Random Alabama (1)

I've been wanting to start a new series on the blog featuring photos I have that are related to Alabama in some way but not really needing a long post. I decided to start with this item. 

Mom and Dad met at Auburn University back in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute days--but everybody called it Auburn even then, she used to tell me.  They acquired or were given a fair amount of "Auburnalia" over the years. These materials included books, DVDs, etc and some objets d'art such as this character. 

So what can we say? Here's a cowrie shell glued to a slice of a small tree limb and featuring AU's orange and blue colors and a beanie and pennant. Does this look like a frog to you?

I remember this piece sat on a shelf in Dad's basement study for many years. Maybe one day I'll share a few more of the Auburn oddities and memorabilia I have. In the meantime, the university's licensing people need to get this one into mass production. Bound to be a hit.....isn't retro cool now??

Three Alabama Library Bookplates

Many books that have come through my collection over the years are ex-library and thus have library markings of various kinds, including bookplates. Below are examples from Birmingham and Vestavia public libraries and a specialized medical library at UAB.

I've written a number of posts about libraries in the state and hope to do more. A list of some is here. A chronology of early Alabama library history is here. I've also done a post on state library bookmarks. 

Bookplates and other marks of book ownership have a long and fascinating history. 

Some more comments are below. 

This bookplate depicts the 1969 library building. The current facility opened in December 2010; a photo is at the Bham Wiki site. 

The facility was briefly named after Richard M. Scrushy, CEO when HealthSouth donated a building occupied by the library in 1995. 

Source: BhamWiki

In 1925 most of the collection of Birmingham's twelve year-old public library was destroyed in a devastating City Hall fire. A new library opened in 1927 and is depicted on this bookplate. The current Birmingham Central Public Library opened in 1984 and after renovation this building reopened as the Lynn-Henley Research Library. 

This bookplate features an electrocardiogram, which for decades was used as the logo of the UAB School of Medicine's Department of Anesthesiology. The department's library opened in 1980; I served as the Clinical Librarian from 1983 until 2015. I began when the library was located in the Kracke building, which UAB demolished in 2021. After a few years the library moved to the ninth floor of Jefferson Towers; the photo below shows the main room there. 

 The structure opened in 1929 as the dormitory for nursing students at the Hillman Hospital next door and operated as such until 1963. In July 1965 the building reopened as the Roy R. Kracke Clinical Services Building, named in honor of Dr. Roy Kracke, the first Dean of the Medical College of Alabama. Various clinics and offices were located there over the years. I think Kracke was the third oldest building on campus, behind only Old and New Hillman.

Alabama Welcomes You

The Alabama Department of Transportation currently operates eight welcome centers for visitors entering the state from Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. Only one is not located on an Interstate highway.

The Houston Welcome Center is on US 231 just across the Florida line near the small town of Madrid south of Dothan. We have passed it many times on our way back from trips to Apalachicola and St. George Island or our daughter Becca's house near St. Augustine. We've stopped a few times as well, and I took photos on our last trip. 

In 2018 Kelly Kazek published an article on various marble welcome signs around the state, including this one. A few more comments are below. 

Of course, this sign is always good to see as we cross into Alabama.

"Erected by the State Highway Department of Alabama. Frank M. Dixon-Governor, Chris J. Sherlock-Director, 1942". Sherlock was Highway Director from 1939-1942 during most of Dixon's term as governor. 

This monument gives the date of Alabama statehood and includes the state's great seal. I have no idea if it was originally intended for this site or moved here.

Well, since it's Alabama and close to Dothan, there's a peanut involved.

This sign is now itself an historical monument. Was the last upgrade to this welcome center made during Guy Hunt's administration?

Huntsville Portfolio by C.E. Monroe, Jr.

A few months ago my brother Richard and I came across this item as we were going through Dad's study in the house in Huntsville. The portfolio of loose sheets contains illustrations by Charles Edmund Monroe, Jr. [1917-1999], an artist who went by C.E. Monroe, Jr. The group includes a page giving a bit of information about Huntsville "Firsts" and six illustrations. I have included these below.

Monroe's Find-A-Grave listing includes an obituary with the following information:

"Mr. Monroe was a nationally renowned illustrator, with covers and illustrations in Life, Colliers, Field and Stream, True, Progressive Farmer and Redbook magazines. He was also a successful wildlife and sporting artist, as well as a portrait artist. He donated the portrait of Wernher Von Braun at the VBC. He was honored in 1994 by the Huntsville Museum of Art at the Spring Gala."

Monroe also designed covers for Tarzan books published by Grosset and Dunlap in the 1940s and 1950s.  His interest in the city's history is further exhibited by his cover design and layout of the Huntsville Heritage Cookbook published in 1972. 

He is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.

Source: Find-A-Grave

The FictionMags Index includes these illustrations in various magazines:

Monroe, C(harles) E(dmund), Jr. (1918-1999) (about) (chron.)
• * Golden Trout, (cv) True #215, April 1955
• * [front cover], (cv) Collier’s November 13 1953
• * [illustration(s)], (il) Redbook Magazine October 1942
• * [illustration(s)], (il) Collier’s Sep 10, Dec 24 1949, Jan 14, Jan 21, Mar 4, May 13, Sep 9, Sep 23 1950, Feb 24, Jun 16, Dec 29 1951, Feb 9, Oct 11, Nov 8 1952
  Nov 11 1955, Jun 8 1956
• * [illustration(s)], (il) True #285, February 1961

Tallulah Bankhead Visits Alabama in 1942

I've done a few other posts on actress Tallulah Bankhead, including one on the 1944 Alfred Hitchcock film Lifeboat, in which she appeared with another Alabama native, Mary Anderson. I've also written about Tallulah and Lucille Ball, her appearance in a two-part Batman TV episode and with Robert Young in the 1932 film Faithless. I've covered her 1941 performance in Birmingham with the touring company of "The Little Foxes", which also discusses other theatrical appearances in Alabama by Bankhead. Finally, I wrote about a visit to her father William's home in Jasper, where she was married to actor John Emery on August 31, 1937. 

Now we come to her 1942 appearances in her home state, apparently in Jasper and Birmingham. In much of that year she was between two major theatrical projects. She had acted in Clifford Odet's drama "Clash by Night" in which she played a working-class housewife. Can you imagine? The play ran on Broadway from late December 1941 until early February 1942. Later in the year she opened in Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth" in November 1942.

During 1942 Bankhead worked on several projects to raise money for the war effort. On January 18 she made appearances urging the public to buy war bonds. On April 5 she teamed up with Danny Kaye at La Martinique in New York and for $10,000 that went to defense bonds she performed as the schoolteacher in "The Corn is Green", a role made famous by Ethel Barrymore. The evening included a  personal $5000 donation for bonds. Her 1942 appearances in Alabama may have been more fund raising.

Tallulah also did some similar work on radio in 1942. "War Bond Drive" a radio broadcast on NBC on  April 11 included Bankhead among several other stage & screen stars who read pledges from listeners. On "Listen, America" another broadcast on NBC on April 26, Bankhead read Carl Bixby's "The Roots of a Tree", which he had written for her. 

Bankhead's father had died in September 1940 and her trips back to Alabama seem to have gotten fewer after those in 1941 and 1942. She had many relatives around Jasper, but her outrageous behavior over the years had scandalized them and other conversative residents of the state. However, when she did return Tallulah drew crowds!

There's another interesting item from 1942 involving both Bankhead and fellow Alabama native Joe Louis. That spring she declared Louis to be the "greatest man in the United States" after Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her comments attracted significant press coverage; you can read one of the articles below. 

All photos below were taken by Ed Jones of the  Birmingham News. 

Tallulah visits with some ladies.

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Tallulah speaks at the American Legion post in Jasper. Sitting beside her is Marie Bankhead Owen [1869-1958], author and director of the state archives for 35 years. She was Tallulah's aunt. 

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

Bankhead salutes the flag at the American Legion in Jasper.

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

A parade for Bankhead in Jasper

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

A smiling Tallulah and her dog at the original Tutwiler Hotel in Birmingham

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Tallulah and a military officer

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

May 28, 1942

Source: 
Library of Congress collection
Chronicling America

Work by Carolyn Shores Wright at the Fayette Art Museum

Last summer my brother Richard and I made a day trip to Fayette. I've written about the town in northeast Alabama here. Our main purpose was a visit to the Fayette Art Museum. We had previously corresponded with Anne Perry, the director, who had expressed interest in having some of mom's artwork in the museum. She kindly gave us a tour, and I wrote specifically about the museum here. Richard and I were impressed with the collection of some 5000 pieces which includes works by well-known Alabama artists such as Lois Wilson, Jimmy Lee Sudduth and many others. That collection fills display areas on two floors, with much more in storage. 

Since that visit the family has donated a number of mostly watercolor originals to the museum. On April 26 a reception was held at the museum to announce the opening of a gallery devoted to mom's art. Dianne and I were able to attend and met the city's mayor and his wife and current and former museum board members. We enjoyed refreshments, and the drive to the museum and back to Pelham took us through some wonderful undeveloped countryside in northeast Alabama.

We know mom would be very pleased to have her work in this museum in the company of its wide range of artists. More comments are  below. 

As I described in the previous piece about the museum, the Fayette Civic Center and Art Museum are located in a former elementary school that opened in 1930. The facility is used for many different events from concerts to wedding receptions, all in the midst of art displays everywhere.

This creation guarding the front entrance is one of several frogs around town created by local artists. in this case Deborah Hill in 2021. 

We were greeted by a nice display featuring one of mom's floral paintings in oil. She worked in that medium for some years in the 1970s, but she was so prolific she wanted something that dried faster. She tried acrylics, but soon took up watercolor for good. 

One of her favorite subjects was birds, and she painted many. On the left is what she called an enhanced mat, one on which she painted something decorative on the mat.

On the left is "On the Green" one of her "Bird Life" series of humorous bird paintings. On the right is one of her many hummingbird paintings. 

In the 1990s the Franklin Mint issued two series of six plates each featuring mom's bird and bird house paintings. Here are four; below are two of the original paintings.

AMIA Studios specialized in stained glass items, from larger wall hangings such as the one below to smaller pieces. The original painting is above. The company celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019, but no longer seems to be in business. AMIA also issued suncatchers, candle holders and similar items featuring mom's work. 

Jack Black was a newspaperman in Fayette and was instrumental along with the city council in founding the museum in 1969. He served as director for 15 years. 

Some of mom's work was featured in the museum's Christmas festival in December. Two of her many holiday paintings hang on the left.

The oil painting of two owls is the largest work of mom's we've ever seen. Through a fortuitous series of events, we purchased the painting in September 2023 from an estate sale in Huntsville. The work had been purchased from mom at an art show in the 1970s and hung in a home all those years just a few miles from mom and dad's house. 

Work by Carolyn Shores Wright can be purchased as prints, greeting cards and on many other products at Fine Art America. 

An Award from the Alabama Historical Association

Since 2016 the Alabama Historical Association has given out the Robert J. "Jeff" Jakeman Award for Digital History to honor various types of online Alabama history resources and projects. Past awards have gone to such entities as the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Bhamwiki and the Alabama Digital Preservation Network.

I was surprised in February to receive an email from Dr. Martin Olliff, Chair of the Jakeman Award 2025 Committee, that informed me I was receiving a Special Recognition Jakeman Award for this very blog you are reading. Alabama Yesterdays has been chugging along since 2014, and I've posted more than 950 pieces.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the annual meeting and the award presentation on April 10 in Opelika. I did send the following statement that Dr. Olliff kindly read for me.

"I am very honored to receive the 2025 Jakeman Award and would like to thank the historical association,  Dr. Marty Olliff, Chair of the Committee and other members. I recall email exchanges with Dr. Jakeman in the very early days of the Encyclopedia of Alabama project. With the blog Alabama Yesterdays, I try to keep in mind his scholarship and enthusiasm for the state’s history. 

The blog is certainly not an organized resource like the EOA. I rummage around in the attic and basement so to speak where obscure authors, forgotten actors or lesser known events can be found. For example, I’ve done a post about boxer Joe Louis’ appearance in a strange 1970 film, The Phynx. 

I try to work some family history in there, too. One post recounted my mother’s memory of seeing George Washington Carver speak in Camp Hill in 1936 when she was seven years old. I hope these blog posts and similar efforts on social media platforms like Twitter, BlueSky and Instagram offer something of interest to people who encounter them."

The Large and Small Project Awards in 2025 were given to a pair of exciting projects, Hiztorical Vision Productions and the Southern Music Research Center. If you have an interest in the state's history, I would urge you to join the association. In addition to the annual meeting in the spring, a fall pilgrimage is held in a different location. The AHA also published a quarterly journal and a twice yearly newsletter. 

Jeff Jakeman, PhD

1948-2023