An exhibit at Brenau University allows people to enter the world of gorilla researcher Dian Fossey, with items such as the typewriter Fossey used to write "Gorillas in the Mist."

Though the collection was only on temporary loan last year, it will now be a long-term fixture in the library, said Helen Ray, former Brenau provost and vice president for academic affairs.

"It will be here for at least five years," Ray said.

Since her retirement in 2008, Ray has spearheaded an evolving relationship with the Atlanta-based Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Ray authored the agreement between the university and the Fossey organization to house the researcher's possessions in the library for the long haul.

"It took a year of back and forth discussion and the agreement was refined by our lawyers, but it was finally approved last April," Ray said.

The collection includes arrows and knives Fossey took from poachers, and many of the personal items - including her pistol, eyeglasses and rosaries - from the Rwandan hut where she was found murdered in 1985. Fossey was best known for her extensive work with the endangered mountain gorillas.

"Many of these are very personal, intimate items," Ray said.

Ray said the exhibit is the only one of its kind in the world, and was secured with the help of a donation from Doug Ivestar, the former chairman of the Coca Cola Co.

Ivestar and his wife Kay are Gainesville natives and provided Brenau with money for special programming and the arts.

"It gave us an opportunity to bring more cultural events to the university," Ray said.

In 2009, Brenau helped sponsor a "green carpet" event at the Woodruff Center in Atlanta, where the Fossey Gorilla Fund showed the film version of "Gorillas in the Mist" on the big screen. Ray said the event was the springboard for an enduring relationship with the Gorilla Fund.

"We began to partner with them and invited their scientists to our campus to speak," Ray said.

In her communications with the organization's president, Ray said she learned of a storage unit in Atlanta that was packed from floor to ceiling with Fossey's belongings.

Ray inquired about installing a temporary exhibit at Brenau, and the organization agreed.

"Myself and two librarians went to the storage unit and it was just incredible. We all felt like we were treading on sacred ground. They gave us free access," Ray said, adding that only a few of the items were off-limits because of their fragile condition. "We packed it into our cars and the Brenau vans."

The Brenau staff arranged the items in the school's library where there are longer operating hours and more foot traffic. It was the first time many of the items were displayed to the public, Ray said.

Melissa Hozey, special collections librarian and catalog librarian for Brenau is curator for the exhibit.

Some of the main items the college secured was Fossey's recording equipment and her desk and chair.

"She would climb into elevations of 9,000 to 14,000 (feet) and took detailed notes of the gorillas. Then she would come back to the cabin and type. This is the typewriter she used," Ray said, as she pointed out the machine Monday.

Ray said the new agreement allows the school to return to the storage locker once a year to bring new or additional items to the exhibit.

"We brought back what we felt would be the most interesting to the public, but we hardly made a dent in the storage unit," Ray said.

After five years, Brenau could choose to extend the items' stay, but Ray said the exhibit will maybe have lived out its purpose at the university at that point.

She adds that while the collection is housed in the library, it's likely to forge many learning opportunities. Science students, for example, can learn more about gorilla behaviors while business students can study the ways in which nonprofits use marketing strategies.

"When you look at the project and the curriculum of the university there is hardly a major we offer that can't benefit in some way from this exhibit," Ray said.

The exhibit is open the public and available for viewing during the library's regular hours. Groups may also make an appointment by calling 770-534-6213.