Cover: Birmingham's restored Zinszer Building (photo courtesy Robin McDonald).
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Article Abstracts and Supplements
Paris Porcelain in Antebellum Alabama
by Edward Pattillo
"The mantelpieces of affluent antebellum Alabama houses," writes Edward Pattillo in the Fall 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage, "were decorated in the rococo taste that reflected the Cotton Kingdom's love of the opulent." That love grew in sentimentality after the Civil War. As Pattillo points out, the post-war South saw an increase in demand for European porcelain, in part because such refinery served as a poignant reminder of a lost southern past.
In his article, Pattillo recounts the history of porcelain-from its roots in China to its rich glory days in King Louis XV's court in France and beyond. Replete with photographs and detailed descriptions of various exemplary items and services of "Paris" porcelain, the article is required reading for collectors of fine china.
Suffer the Children: Child Labor Reform in Alabama
by Paul Pruitt
At the turn of the century, places like Merrimas Mills in Huntsville and the Alabama Canning Company in Bayou La Batre seemed to be plucked straight from the pages of a Dickens novel. Young children--some barely what we would call school-aged today--with soiled faces and ill-fitting clothes could be seen working alongside adults. Working machinery or shucking oysters for ten, twelve, and even fourteen hours a day, their movements and gazes were far too mature for their years. It was the work of a few forward-thinking reformers, writes Paul Pruitt, that changed all that, altering the shape of industry and the role of children in Alabama forever.
Marietta Johnson, Visionary
by Mary Lois Adshead
In an age when the issue of education is often a political football and buzzwords such as "vouchers" and "accountability" are floated with impunity, it is interesting to consider that these very concerns were being debated--perhaps with even more fervor--in the early part of the century as well. Mary Lois Adshead takes an in-depth look at the life and work of the progressive educator Marietta Johnson. Johnson's School of Organic Education in Fairhope, Alabama, was on the cutting edge of pedagogical theory and practice for its day, advocating independent learning and constructive play.
Places in Peril: A Review of Alabama's Endangered Historic Landmarks
by Robert Gamble and Patrick McIntyre
In 1962, the Mobile Historic Development Commission was established--thereby becoming Alabama's first municipally related preservation agency. Nearly forty years later, the story of historic preservation in the state is compiled of both dazzling successes and sad defeats. Robert Gamble and Patrick McIntyre renew the magazine's annual "Places in Peril" feature--this time with a twist. Instead of simply enumerating the most recent additions to the list and updating the stories of properties indexed in the past, Gamble and McIntyre take the new millenium as an opportunity to look back on the past four decades of preservation in Alabama, touching on the biggest threats confronting the movement today: neglect, vandalism, sprawl, and a lack of overall public awareness.
DEPARTMENTS
RECOLLECTIONS "Listen for the Coaling Train" by Aileen Kilgore Henderson
NATURE JOURNAL - "The Wheel of Life" by L. J. Davenport
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