Birmingham Photo of the Day (42): Camp Fire Girls in 1930

This photograph shows eighteen young women and their leader standing around a fire and in front of a building somewhere in the Birmingham area. A sign just over the leader's head says "Colored Y.W.C.A. All Ladies Welcome." In the lower right someone has written "Camp Fire Girls."

Camp Fire Girls was founded early in the twentieth century as a female counterpart to the Boy Scouts and just before creation of the Girl Scouts. A YMCA employee and physician, Luther Gulick, was instrumental in the group's early organization. The YWCA USA began in the nineteenth century. 

Segregation in Alabama at this time probably meant that African-American organizations often worked together in various ways.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Cocaine Comes to Alabama in 1884

In an earlier post on this blog I wrote about early anesthesia in the state. I noted that Dr. William Sanders of Mobile had reported the use of cocaine for local anesthesia in 19 eye surgeries in April 1885. Apparently that drug had been used for a similar purpose several months earlier in Montgomery.

In September 1884 Carl Koller's use of topical cocaine for eye surgery was reported in Germany. The use of cocaine for local anesthesia reached America in a matter of weeks, and surgeons in New York and elsewhere used the method both on patients and in self-experiments. Several of these doctors, including the great William Halsted, became addicted. At the time of his discovery Koller was a surgeon in Vienna and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. 

By the end of 1884 more than 180 articles had appeared in the world medical literature describing cocaine use for local anesthesia in eye, nose, throat and other areas. A newspaper article in the Montgomery Advertiser in late November 1884 noted use by a local doctor named B.J. Baldwin.

That article is reproduced in full below from its reprinting in the Huntsville Weekly Democrat of November 26, 1884. Baldwin was apparently Benjamin James Baldwin. He appears in the listing of Montgomery County physicians in the 1889 Transactions of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. He is identified as a medical school graduate of "Bellevue" in 1877. That apparently means Bellevue Hospital Medical College, which operated in New York City until 1898 when it merged with New York University. Baldwin was certified via exam by the Montgomery County medical board of examiners in 1883. 

Baldwin was born in Montgomery on February 6, 1864. He became a prominent figure in state medical circles. In 1892 he served as President of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. His presidential address at the annual meeting in Montgomery in April of that year can be found here. Baldwin died on June 9, 1936, in Chilton County. 

Here is the entire Montgomery newspaper article as reprinted by the Huntsville Weekly Democrat. The author has the chronology of ether and chloroform anesthesia development reversed. Efforts to use nitrous oxide and ether as surgical anesthetics culminated in October 1846 in Boston when William Morton provided ether inhalation for a patient of surgeon John Collins Warren. Simpson and colleagues did not establish the anesthetic properties of chloroform until November 1847.

The article notes about cocaine, "Its discovery marks a new era in surgery" and that is very true. Koller's work with that drug inaugurated decades of clinical use and research into various other drugs for local and regional anesthesia; and the techniques enjoy wide medical application today. The many wounded Civil War soldiers who became addicted to morphine and then the quick spread of cocaine into the non-medical population in the late 1880's also created the kinds of addiction issues society deals with to this day.

The "poet Cowley" who is quoted in the article is Abraham Cowley [1618-1667], an English poet and essayist. His 1662 poem "A Legend of Coca" is one of the earliest mentions of the coca plant in English literature. The entire poem can found in Mortimer's 1901 book Peru.History of coca on pages 26-27 here. And now the article:


The science of medicine has made another step towards the relief of pain, and this time it comes through an humble medical student of Vienna. England can boast of the discovery of chloroform, and, through it, the relief of millions of sufferers. The name of Sir James Y. Simpson, it discoverer, will live through eternity and the statue erected to his memory in Westminister Abbey tells the thousands of visitors who walk through its sacred halls in what esteem the mother land holds this great benefactor. America can claim the discovery of ether a few years later, and while its discoverers have not been rewarded as was Sir James Y. Simpson, yet our people bow in reverence and gratitude to Wells, Long and Morton. 

It does not detract from the great blessings which ether and chloroform bestow upon human race, for they both have their special places, to say that the new German anesthetic for certain purposes has entirely supplanted them. About one month ago Dr. Koller, a student in a Vienna hospital, gave the startling news to the medical world that, by dropping a few drops of the Hydrochorate [SIC] of Cocaine in the eye any operation could be performed without pain and that the same was true of other parts of the body. 

American surgeons at once cabled to Germany for a supply of this marvelous drug, but only succeeded in getting a small amount. Last week, Dr. B.J. Baldwin, of this city, received a few grains from New York and under its influence performed eleven operations on the eye with entire satisfaction and absolutely without pain. 

The Cocaine is dissolved and dropped into the eye at intervals of five minutes until it has been used four times. It produces no pain, and leaves no unpleasant after effects. It seems to act by destroying the sensibility of the parts to which it is applied, but it does not, like chloroform, produce unconsciousness. Its discovery marks a new era in surgery and its action is the marvel of the medical age.

A short history of Cocaine in this connection will prove interesting. Cocaine is obtained from the leaves of the ordinary coco plant which is found wild in the mountains of Peru and Bolivia. The natives of the Western countries of South America chew these leaves as a stimulant when fatigued. So much vaunted is the coco as a stimulant that the poet Cowley represents an Indian chief as addressing Venus thus:

"Our Varichoca first this coco sent,
Endowed with leaves of wondrous nourishment,
Whose juice suck'd in, and to the stomach taken,
Long Hunger and long Labor can sustain,
From which our faint and weary bodies find
More succor, more to cheer the dropping mind
Than can your Bacchus and your Cerea joined.
The Quitoitla with this provision stored,
Can pass the vast and cloudy Andes."

It was used by the Indians of Peru in ancient times as an offering to the sun, and it is still held in veneration by the miners, who believe it has a softening effect upon the veins of one when chewed and thrown upon it. The cost of ordinary coco is very little, but he hydrochlorate of cocaine is very expensive. At present it is only manufactured by one firm, in Germany, and it costs two hundred and forty dollars an ounce or three thousand eight hundred dollars a pound. 

It will probably become cheaper when other chemists begin to manufacture it. The discovery of the action of cocaine is regarded by the medical profession as more wonderful than chloroform. Let suffering humanity build a mountain of gratitude to this humble medical student of Vienna. Though scarcely out of his teens Dr. Koller is now famous over the civilized world, and the good he has done is a greater glory than the crown of his own Imperial Land.  

A Parade of Alabama T-Shirts (3)

OK, here's the final part, I promise. Part 1 and part 2 cover other shirts. I am happy to be able to record all these for posterity. Or something. A few comments are below.

Birmingham was one of the venues hosting men's soccer games as part of the 1996 Olympics based in Atlanta. The image above and the two below were used as part of the advertising leading up to the games.

When the kids were much younger and still at home, we often went to Gulf Shores on vacations. We stayed on the Fort Morgan peninsula at the Gulf Shores Plantation Resort. One thing we really enjoyed about the place was the large indoor pool, which was a lifesaver for all of us after a couple of hours in the hot summer sun. We spent more time at that pool than we did on the beach. In the early years the place featured the Cabana Cafe, a small but funky bar and eatery near the beach. 

The Plantation was about halfway between Gulf Shores and Fort Morgan and fairly isolated at that time. The last time we were there six or more years ago, other developments had sprouted up around it. The overbuilding and traffic hassles from Gulf Shores to Panama City is a main reason we have moved east to St. George Island and Apalachicola for so many vacations in the past twenty or more years.

I covered a bit of the family and organizational history of the Birmingham Youth Hockey League in Part 1. This shirt promoted a tournament the BYHL hosted.

In Part 2 I included a t-shirt that featured the UAB bookstore, and here's another. I recently had to get rid of a UAB t-shirt that my wife Dianne bought for me when I started working there in 1983. Now THAT would be a real antique. 

I'll close this review of my Alabama t-shirt collection with the best one of all!

A Parade of Alabama T-Shirts (2)

The exciting saga of my Alabama t-shirt collection that began in part 1 continues. Comments below. A final group will come in part 3!

This shirt advertises the UAB bookstore in the days before Barnes & Noble's college division took it over. That phone number is no longer active either. The fine print on this page notes "Barnes and Noble at UAB is now the UAB Bookstore" but the main page still has B&N's name in a couple of places. Maybe there is a transition going on since the store moved back into the new Hill Student Center.

This shirt dates from the early 1980's when Dianne and I were in library school.

As I noted in part 1, I'm a sucker for map shirts. I've included two closeups below. The map even includes Pelham as the only town on I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery. I also like where they placed the football player on this shirt.

A Parade of Alabama T-Shirts (1)

I recently made the mistake of trying to rid myself of some old clothes and immediately became sidetracked in what turned out to be a collection of t-shirts with some Alabama connection. I'll use two or three posts to display and discuss these classics before the state archives or the Smithsonian come calling.  

Let's start with this one. 

I guess I acquired this shirt while Dianne and I were in Tuscaloosa getting masters degrees in librarianship. Librarians do crazy things sometimes. 

Since I've always been fascinated with maps, t-shirts with maps are just the thing. On our visit to Boston a few years ago I bought one with a map of the subway on it. This shirt with Alabama cities and towns is pretty neat. The close-up below from the back of the shirt includes Pelham; I've written several posts about the town where we live. I've also done one on Keystone, one on Thorsby and many on Birmingham, of course.

This shirt commemorates the opening of the new UAB Hospital more than eleven years ago. Today the tag line for UAB Medicine is "Knowledge that will change your world."

This t-shirt advertises a health-related event on the UAB campus in 2007.

Son Amos played hockey in the BYHL during middle school and high school. Organized in the 1990's, the group played at the old ice arena in Homewood, then added activities in Pelham when the ice opened there. BYHL eventually merged into the Pelham Youth Hockey League. You can see the old web site captured on October 12, 1999, at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The site was developed and maintained by yours truly.

Mardi Gras Past in Alabama

Despite New Orleans' claim to the contrary, the Catholic celebration Mardi Gras began in America in Mobile when the city was a French colony and long before statehood. French explorer d'Iberville recorded the city's first Mardi Gras in his journal in 1699. The Civil War brought Mardi Gras to a temporary end; by that time various societies with their own rituals had developed. After the war Joe Cain was instrumental in reviving the city's festival.  

Below are some photos of past Mardi Gras activities in Mobile. A video of a parade in Mobile in 1966 can be found here. Further down are some illustrations from elsewhere in the state. Many additional photos and other materials can be found on Alabama Mosaic. Mobile also has a Carnival Museum documenting the festival in the city. 

1918 postcard of a Mardi Gras parade in Mobile

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Spectators crowd a Mobile street for a 1949 parade. Note the sign on the upper left for the studio of WABB "Dial 1480" radio station

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

A float in a parade in March 1981

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Mardi Gras King & Queen and Court in Mobile in 1982

Source: Alabama Department of Archives & History Digital Collections 

Other cities have tried Mardi Gras celebrations in addition to Mobile. In its issue of February 18, 1875, the Birmingham Iron Age reprinted a long article from a Huntsville newspaper with a detailed description of that city's first carnival. 

In the late 19th century Birmingham held Mardi Gras parades and activities in various years. The first one was held in 1886; a BhamWiki article is available. That site also has a more general article on the celebration in the city.

Biddle Warren Cycle Company's float in Birmingham's Mardi Gras parade ca. 1897

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Newspaper illustration of a Mardi Gras ball in Birmingham in 1899.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

A float in a Birmingham Mardi Gras parade in the 1890's

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections 

Ball invitation for the 1900 Birmingham Mardi Gras

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections 

Mardi Gras King and Queen and their Court in Birmingham in 1900

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Peter Petroff: From Bulgaria to Alabama

Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville is a place crowded with tombstones and history. The original portion dates from the early 1820's and is operated by the city. The 75 acres are believed to hold more than 80,000 graves, ranging from the forgotten to a notorious local madam and five Alabama governors. 

In recent years more acreage has opened up, and this section is maintained by a private firm. My parents have a plot there, and dad was interred when he died in 2003. Across the narrow road from the area with his grave is the stone you see below for Peter Petroff.

Mr. Petroff had quite a busy life; his stone only hints at his interests and achievements. Born in Bulgaria, he made his way during World War II through the French Foreign Legion, POW status in Germany, and the Bulgarian Army before ending up in Canada in 1950. After some time in the Arctic and Vietnam, he reached the United States and the U.S. space program in Florida. For several years he worked on early weather and communications satellites. Petroff moved to Huntsville in 1963 where he joined Wernher von Braun's team at NASA. 

In 1968 he started his own electronics business that developed a wireless heart monitor for hospitals. That venture led to development of the Pulsar, an early, pricey prototype digital watch.

 Petroff died in February 2003. You can read more about his life here and here. A New York Times obituary is here.