Alabama History & Culture News: January 25 edition

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these articles are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!

“The Lynch Quilts Project” on exhibition at UAB from Feb. 3-March 15 UAB News “The Lynch Quilts Project,” which examines the history and ramifications of racial ... will be on exhibition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from Feb. ... Quilting is the ideal choice to explore this history because of the great ...

Helena preservation group wants new members Shelby County Reporter HELENA — Calling all history buffs, especially those familiar with Helena. ... which are among the earliest structures of their kind in Alabama (coke is a hard, ... said one goal is to build walking trails connecting different historic sites.

'The Lynch Quilts Project' On Exhibition At UAB Patch.com "The Lynch Quilts Project" examines the history and ramifications of racial violence in the United ... From the University of Alabama at Birmingham:.

County Road 12: Old Alabama Town- a Neeley family tradition

WSFA

Collier Neeley grew up around Old Alabama Town in downtown ... When it comes to Old Alabama Town History, Mary Ann Neeley was the source.

It Came from the Archives: Henry County's 'unusually complete' history Trojan News Center (press release) By the 1990s, those plans included microfilming bound county records across the U.S. In 1998, the Alabama Department of Archives and History ...

First wild Eastern indigo snake found in Alabama in 60 years WIAT - CBS42.com (WIAT) — The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural ... and the Auburn Museum of Natural History made the discovery last week.

Demopolis Public Library hosting first meeting of new book club Demopolis Times The Demopolis Public Library will host the first After Hours Book Club ... Set in the small town of Wicklow, Alabama, “Midnight at the Blackbird Café” ...

BOOK REVIEW: 'Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick' by Zora Neale Hurston, edited with an ... The Washington Informer Born circa 1891 in Alabama, Zora Neale Hurston learned early to make her own way: she was just a teenager when her mother died, and when her ...

Patti Callahan Henry named recipient of the 2020 Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished ... Over the Mountain Journal Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels, including the critically-acclaimed historical novel, “Becoming Mrs. Lewis – The ...

'Alabama in Fourteen Foods' author to speak to Clarke Historical Society Clarke County Democrat Emily Blejwas will be the speaker for the January meeting of the Clarke County Historical Society. Blejwas will be speaking on her book, “The Story of ...

US Air Force Names New Jet Fighter Trainer in Honor of Tuskegee Airmen War History Online (press release) (blog) These were African-American crews, maintainers, and air traffic controllers who trained at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama beginning in 1940.

Roscoe Nance, Legendary Sportswriter, Alabama Native, Laid to Rest

Birmingham Times

Before that he made history — and covered history — as Mississippi's first African American sportswriter at a mainstream newspaper, The ...

Hitting the trail: Local artwork featured in the Alabama Mural Trail Cullman Times Online “With Cullman's murals, it tells the history of the community,” said Susan Eller of the Cullman Economic Development Agency. “Many of the buildings in ...

Can Gee's Bend—the Tiny Alabama Community Behind America's Most Dazzling Quilts—Become ...

artnet News

... and become broadly recognized as an important part of American art history. But back in Gee's Bend—the tiny Alabama hamlet formally known as ...

Wallace State professor uncovers lost Civil War history News Courier The United States Colored Troops, which has a connection to Athens, are featured as the cover story in the latest edition of Alabama Heritage ...

Crusading Birmingham editor Emory O. Jackson focus of MLK Memorial Lecture Alabama NewsCenter Emory Overton Jackson was a man “born for battle” and a “roll-up-your-sleeves kind of journalist” during a crucial period in history, said author ...

Writer, Valley native to speak at library

Valley Times-News

His father, James Glover Patterson (1933-2003), served in the nationalized Alabama National Guard during three significant historical events: the ...

Exhibit honors 'Women of Limestone' News Courier University of North Alabama public history student Josh Grigsby and UNA graduates Julia McGee and Lacie Rowe researched and gathered images ...

Alabama lynching memorial expands to cover the stories of 2000 more people FOX40 MONTGOMERY, AL – APRIL 26: Markers display the names and locations of ... For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. ... the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America's history of ...

Timothy Duncan Alabama Poet Emotional Poems Collection Launched Newswire Timothy Duncan Alabama Poet Emotional Poems Collection Launched ... The newly launched book features a range of poems design to cut to the ...

New book surveys Auburn architecture Opelika Auburn News “For a long time, people would say 'Where are you from?, and I mean 60 years, I'd still be saying Ozark, Alabama,” Sparrow said. “I'm never going to ...

New welcome center opens for Alabama lynching memorial, museum al.com The organization said they are also proud to present new content about America's history “that is essential for understanding our past and improving ...

Gadsden Public Library to convert Alabama City branch into genealogy library

Gadsden Times

Gadsden Public Library to convert Alabama City branch into genealogy ... the historic Nichols Library operated by the Northeast Alabama Historical ...

Mountain Brook author wins 2020 Harper Lee Award

al.com

Fittingly, the Alabama Writer's Forum's annual top prize for a distinguished ... She's been prolific since moving to Alabama, producing six books here, ...

Alabama Music Hall of Fame celebrates 30th anniversary in 2020 Yellowhammer News The Alabama Music Hall of Fame (AMHOF) has been cataloging and putting on display the many pieces of Alabama's musical history for 30 years.

Wallace State professor uncovers lost Civil War history

Cullman Times Online

Leading up to Black History Month, the just-released Winter 2020 issue of Alabama Heritage Magazine has as its cover story “'Fighting for Freedom': ...

Movies with Alabama Connections: The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead is a 1949 film based on a 1943 novel of that name by Ayn Rand. The story follows Howard Roark, a young genius architect who cannot find a job because he refuses to design buildings that would compromise his modernist vision. You can watch the film or read the 753-page novel or both if you wish to get further details. My interest is limited to the Alabama connection. 

Socialite and newspaper columnist Dominique Francon and architect-turned manual-laborer Howard Roark meet in a marble quarry in Connecticut. No, really. She has Roark brought to her bedroom to discuss replacing the white marble hearth she has defaced so it would need repair. 

Francon and Roark engage in a long conversation in which Roark describes the geology of marble and the different kinds. Talking about the hearth, he says, “This is pure white marble. You should be very careful Mrs. Francon to accept nothing but a stone of the same quality. This is Alabama marble. Very high grade and very hard to find.” 

Since Rand also wrote the film's screenplay, I presume some version of this conversation appears in the novel. By the time of its publication, white marble from Sylacauga had acquired an international reputation. A physician, Edward Gantt, had noticed deposits in 1814 as he came through what is now the Sylacauga area with Andrew Jackson's army. He returned in 1834, bought land and established a quarry. The Alabama industry has grown from that beginning.

Italian sculptor Giuseppe Moretti discovered the marble when he came to Alabama to create his famous iron Vulcan statue. He set up a studio in Sylacauga and began sculpting in the white Sylacauga stone. Over the decades the marble has been used in numerous public buildings, such as the Lincoln Memorial and U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., and various banks, city halls, U.S. post offices, etc, around the country.  

Patricia Neal as Francon and Gary Cooper as Roark begin their discussion of marble.

Roark leaves the old pieces of  Alabama marble stacked for removal.

The new hearth pieces--presumably also Alabama marble--await installation.

A marble quarry near Sylacauga in 1935

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

A marble finishing operation on Sylacauga in the 1930's 

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

A Visit to the Oak Mountain State Park Demonstration Farm

On the Friday after Christmas last year our daughter Becca, son-in-law Matt, grandson Ezra, Dianne and I loaded up and headed for the Demonstration Farm at Oak Mountain State Park. Since the park is just down the road from our house, we didn't have far to go for the fun.

Oak Mountain State Park dates from 1927, when the State Land Act established it with 940 acres between Double Oak Mountain and Little Oak Ridge in Shelby County. The Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps made many improvements throughout the park between 1934 and 1941; evidence of that work can still be seen. In 1943 the National Park Service donated about 8,000 acres to the park that NPS had owned since the 1930's. After 1971 further improvements included the golf course and pro shop, cottages and the demonstration farm. 

On that Friday morning we had the farm almost to ourselves. An older couple appeared a little while after we did, and we were able to talk a bit with the employee on duty. Otherwise, it was just our little group and the animals!

Comments follow some of the photographs.

Matt holds Ezra, who is petting Taylor the donkey. Taylor was our instant friend and followed us all over the farm--even after we fed him!

We got to admire several miniature ponies.

Ah, the goats! There are quite a few of them, and they get up close and personal once you reach the office where feed is for sale.

Two peacocks were available for our viewing pleasure.

The goats climb whatever is available.

The goats are gathering....they were friendly but pushy when the feed cans appeared!

We could only admire the peacocks; unlike the other animals, they should not be petted. Becca told us the story of one of her classmates who was attacked in the face by one during an elementary school field trip to the farm. 

I failed to take any pictures of the many chickens at the Demonstration Farm. In addition to lots of "normal" ones they have several of these Silkie types like this bantam. We called them poodle chickens. The employee told us they are pretty dumb even for chickens and tend to just roam around in circles. 

Source: Wikipedia

Alabama History & Culture News: January 17 edition

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these articles are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!

New York Public Library's 10 most checked-out books of all time

Big Think

Millions of books have been borrowed from the library's numerous ... themes of racial injustice and classism, the book is set in a small town in Alabama ...

[Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is one of them]

Book Bag: 'Africaville' by Jeffrey Colvin; 'How Yiddish Changed America and How America ... GazetteNET AFRICAVILLE. By Jeffrey Colvin. Amistad Press/HarperCollins. jeffreycolvin.com. Born and raised in Alabama but now living in New York City, Jeffrey ...

Alabama artist's sculpture on display in Chicago park al.com Most of the sculptures in the program are placed in front of the city's fieldhouses, structures that range from modern athletic centers to ornate historic ...

Landmarks Foundation names Collier Neeley its full-time leader Montgomery Advertiser ... Old Alabama Town each year, and Landmarks is working on ways to offer them and all of its visitors a more inclusive picture of Alabama's history.

Alabama Music Hall of Fame celebrates 30 years in 2020

whnt.com

TUSCUMBIA, Ala. — The Alabama Music Hall of Fame located on Highway 72 in Tuscumbia has been preserving the musical history of the state of ...

What is the real story of Burnt Corn, Alabama? al.com Burnt Corn is one of Alabama's oldest settlements, although these days, it's more ... When you visit Burnt Corn today, you can take photos of historical ...

What is the real story of Burnt Corn, Alabama? al.com Burnt Corn is one of Alabama's oldest settlements, although these days, it's more ... When you visit Burnt Corn today, you can take photos of historical ...

Alabama one of few statehouses to feature memorials to historical women

Alabama Today

Currently, all statues of historical figures outside the Statehouse are of men, including Christopher Columbus, President William McKinley (a former ...

Year-long celebration of women of the Voting Rights Movement begins Saturday Selma Times-Journal The Selma to Montgomery National Historical Trail (NHT) will kick off a year-long ... and the first woman to run for a congressional seat from Alabama.

LC Historical meeting to feature author Rickey Butch Walker Moulton Advertiser Rickey Butch Walker, a local historian and author of the Cotton was King Alabama Plantation Series, will speak at the Lawrence County Historical ...

Gadsden Library's Alabama City branch to be converted to all-genealogy branch WBRC ... Historical Association, located inside the Elliott Community Center, and the historic Nichols Library, run by the Northeast Alabama Historical Society.

George Wallace's daughter to discuss memoir Tuscaloosa News Her memoir, written with her husband, former Alabama Supreme Court ... It mingles amid history for the sake of truth, gives rise to the inspiration that ...

Amistad Murals have new home at Talladega College

al.com

It is the latest stage in one of the largest expansions in the history of Alabama's oldest historically black college. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held ...

Petition to rename historic Selma, Alabama bridge after Congressman John Lewis 11Alive.com WXIA ATLANTA — A petition is calling for a famous Alabama bridge to be renamed in honor of Rep. John Lewis. The Edmund Pettus Bridge located in ...

New exhibit celebrates women's suffrage in Alabama

WSFA

“Our exhibit takes a long view of the history of voting rights in Alabama. It profiles 19 different women who impacted voting rights in the state, from the ...

Opinion | Methodists have dominated high offices in Alabama history alreporter.com Even though there are more Baptists than Methodists in Alabama, historically Methodists have held more of the prominent political posts in the Heart of ...

Historic redo: More than 180 years after opening, a new chapter for Alabama's first public ... al.com Andrew Jackson was U.S. president and the state of Alabama was 11 years old when school commissioners in Mobile began trying to find dollars to ... [Barton Academy in Mobile, Alabama's first public school] New book of Zora Neale Hurston stories is out this week Newser New book of Zora Neale Hurston stories is out this week ... Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, in 1891 and moved with her family to Florida at ...

Robertson Bank donates city history painting to historical society [UPDATED] Demopolis Times ... celebrate its 150th year serving the citizens of West Alabama, the bank has donated the painting to the Marengo County County Historical Society.

75 million-year-old sea turtle fossil in Alabama a key discovery Alabama NewsCenter 75 million-year-old sea turtle fossil in Alabama a key discovery ... Parham, former curator of paleontology at the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

Oops they did it again! UAB robins shatter Alabama natural history record with 3 more babies Bham Now A family of American robins nesting at a UAB courtyard in January 2020. The latest confirmed nesting of robins in Alabama was September 2nd, ...

Falcon Theatre to present 'Blues for an Alabama Sky' to ring in new year; opens January 24 User-generated content (press release) Falcon Theatre's third production of its 30th anniversary season is Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky. The play is a brutally honest and candid ...

The History of the Boll Weevil and Enterprise athletics The Southeast Sun Higginbotham would go on to become the head football coach at Enterprise High School, where he would lead the Wildcats to an Alabama Sports ...

Cain's Chapel celebrates 200 years Wetumpka Herald While Stringfellow highlighted the physical history of the church's buildings, ... The church will also erect an Alabama Historical Association roadside ...

"Mobile Under Siege: Surviving the Union Blockade" By: Paula Lenor Webb Alabama Public Radio Publisher: History Press. Pages: 142. Price: $ 21.99 (Paper). When I commenced reading “Mobile Under Siege,” I believed it would be the story of the ...

The 'self-flushing' latrine at this 1821 Alabama fort was ahead of its time al.com Fort Gaines, a military fortification built in 1821 at the tip of Dauphin Island, is known to many history buffs as the place where Admiral David Farragut, ...

Four decades later, Alabama 'red-headed angel' hurricane victim gets headstone in Bayou La Batre FOX10 News Four decades later, Alabama 'red-headed angel' hurricane victim gets ... a concrete slab at Odd Fellows Cemetery, no headstone marking the site.

USS Birmingham and Early Flight

The U.S. Navy has commissioned three ships named after the city of Birmingham. The first, a light cruiser, was in service from 1908 until December 1, 1923, when she was decommissioned. The vessel was sold for scrap on May 13, 1930. 

In the early years the first USS Birmingham participated in activities in the West Indies and along the South American coast She also served with the Atlantic fleet as a flagship in 1914 and 1916. When the U.S. entered World War I the Birmingham patrolled the U.S. Atlantic coast and then became part of the escort for the first troop convoy to France. She continued operating in European waters until the war's end, and then spent the rest of her service based in San Diego.

The USS Birmingham has two claims to important events in the history of flight. On November 14, 1910, a civilian pilot named Eugene Ely made an airplane flight from the deck of the ship. He piloted a Curtiss Model D biplane designed by Glen Curtiss in making the first airplane takeoff from a warship. In April and May 1914 the Birmingham operated in Mexican waters looking for mines. On April 25 off Veracruz one of a pair of Curtiss Model F flying boats made the first U.S. military mission of a heavier-than-air aircraft from the deck. 

Another important event on the Birmingham took place on November 4, 1910. Seaman G.H. Kephart fell overboard into freezing water off Hampton Roads, Virginia. Chief electrician William E. Snyder jumped in and rescued Kephart. Snyder was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. 

I've also done posts on "The 1898 U.S.S. Alabama Battleship" and "USS Alabama Charter Member: "Good for FREE Admission".

USS Birmingham in 1908 perhaps during a trial run

Source: Wikipedia

Pilot Eugene Ely takes off from USS Birmingham, Hampton Roads, Virginia, 14 November 1910

"The airplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the 83-foot platform runway; and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before rising. Ely's goggles were covered with spray, and the aviator promptly landed on a beach rather than circling the harbor and landing at the Norfolk Navy Yard as planned."

Source: Wikipedia

On January 11, 1911, Ely again made aviation history when he took off from a racetrack in San Bruno, California, and landed on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania. According to his Wikipedia entry, "This flight was also the first ever using a tailhook system, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson."

Ely continued exhibition flying until his death in a crash in Macon Georgia, on October 19, 1911, aged 24. In 1933 Congress awarded him a Distinguished Flying Cross for his contributions to civilian and naval aviation.