On
the cover:
Madonna and Child with Saint John and Three Angels, ca. 1500, by Sebastiano
Mainardi, Italy, tempera on panel, Kress Collections of Renaissance Art,
Birmingham Museum of Art.(Courtesy Birmingham Museum of Art)
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Article Abstracts and Supplements
Fendall Hall’s Murals
By Elizabeth Via Brown
Since purchasing Eufaula’s Fendall Hall in 1973, the Alabama Historical Commission has been working to restore the fine Italianate mansion constructed over a century ago. One of the final steps is the restoration of the hand-painted murals and stencils in the hallway, parlor, and dining room. The article relates the history of the house and details the work being done by professional conservators to bring the distinctive murals back to life. Constructed 1859-60, Fendall Hall is located on a hill above the Chattahoochee River and is now operated by the Historical Commission as a house museum.
Narratives of Former Alabama Slaves
By Kathie Farnell
In the late 1930s, the federal Work Projects Administration launched an ambitious plan: to document slavery by interviewing the people who had experienced it. Although many of the former slaves were in their seventies and eighties, they had vivid memories of life under the "peculiar institution." In the interviews, the ex-slaves give vivid descriptions of life under slavery, some tragic and some humorous. Their accounts, a number of which are quoted in Alabama Heritage, cover daily life, work, health, separations from family and friends, the Civil War, and emancipation. Individually and as a group, the interviews provide an in-depth picture of the varied experiences of those who endured and survived slavery.
Mobile’s Own Ozymandias: Ralph B. Chandler and His Newspapers
By Judith Sheppard
In 1929 an Ohio native named Ralph Chandler launched the biggest newspaper battle Mobile had ever seen. With the backing of some of the most powerful men in the state, this feisty upstart challenged the venerable Mobile News-Item and its morning edition, the Register. From 1929 to 1932, the Mobile Press, Chandler’s paper, and F. I. Thompson’s Register battled for readers, turf, advertisers, and the moral high ground. When the dust settled, Chandler had won, and the new combined paper, the Mobile Press Register, reigned supreme until the Press’ demise in January 1997. Author Judith Sheppard, a journalism professor at Auburn University, relates Chandler’s exciting story. She also examines why, less than thirty years after his death and despite the establishment of a charitable foundation that bears his name and assists numerous Mobile causes, Chandler is not remembered by most Mobilians.
Alabama’s Nineteenth-Century Paper Currency
By Guy R. Swanson
Before the standardization of currency around the turn of the century, not just the federal government but states, banks, railroads, small businesses, and even private individuals issued a wide variety of paper money. Between 1790 and 1865, more varieties of paper money circulated within the country than at any other time in the nation’s history, and Alabama was no exception. In this article, currency specialist Guy Swanson describes the history and development of paper money in Alabama. According to Swanson, "The study of currency used or produced in Alabama during the nineteenth century reveals much about the state’s political, social, and economic development."
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