Some Alabama Highway Map Covers (2)

In part one of this blog post, I discussed some of the "official" highway maps of Alabama that I've collected over the years as well as a few published by the Rand McNally company. I also included a brief look at the history of road and highway maps in general. Here's another selection of mostly official ones; some comments below.

I should probably note some covers on these state maps that I'd like to see in the future. How about one featuring a collage of the state's famous writers--Harper Lee, Rick Bragg, Fannie Flagg, Robert McCammon, and so many more? Or a collage of the state's film and TV stars--Jim Nabors, Kate Jackson, Courtney Cox, Henry Walthall, Cathy O'Donnell, and that young whippersnapper from Cullman whose name escapes me? Oh, right, Channing Tatum. Or maybe Helen Keller, perhaps the single most famous individual from Alabama?

Ah, well, I guess those sorts of covers might not attract the tourists like yet another one featuring the beach!

Here we have two typical map covers--an historic site and a site of natural beauty.

One more beach cover, and another historic site. Looking over all these maps I've collected, I'm pleased to see how many have featured historic places.

At some point the back cover of these maps transitioned from photos and statements from the governor and the state highway director to a photo of the governor and his wife along with a statement. Someone seems to be missing from that map on the right, however.

OK, ok, another beach cover. But this one's pretty cute, and those beaches do bring in a lot of dollars.

Wait--they have a Shakespeare festival in Alabama? I think this may be the only one I've collected that features the performing arts. Perhaps the Alabama Ballet is due for a cover? The Alabama Symphony Orchestra? 

I'm really surprised none of the country music acts or American idol winners from Alabama have appeared on a map cover. 

This one is the second map cover to feature the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Our kids Amos and Becca both did a week at Space Camp and enjoyed it. 

Beach map covers always show the blue water and white sands--where are the jellyfish? Sharks? Sand burrs? Or maybe just a dune or two?

Wait--they have museums in Alabama? 

This one is certainly worth a visit, as we've done periodically over the years. Son Amos and daughter Becca always enjoyed a tour, especially when it started with one of those wonderful Sunday jazz brunches! 

Oh, and the Alabama Museums Association has a long list of members. Maybe another one will be featured on an official highway map in our lifetime.

And finally a Rand McNally map and one of those free gas station maps from back in the day. Dad dated this one for us.

UPDATE 1 February 2019

I wanted to add the newer highway maps for 2017-18 and also a specialized map from 2001.

Update 20 August 2019: And here's the 2019-2020 official state highway map:

This one has the same "icons" featured on the back cover.

Alabama Book Covers (10): Augusta Evans Wilson

Back in April 2015 I posted an item about the films based on Augusta Evans Wilson's 1867 novel--and massive bestseller--St. Elmo. Now I'd like to include her in this ongoing blog series, "Alabama Book Covers."

In that earlier post, I included this background on Wilson:

"She's one of Mobile's legendary residents; although born in Columbus, Georgia, she spent most of her life in the city. She published nine novels before her death in 1909, and some of them such as St. Elmo and Beulah made her one of the bestselling American novelists of her day. 

Like many female authors of that time, she began writing to supplement her family's income. St. Elmo sold over a million copies and made her the wealthiest female writer in America before Edith Wharton. Only Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur sold better among American novels in the nineteenth century.

There is a town in Mobile County named after the novel. Several of her works, including St. Elmo, can be found via Project Gutenberg. A recent book about Evans is The Life and Works of Augusta Jane Evans Wilson, 1835–1909 by Brenda Ayres [Ashgate, 2012]."

I've included comments on some of the individual illustrations below. 

Augusta Evans Wilson [1835-1909]

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Inez, the first of Wilson's nine novels, appeared in 1855 and was not a success. She began writing the book when she was fifteen.  

Beulah was Wilson's second novel and a big seller. The story describes a young woman's crisis of faith, much like Wilson's own, and is set in an Alabama city much like Mobile. 

In addition to being a bestselling book, St. Elmo was filmed three times by 1923. Three other Wilson novels were also filmed. 

Wilson's third novel, published in 1864, was a pro-Confederacy story and was issued by different publishers in the North and South.

Wilson was going blind as she wrote her last novel, published in 1907. She dictated it to a niece. 

This novel was Wilson's first after the Civil War, published a year after her 1868 marriage to a successful Mobile businessman.

Her next to last novel appeared in 1902. 

This collection of Wilson's letters was published in 2002.

Alabama Book Covers (7): Stephen Gresham

Back in the dim past of the 1970's I worked for several years at Draughon Library on the Auburn University campus. How we met is lost in the mists of time, but at some point I did meet a young English professor named Stephen Gresham. We spent significant time in the break room at the library discussing the possible supernatural or extraterrestrial overtones of such things as cattle mutilations. He was from Kansas and had a bit of personal experience with such matters, as I remember.

By the time I left Auburn in 1980, Dr. Gresham had begun writing fiction and has continued to do so ever since. Today he has retired from the English Department and has become well-known for his suspense, horror and young adult novels and stories written under his own name and two pseudonyms. 

He continues to live in Auburn. Below are covers from a few of his novels.