General Info

Designed by British architectural prodigy William Jay in the neoclassical Regency style, the Telfair Academy is a former mansion built in 1819 for Alexander Telfair, son of Revolutionary War patriot and Georgia governor Edward Telfair. In 1875, Alexander’s sister Mary – heir to the family fortune and last to bear the Telfair name – bequeathed the house and its furnishings to the Georgia Historical Society to be opened as a museum. After significant renovation by German-born architect Detlef Lienau, whose adaptations included the addition of the Sculpture Gallery and the Rotunda, the building opened to the public in 1886 as the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bird Girl, made famous by the Jack Leigh photo on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, can be found here along with the museum's permanent collection of American Impressionism.Designed by British architectural prodigy William Jay in the neoclassical Regency style, the Telfair Academy is a former mansion built in 1819 for Alexander Telfair, son of Revolutionary War patriot and Georgia governor Edward Telfair. In 1875, Alexander’s sister Mary – heir to the family fortune and last to bear the Telfair name – bequeathed the house and its furnishings to the Georgia Historical Society to be opened as a museum. After significant renovation by German-born architect Detlef Lienau, whose adaptations included the addition of the Sculpture Gallery and the Rotunda, the building opened to the public in 1886 as the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bird Girl, made famous by the Jack Leigh photo on the cover of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, can be found here along with the museum's permanent collection of American Impressionism.