Alabama Yesterdays

Sunday, August 17, 2025

Paul Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa

On a pleasant day in January 2023, my son Amos and I made a trip to Tuscaloosa. He especially wanted to visit the Bryant Museum, and this piece reports on that visit. We also toured the grounds of the old state capitol ruins; I've written about that experience here and here.

The Bryant Museum was our first stop. Below I've included a few of the many photographs I took during the visit. I couldn't include more; there was just too much red--er, crimson. I'm an Auburn fan.

Despite that, I enjoyed the visit. I find the early history of football in the U.S. to be very interesting, and of course, this program has played and continues to play a major role in state history. I remember my maternal grandfather and Methodist minister John Miller Shores telling stories about listening to the radio as Alabama's football teams won games in the Rose Bowl on the west coast in the 1920s and 1930s. Those wins were a source of pride for so many residents of the poor state of Alabama.

I digress. Naturally, this museum has lots of space devoted to all the teams, coaches and players of the pre- and post-Bryant eras. Every coach except Mike Price gets some coverage, and I imagine they've updated the Nick Saban portion since we visited.

Stop by the museum if you get the chance. Even non-Alabama fans might enjoy it.

The museum includes a rather large exhibit devoted to Crimson Tide softball. Only a portion is seen here.

Naturally there's a gift shop.

Monday, August 4, 2025

Mailed from Montgomery in 1944

You just never know what will turn up in old newspapers. In going through our parents' house in Huntsville in 2023 and 2024, we found a large cache of World War II issues of the Gadsden Times. Our paternal grandmother had apparently saved hundreds of front pages from that publication. Thus what we found was that page and three others of each day's issue. She didn't bother to detach the front page from the larger sheet. Dad brought these papers back to Huntsville when he cleaned out his mother's home in Gadsden after her death in 1997.

The war news day-by-day is fascinating, but a lot of interesting local and state items pop up as well. This post has one of them, from the Times issue of January 25, 1944. That headline grabbed me right away. Apparently postal authorities in Memphis on January 18 opened an unclaimed parcel post package mailed from Montgomery on January 8. Inside was the infant's body, wrapped in a January 7 Montgomery newspaper, a towel from a hotel in the city and some brown wrapping paper.

Two women in Montgomery were being questioned by Temple Seibels, Circuit Solicitor. No charges have been brought as yet, but Seibels vowed to prosecute if evidence from the state toxicologist indicated murder or "birth by unnatural means".

Seibels is the only person named in this article. His Find-A-Grave entry identifies him as William Temple Seibels [1873-1960]. He apparently held the office a long time; the 1923 Alabama official register lists him as the Solicitor of the 15th Judicial Circuit in Montgomery County. A circuit solicitor was responsible for the prosecution of criminal cases within a judicial circuit.

I wonder how this event played out. In 1989 I published a book entitled Criminal Activity in the Deep South, 1700-1930: An Annotated Bibliography. In putting that book together I came across some really bizarre crimes and criminals, but I don't remember anything quite like this one--assuming a crime was indeed committed. Further research in Montgomery newspapers or court records might give an answer.

That 25 cents seen on the lower right was the cost of a weekly subscription delivered by carrier, not a daily issue.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Monday, July 28, 2025

A 1940 Socialist Union Party Flyer in Gadsden

As brother Richard and I cleaned out Mom and Dad's house in Huntsville during 2023 and 2024, we found lots of interesting family memorabilia and a few really unexpected items. This flyer falls into the latter category.

We found it in material Dad brought from Gadsden after his mother Rosa Mae Wright died in 1993. My grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., worked for the L&N Railroad there for many years, most of them as a yard foreman. One of his duties included checking boxcars to make sure they were completely empty. Perhaps he found it in one of those. If so, why he kept it is a mystery. Perhaps it came into their family papers some other way.

The Socialist Union Party was one of several small groups spun out of the Socialist Labor Party in the 1930s. These organizations were known as De Leonist after Daniel De Leon, an early leader in the SLP, which was the first socialist political party in America and founded in 1876. In the mid-1930s Abraham Ziegler was expelled from the SLP and joined another De Leonist group that soon faded. Then he and a few others started the SUP in 1939; it lasted until 1941.

This anti-conscription flyer is dated August 1940. An address is given for the Socialist Union Party, 140 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn. As far as I could determine from Google Maps, the building still exists, located between Luna's Tire Shop and a Papa John's Pizza. According to the Wikipedia article on "Conscription in the United States", support for compulsory military service for young men was building in the country in the summer of 1940 as the war in Europe heated up.

Given the Scottsboro Boys trials and labor organization/unrest history in the state, the American Communist Party was very active in Alabama in the 1930s and beyond. For detailed information see Robin D. Kelley's Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression [2015] and Mary Stanton’s book Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950 [2020]. I would imagine other political groups beyond Republicans and Democrats were also present in the state to one degree or another. This flyer would seem to be evidence about one little known socialist group at least.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

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??

Monday, June 30, 2025

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.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

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.

UPDATE 16 August 2025

We recently stopped again at this welcome center, and I took some more photos. See the end of this post.

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?

Since the earlier visit this monument was apparently cleaned and the tree limbs cut away from behind it.

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

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.