Alabama's Centennial Half-Dollar

In 2019 I wrote a blog post about Alabama's 1919 statehood centennial celebrations. One of the featured items was a commemorative half-dollar coin issued by the U.S. Mint. In this post I wanted to delve a bit deeper into that coin's history.

The state legislature created the Alabama Centennial Commission in February 1919. Governor Thomas Kilby, inaugurated just the month before, became Chairman, and Marie Bankhead Owen, a well known figure in archival and historical circles, was named Secretary and Historian. She was the author of several plays and publications related to the centennial.  

The Commission asked U.S. Representative Lilius Bratton Rainey to introduce a bill in Congress calling for a commemorative coin to be issued. Rainey was on the board of directors of the state archives and thus known to both Marie Owen and her husband Thomas, state archivist. Congress passed the bill which was signed by President Wilson on May 10, 1920. The Wikipedia entry on the half-dollar has a detailed account of the legislative history. 

Gov. Kilby then created a three-member committee to come up with a design. Public input was accepted, but all of those suggestions were rejected. Kilby then recommended to the director of the mint a coin that would have the state capitol building on one side and James Monroe, president in 1819 when Alabama was admitted to the Union, and Woodrow Wilson on the other. The capitol building was rejected, and the seal of Alabama suggested as a substitute. 

In November 1920 Republican Warren Harding defeated Wilson in the presidential election. Owen then proposed the faces of Kilby and first governor William Wyatt Bibb. This substitution solved the problem of a Democrat on a coin issued by a Republication administration, and if Harding was added, a Republican president on a coin honoring strongly Democratic Alabama. 

At this point James Earle Fraser, a sculptor who had designed the Buffalo nickel and a member of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, suggested that his wife Laura Gardin Fraser, also a sculptor, create the final design. In September 1921 she delivered her version, and the U.S. Mint then issued the coin from its Philadelphia facility, although the coin has no mint mark.

Some 5000 of the coins were issued with a "2x2" mark added since Alabama had been the 22nd state admitted to the Union. A large number of "plain" coins, 64,038, were also struck. Five thousand of those "plain" ones were eventually returned to the mint and melted. 

President Harding journeyed to Birmingham for the initial sale on October 26, 1921, nearly two years after the end of the centennial year. The commemorative coins cost one dollar each and were sold from special booths constructed along the streets downtown. Harding spoke on race relations to the segregated crowd. While in the city he also laid the cornerstone for a new Masonic temple. Harding had arrived on October 24 and most of his visit revolved around the city's semi-centennial. 

This coin proved to be important in the history of American coinage. The half-dollar was the first U.S. coin to feature a living individual and the first to be designed by a woman. One of the plain coins in excellent condition sold in 2014 for over $7300. 

Laura Fraser [born in Chicago on September 14, 1889, died August 13, 1966] designed not only coins and medals, but also created large sculptures. An example in Baltimore features Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and has been controversial in recent years. 

Alabama's first governor was William Wyatt Bibb [October 2, 1781-July 10, 1820] who served 1819-1820. He had held political offices in Georgia before appointment by President James Monroe as Governor of the newly-created Alabama Territory in 1817. 

Thomas E. Kilby [July 9, 1865-October 22, 1943] was governor 1919-1923. One of his progressive efforts was to improve prison conditions. The state's new prison which opened in 1922 was named after him and operated until demolished in 1970. Kilby was a successful businessman in Anniston who also ran for the U.S. Senate twice but was defeated by Hugo Black both times. 

Thomas E. Kilby's official portrait

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Portrait of William Wyatt Bibb

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama 

Laura Gardin Fraser

Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum

President Harding arrives in Birmingham on October 24, 1921, and driven in a Premocar, manufactured in the city by the Preston Motors Corporation. 

Source: Birmingham Public Library

President Harding speaks to the crowd on October 26, 1921, the first day of the commemorative coin's sale. 

Source: Wikipedia

Old Alabama Stuff: University of Alabama Centennial Bulletin

In 1931 the University of Alabama held an elaborate celebration for its centennial year. The new state's legislature had chartered the school on December 18, 1820. However, the location in Tuscaloosa was not chosen until December 29, 1827. The university finally opened on a thousand acres a mile from the city on April 18, 1831.

The 1931 celebration lasted for three days, May 10-12. Afterward a 152-page proceedings volume was published; many images from that publication can be seen below. So what happened on those spring days 100 years after the opening of the university?

The centennial book indicates the amount of planning involved in this event. Below you can see a two-page list of the committees set up to plan the celebration. These groups included a general oversight committee, plus more specific ones such as History and Research, Book, Publicity, Program, Dance and Music. And, of course, there was a Barbeque Committee, since a BBQ picnic was among the events. A photo can be seen below. 

Two of the nation's oldest universities, Yale (1701) and Princeton (1746) were invited to send representatives. From January 22 until May 7 the "University of Alabama Centennial Radio Hour" was broadcast on Birmingham's WAPI. The program was actually half an hour long, on Thursday afternoons from four to four-thirty. The schedule of topics is below. The centennial "orator" was Claude Bowers. A bust of university President George Denny was unveiled in the Union Building. 

The main event was the centennial pageant, written and directed by Theodore Viehman. and presented in Denny Stadium. Nine episodes and a similar number of interludes portrayed state history from the time of Native Americans until the arrival of "the first white men in Alabama" as well as the history of the university. 

Claude Bowers and Theodore Viehman had no special connections to the university or even the state of Alabama but were well known at the time. Bowers [1878-1958] worked as a newspaper writer and editor and wrote several best-selling history books. He also served as ambassador to Spain and Chile from 1933 until 1953. Bowers was widely known as an "orator" based on his frequent public speaking. 

Theodore Viehman [1889-1970], the author and director of the pageant, spent his career as a drama coach and director. His work ranged from summer theater productions at colleges to plays on Broadway. Viehman directed community theater in various cities, including the Tulsa Little Theater from 1942 until 1961. He wrote other pageants for cities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere; he had written and directed one for Tuscaloosa in 1916. 

Based on the photograph of the picnic, this event seems to have been well attended. 

Alabama's Centennial in 1919

In a previous post I've taken a look at Alabama's sesquicentennial activities in 1969 in celebration of statehood in 1819. I've also written about a few bicentennial activities going on this year. Now it's time to examine the state's centennial festivities in 1919. 

That celebration might be described as a "Marie Bankhead Owen" production. And who was Marie Bankhead Owen, you ask? Let's investigate.

Bankhead was born in 1869 into what became one of the state's premier political families in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Her father John H. Bankhead was a future U.S. representative and senator. Younger brother John H. Bankhead, Jr., also served in the U.S. Senate and another younger one, William B. Bankhead, rose to the office of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Her mother Tallulah was the namesake for her niece, actress Tallulah Bankhead, daughter of William. 

In 1893 she married attorney Thomas McAdory Owen. Using her family's connections, Marie and Thomas convinced the state legislature to establish an Alabama History Commission and in 1901 the Alabama Department of Archives and History. At their initial meeting ADAH trustees appointed Thomas to lead the department, which was the first such entity in the nation. When Thomas died in 1920, Marie was appointed to the post and served until 1955, three years before her death. 

Marie began publishing in various magazines early in the 20th century, and became society and then features editor and writer for the Montgomery Advertiser from 1911 until 1917. By the time that 1919 centennial came around, she was ready to participate. She ultimately wrote six historical plays and four histories for schools related to the event. 

Below are title pages and links to the full texts for some of those writings by Owen. She would continue to write historical materials after the centennial and in 1927 even published a novel, Yvonne of Braithwaite. Also below is some information on the Alabama Centennial half dollar and a couple of other items. 

I've done a bit of preliminary research into a possible semi-centennial in 1869, but have found nothing so far. Since that was just four years after the end of the Civil War, I wouldn't be surprised if that anniversary had no formal celebration. 

Marie Bankhead Owen [1869-1958]

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives & History

Source: Internet Archive

Source: Internet Archive

Source: Internet Archive

I don't know how long Paragon Press operated, but in 1928 they published a pamphlet celebrating their silver anniversary.

On February 17, 1918, the state legislature created the Alabama Centennial Commission. I'm not sure what else they did during the actual centennial period except issue Owen's publications. However, in September 1922 the Commission was apparently still operating.

Source: Internet Archive

In 1921 the U.S. Bureau of the Mint issued a half dollar to commemorate the state's centennial. The coin was designed by sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser. 

I wonder if David Holt was the only publicity director the commission had; if so, May 1 seems a bit late to be starting such promotion. 

Pensacola Journal 1 May 1919 via Chronicling America

Alabama's Bicentennial Stamp

Alabama will reach its bicentennial as a state in December 2019. Celebrations of various kinds have been underway since 2017, the year the Alabama Territory was created. As it did for the state's sesquicentennial in 1969, the U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp in honor of the event. 

More comments are below. 

In 2015 I wrote five posts on stamps related to Alabama. You can find links to them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. 

More about U.S. stamps and postal history can be found here.

The new stamp will be issued on February 23 at Constitution Hall in Huntsville. The photo was taken at Cheaha State Park by Joe Miller. 

The post office issued this stamp in 1969 for the sesquicentennial on August 2, 1969, also in Huntsville. Back in April 2018 I wrote a post on the sesquicentennial activities in 1969.

In 1919 the Alabama Centennial Commission planned various activities to celebrate the milestone, but issuance of this half dollar was not one of them. The coin was finally struck by the U.S. Mint in 1921; follow the link to get the details of this convoluted story. The obverse of the coin features busts of William Wyatt, governor in 1819, and Thomas Kilby in 1919. 

Wikipedia also has a long entry on this coin.