Alabama Yesterdays

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

A Visit to the Dauphin Island Area (2)

This post is the second of four related to a visit to Dauphin Island Dianne and I made recently. Our son Amos also joined us from Baton Rouge. One of the places we saw with our hosts, my brother Richard and his wife Lucy, was the small community of Coden.

This unincorporated fishing village is located on Bayou Coden, and the name is an English version of the French Coq d'Inde. Like nearby Bayou la Batre, Coden was a resort town in the late 19th century, but the 1906 hurricane ended much of that business. I've included comments below my photos and a few historical photos at the end of this post.

The first post in the series can be found here, part three here and part four here.

Coden has a community center and a post office, both good signs of survival in a small town.

Always sad to see abandoned structures, but churches seem especially so. The sign says "Coleman Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church, Pastor B. Sanders". I spent some time searching on Google and could find nothing about this church.

Abandoned boats are a common sight in this part of Alabama.

Now here are a couple of interesting sights down an unpaved road near Coden. We were looking for Zirlotts Seafood operation, a legendary family business in the area. We found it, and even though we arrived after closing time that afternoon, family members came out of their house to open up and let us purchase some of the goods.

As we left, we decided to take a closer look at these two items which we had spotted earlier. The trailer above is behind the fence of a small cattle farm. The structure below mystified all of us, but someone else has suggested to me that it looks like a hunting blind.

A house in Coden with a facade covered with oyster shells, about 1905.

Source: Alabama Mosaic

A grocery store in Coden before 1905

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Rolston Hotel in Coden, ca. 1916

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Friday, October 7, 2016

A Visit to the Dauphin Island Area (1)

OK, just what is this "Dauphin" thing, anyway?

From 1350 to 1791 and 1824 to 1830 this term described the heir apparent to the throne of France. The family's coat of arms featured a dolphin, which in French is "dauphin". That's a very simplified version of the French royal history; you can read a much more detailed version on Wikipedia.

Over the years Dauphin Island has been occupied by Native American, Spanish, French, British, American and Confederate populations. The island has a long, fascinating history that began more than 500 years ago with frequent Native American visits. Spanish mapped the island around 1519 and named it Isla de San Feliz. The French, who arrived in the late 17th century, called it Ile du Massacre since they found dozens of skeletons there. U.S. forces seized the island from Spain in 1813, and the British held it briefly in 1815. Dauphin Island became part of the Alabama Territory upon its creation in 1817.

Today the island is mostly a vacation haven and target for hurricanes. Since 1979 Frederick, Elena, Danny, Georges, Ivan and Katrina have all done serious damage on the island.

Sometime years ago when the kids were young, and we were visiting Gulf Shores, Dianne, the kids and I took the ferry from Fort Morgan and spent some time on the island. Recently my brother Richard and his wife Lucy have bought an interest in a house on the island and invited Dianne and I to come visit. Our son Amos joined us from Baton Rouge. This post and three that follow cover some of the sights from that long weekend.

I've included two historical photos and a map at the end.

Part two of this series is here, part three here and part four here.

Here's the first sunset from the deck of their house on Lafitte Bay.

Here's the view bright and early next morning.

We had an excellent lunch at this popular place back on the mainland. The restaurant is located in Irvington just past Bayou La Batre.

Today Bayou La Batre is primarily a fishing town. Its origins go back to a 1786 land grant from the Spanish to a French settler. In 1811 the town became part of the United States, and by the 1830's had its own hotel. Because of its location on the water, tourism developed after the Civil War.

A hurricane in 1906 devastated the town and its tourism. By the 1920's the seafood industry and later shipbuilding became the economic mainstays. In the late 1970's immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos added significantly to the local cultural mix. An episode of the Alabama Public Television program Journey Proud explores these changes over the recent decades.

Abandoned structures and boats are frequent sights in the Bayou La Batre area.

Smee General Merchandise in Bayou La Batre ca. 1900

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Fishing boats and oyster cannery in Bayou La Batre in the 1930's

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Fire insurance map of Bayou La Batre, 1955

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

UAB's Anesthesiology Library 1980-2015

From August 1983 until December 2015 I worked as librarian for the Anesthesiology Department in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Medicine. The library originated in the late 1970's as a reading room on the seventh floor of Jefferson Tower maintained by secretary Patsy Byrd. In May 1980 the department hired a full time librarian, Beth Owens, and soon after the library moved to the fifth floor of the Kracke Clinical Services Building along with chairman and faculty offices. Ann Hester became librarian in October 1981, and the library collection expanded under her tenure. Emma O'Hagan is the current librarian.

For some years this description of the library appeared in the Directory of History of Medicine Collections maintained by the National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine Division:

"This library exists primarily to serve the faculty, residents, and staff of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Anesthesiology. However, others are welcome to use materials in-house. The library provides reference services and will photocopy from its collections. Interlibrary Loan services are available; the library is a DOCLINE participant.

The library holds more than 3,000 monographs, 500 audio and video tapes, 1,700 bound journal volumes, and many items of ephemera (company literature, organizational publications, etc.). The collection includes more than 200 pre-1970 monographs related to anesthesia and pain management, more than 100 monographs related to the history of anesthesia and pain (secondary literature), and numerous subject and individual files related to anesthesia and pain history. Inventories available online: journal holdings, CD & DVD holdings, and historical files.

Collection Subject Strengths: History of Anesthesiology and Anesthesia;
History of Pain Management"

Serving the clinical information needs of departmental faculty, residents and staff
is the primary purpose of the library. A reconfiguration of the facility took
place in 2014 and 2015. Space was reduced, the journal collection removed
and new computer terminals added. Some of the historical books went to the
Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, and historical files related to departmental
history were accepted by UAB Archives.

The following photos show the library during its "print" days and as materials were
boxed for removal. I've made comments below some of the pictures.

Departmental libraries have been a feature of colleges and universities around
the world since the late 19th century. At the end of this post I've included a
brief bibliography of some of the literature available on the topic. Such libraries
appeared not only in medical departments, but the humanities and sciences as
well.

In 1994 Bronte Moran at the Department of Surgery Library, University of
Wisconsin-Madison did a survey of medical departmental libraries in the U.S.,
which was published two years later. He found a total of 24, with only 2 in
anesthesiology. Due to costs and the changing information landscape over the
past two decades, I would imagine many of those two dozen no longer exist.
Departmental libraries in other academic areas are probably also very rare
these days.

Most of the books seen here pertained to the history of anesthesia, pain medicine, and critical care medicine as well as the history of medicine generally.

Yes, the library still had its card catalog.

This photo and the two below it show some of the main book collection.

The library became more crowded as space was reduced.

Looking through the big door you can barely see the door to my office on the left of the small table.

A portion of the journal collection is shown in these two photographs.

Another view of some of the journals and the big table.

This bookplate was used in library books for many years and featured the department's logo, also in use for a number of years.

In the photos below the library contents are being packed up and finally the library is completely empty. My understanding was that books would return and journals would not. No matter what happened, the library no longer exists as I knew it for so many years. But the new facility will continue to serve the department's contemporary needs.

Here I am in the summer of 1983 in the library on Kracke 5.

Constructed in 1928 as a student nursing dormitory for Hillman Hospital, the building was renovated and opened as the Roy R. Kracke Clinical Services Building in 1965. The Anesthesiology Department Library was on the fifth floor of this building until 1993.

Source of photo: Holmes, History of the University of Alabama Hospitals [1974]

This aerial view of Jefferson Tower from 1945 also shows the Kracke Building on the right. The front of Jefferson Tower looks very different today.
Source: BhamWiki

SOME REFERENCES ON DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARIES

Kasses, Carol D. et al. Departmental libraries: curse or blessing? Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1978 April; 66(2): 177-184

Moran, Bronte. The role of the medical departmental library. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1996 January; 84(1): 25-31

Stefanacci, Michal A. et al. Departmental libraries: why do they exist? Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1977 October; 65(4): 433-437

Stokes, Janet H. et al. The Dripps Library of Anesthesia University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Anesthesia History Association Newsletter 1992 January; 10(1): 13

Thompson, Lawrence. The historical background of departmental and collegiate libraries. Library Quarterly 1942 January; 12: 49-74

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Birmingham Photo of the Day (51): The Magic City Sign

In April 2016 Rotary Trail opened in downtown Birmingham, turning a former railroad cut into a pedestrian park. A prominent feature was a close reproduction of the old "Magic City" sign that once stood near the Terminal Station, which was demolished in 1969.

Below is a photograph of the original sign taken in February 1941. Also included are a postcard featuring the sign with Terminal Station in the background. The final photo shows the new sign at the Rotary Trail.

As with so many things related to Birmingham, a fascinating history of the original sign can be found at the wonderful BhamWiki site.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Source: BhamWiki

Source: WBHM-FM

Monday, September 26, 2016

Jackie Gleason and Phenix City

On June 18, 1954, attorney Albert Patterson was murdered outside his office in Phenix City. He had recently won the Democratic primary for the office of state attorney general. If he won again in the November general election, Patterson planned to begin cleaning up the town which had become a mob haven for gambling, narcotics trade and prostitution.

Patterson's assassination was the culmination of other local efforts to clean up the town that also met with violent reactions. Government responses this time were swift. The mayor banned alcohol sales on Sunday, but Governor Gordon Persons brought down the big hammer. He declared martial law and sent 75 National Guardsmen to work around the clock raids on gambling dens, booze warehouses and nightclubs. Soldiers from Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, were banned from entering the city. Patterson's son John later ran for state attorney general, won, and prosecuted the men involved in his father's murder. Only one was convicted.

Events in Phenix City attracted massive media attention. Even Hollywood got involved; the faux documentary film The Phenix City Story appeared in August 1955. The film starred well-known actors John McIntire as Albert Patterson and Richard Kiley as son John. Look magazine called the town "The Wickedest City in America."

Edwin Strickland's book Phenix City also appeared in 1955. More recent books on the events include Margaret Barnes' The Tragedy and Triumph of Phenix City, Alabama [1999] and Faith Serafin's Wicked Phenix City [2014]. Alabama author Ace Atkins devoted one of his novels, Wicked City [2008] to the story.

We can even tie actor and comedian Jackie Gleason, Honeymooner Ralph Kramden himself, to the Phenix City story. Born in Brooklyn in 1916, Gleason developed as a nightclub comedian and movie actor by the early 1940's. Later in the decade he moved to television on the DuMont network. CBS lured him away for his own variety series, The Jackie Gleason Show, which became the second highest rated program of the 1954-55 season. Gleason continued a combination of dramatic acting, comedy, and hosting for the remainder of his long career.

On Sunday, December 6, 1954, Gleason took a break from his own show to appear in "Short Cut" on Studio One, an anthology show that ran on CBS-TV from 1948 until 1958. Many prominent actors appeared in the stories over the years.

The IMDB site has this description of the plot of the hour long episode: "An unscrupulous politician takes all kinds of short cuts to get what he wants, until a crusading attorney seeking justice stands in his way." Gleason played the "crusading attorney" Sam Wheeler. The episode was written by Corey Wilber, a prolific author for television who wrote several other scripts for Studio One. The episode was originally broadcast as "Short Cut", although I have also run across "Peacock City" as the title. Perhaps that title was a little too suggestive of Phenix City and was quickly changed.

I've yet to determine if this particular episode has survived. The Wikipedia entry for the show says many episodes are in the collections of the Paley Center for the Media in New York City and Los Angeles.

Airing just six months after the events in Phenix City and the resulting publicity, this program no doubt had a "ripped from the headlines" feel even if highly fictionalized. The episode may be Jackie Gleason's one tenuous connection to Alabama. If you know of others, let us hear about them in the comments.