at the Old Thomas Warehouse Building near Marietta Square before relocating to Brumby Hall in April 2018, and the city appointed Jessica Giancola as the museum's executive director in November 2024 to oversee operations and community programming.
Sunday Shifts South to the Road to Tara Museum
The weekend wraps up Sunday, November 8, with a celebration at the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring special guests from the Herb Bridges family.
Jonesboro is one of two Georgia cities hosting the Jubilee Weekend.
The 1939 film remains the highest-grossing movie in box-office history when adjusted for inflation, according to CNN.
Organizers say more details and updates on the 90th Jubilee Weekend are available at gwtwmarietta.com.
