ALABAMA HERITAGE
  • Magazine
    • Current and Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 141-150 >
        • Issue 147, Winter 2023
        • Issue 146, Fall 2022
        • Issue 145, Summer 2022
        • Issue 144, Spring 2022
        • Issue 143, Winter 2022
        • Issue 142, Fall 2021
        • Issue 141, Summer 2021
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 140, Spring 2021
        • Issue 139, Winter 2021
        • Issue 138, Fall 2020
        • Issue 137, Summer 2020
        • Issue 136, Spring 2020
        • Issue 135, Winter 2020
        • Issue 134, Fall 2019
        • Issue 133, Summer 2019
        • Issue 132 Spring 2019
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Digital Features
    • Links of Interest
    • Bonus Materials >
      • Adventures in Genealogy
      • Alabama Heritage Blog
      • Alabama Territory
      • Becoming Alabama >
        • Creek War Era
        • Civil War Era
        • Civil Rights Movement
      • From the Vault
      • History in Ruins
      • Places in Peril
      • Recipes
  • Online Store
    • Customer Service
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Search
  • Donate
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
Alabama Heritage, Issue 78, Fall 2005
Issue 78, Fall 2005
Buy This Issue
Start Your Subscription
Give a Gift Subscription
On the cover: Georgia Mountaineer, oil painting by Martha Anderson, hangs in the Georgia Museum of Art. (Courtesy Georgia Museum, University of Georgia.)

FEATURE  ABSTRACTS


 1882 cartoon This 1882 cartoon parodies Wilde's
attempts to introduce Aestheticism
to America
(Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division)
The Wilde Alabama Lecture Circuit

By William Warren Rogers, Dorothy McLeod MacInerney, and Robert David Ward

Throughout the winter and spring of 1882, the Irish-born poet, playwright, and novelist Oscar Wilde conducted a lecture tour of the United States. Wilde’s speeches coincided with performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience—a comic opera that parodied the excesses and eccentricities of the Aesthetic Movement. Many American audiences viewed Wilde as the embodiment of this controversial “Art for Art’s Sake” philosophy, and nowhere in the country did he face more skepticism than in the post-Reconstruction South. Despite scathing criticism from more than a few journalists, Wilde won over his Alabamian public and left with a special fondness for the state and its people.



Buy This Feature
Additional Information 
  • Baily, Leslie. Gilbert and Sullivan and Their World (Thames and Hudson, 1973) 
  • Ellman, Richard. Oscar Wilde (Knoph, 1978)
  • Holland, Merlin, and Rupert Hart-Davis. The Complete Letters Of Oscar Wilde (Henry Holt and Co., 2000) 
  • Lewis, Lloyd and Henry Justin Smith. Oscar Wilde Discovers America (Harcourt, Brace, 1936) 
  • O'Brien, Kevin. Oscar Wilde in Canada: An Apostle for the Arts (Personal Library, 1983) 
  • White, Terence de Vere. The Parents of Oscar Wilde (Hodder & Stoughton, 1967)
  • Ellis, Mary Louise. “Improbable Visitor: Oscar Wilde in Alabama, 1882,” Alabama Review , 39 (October, 1960), 243-60
  • Rogers, William Warren, and Robert David Ward, “An Aesthete At Large: Oscar Wilde in Mobile,” Gulf Coast Historical Review, 6 (Spring, 1991), 49-63 
  • Rogers, William Warren, Dorothy McLeod MacInerney, and Robert David Ward, “Oscar Wilde Lectures in New Orleans and Across the South in 1882,” Southern Studies, 11 (Fall-Winter, 204), 31-65 
  • Rogers, William Warren, Robert David Ward, and Dorothy McLeod MacInerney, “Aesthetic Messenger: Oscar Wilde Lectures in Memphis, 1882, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 53 (Winter, 2004), 250-65
More information about Oscar Wilde and his works can be found online:
  • The Official Oscar Wilde Website
  • The Oscar Wilde Collection: a selection of online prose, poetry, and drama
  • The Trials of Oscar Wilde: website devoted to famous trials, including transcripts from Wilde’s 1895 trial.
  • Oscar Wilde: an overview, courtesy of the Victorian Web. 
The following article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • New South Era 

About the Authors 
William Warren Rogers is a native Alabamian and a graduate of Auburn University and the University of North Carolina where he earned his Ph.D. in history. He has been active in teaching, researching, and writing books and articles on the South, concentrating on the three states of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. He is professor emeritus of history, Florida State University. Among his works are Alabama: The History of a Deep South State (University of Alabama Press, 1994), which he co-authored with Robert David Ward, and The One-Gallused Rebellion: A History of Agrarianism in Alabama, 1865–1896 (University of Alabama Press, 2001).

Dorothy McLeod MacInerney is a native-born Texan who lives with her family in Austin. She received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin, and is interested in southern literary history. She is an independent scholar and has an appointment at the University of Texas.

Robert David Ward was also born in Alabama and attended Auburn University and the University of North Carolina where he got his doctorate in American history. He is a professor emeritus of history at Georgia State University at Statesboro. Ward has published many articles and books about southern history, especially Alabama, many of them co-authored with Rogers. Among Ward’s books are Alabama’s Response to the Penitentiary Movement, 1829–1865 (University Press of Florida, 2003), and the co-authored Alabama: The History of a Deep South State (University of Alabama Press, 1994). 
Back to Top

"The Spirit of Steel" depicts
the steel manufacturing process
(Lacy Kerr Robinson)
An Artistic Blend: Frank and Martha Anderson 

By Lynn Barstis Williams

Photographs by Birmingham photographer Lacy Robinson.

During their marriage, architect Frank Hartley Anderson and artist Martha Fannin Fort not only produced a sizable body of art (both collaborative and individual), but also worked tirelessly to support Alabama’s artistic community. The Andersons, whose various mediums included woodcuts, etchings, portraits, and paintings, created artwork that toured the country, and even the world. Participants in several New Deal Art Programs, the Andersons’ many projects included large educational murals for schools and post offices. By teaching art classes, producing affordable art prints, and undertaking public art projects, the Andersons sought to bring art to all levels of society. Founders of Anderson Galleries and the Southern Printmakers Society, the Andersons ultimately raised national awareness of southern artists.

Additional Information
  • Marling, Karal Ann. Wall to Wall America: A Cultural History of Post Office Murals and the Great Depression (University of Minnesota Press, 1982)
  • Morris, Philip A. and Marjorie Longenecker White, eds. Designs on Birmingham: A Landscape History of a Southern City and its Suburbs (Birmingham Historical Society)
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • John Kelly Fitzpatrick 
  • New South School and Gallery 
  • The Sugar Cane Mill (image)

About the Author 
Lynn Barstis Williams is Special Collections and Art Librarian at Auburn University. Her article on the history of Alabama’s Gulf Coast art colonies, which Genevive Southerland organized in Mobile, Bayou la Batre, and Coden, appeared in the May 2000 issue of Gulf South Historical Review. She also has published an article on the Dixie Art Colony in Alabama Heritage, issue 41, Summer 1996. Her book on southern printmakers and their images of the South is forthcoming from the University of Alabama Press.

Errata
• The caption on page 23 of “An Artistic Blend: Frank and Martha Anderson” refers to Lakewood School. The school was actually Lakeview School.


Back to Top

Nineteenth-century police protection cartoonA nineteenth-century cartoon depicts
the practices involved in obtaining
police protection
(Library of Congress)
Louise Wooster, Birmingham's Magdalen 

By James L. Baggett

The most celebrated and philanthropic of Birmingham’s madams, Lou Wooster was a kind and maternal caregiver who also possessed the gifts of storytelling and self-promotion. Born in Tuscaloosa and raised in Mobile, she fell on hard times after her parents’ deaths. She became, at the hands of her gentleman rescuers, first a ward, then a mistress, and “fell, step by step, until at last I was beyond redemption.” Her travels, as recorded in her autobiography, take her from the stage in New Orleans to the brothels of Montgomery and Birmingham. She also claimed to have had a liaison with John Wilkes Booth that provided much fodder for the journalists of her time. Wooster became famous not only for her high-class brothels but also for her humanity, her charity, and her kindness.

Buy This Feature
Additional Information
For more information on the history of prostitution in Birmingham, see “Prostitution in Birmingham, Alabama, 1890—1925,” by Ellin Sterne (M.A. Thesis, Samford University, 1977). For a good history of prostitution in the United States during Lou Wooster’s era, see The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America, 1900—1918 by Ruth Rosen (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982). Two recent books examine the life of John Wilkes Booth and the legend that he was not killed in 1865. These are American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman (Random House, 2004) and The Legend of John Wilkes Booth: Myth, Memory, and a Mummy by C. Wyatt Evans (University Press of Kansas, 2004).

The following article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Louise Wooster 
Multimedia:
  • Title Page: The Autobiography of a Magdalen
  • Louise Wooster’s Fourth Avenue Buildings 

About the Author
James L. Baggett is head of the Department of Archives and Manuscripts at the Birmingham Public Library and Archivist for the City of Birmingham. Many people earned the author’s gratitude for their assistance in researching Lou Wooster, especially Don Veasey, Yolanda Valentin, Gigi Gowdy, Yvonne Crumpler, Beth Willauer, Becky Scarborough, Cheri Todd, Jason Burks, Michelle Andrews, David Ryan, Barbara Wilson, Jim Murray, Stuart Oates, Ricki Brunner, Norwood Kerr, Wayne Cawthon, Christine Cramer, Sandra Bolton, Mary Rose-Taylor, Donna Cox, Regina Ammon, Mary Beth Newbill, and Barry Vaughn. In October 2005, the Birmingham Public Library Press will republish Lou Wooster’s autobiography and other related material in the book A Woman of the Town: Louise Wooster, Birmingham’s Magdalen. For more information contact the author at (205) 226-3631 or via email.
Back to Top

The Neuman-Wright-Dees HouseThe Neuman-Wright-Dees House, Greenville
(Alabama Historical Commission)
Places in Peril 2005: Alabama's Endangered Historic Landmarks

By Melanie Betz Gregory and Ellen Mertins

This annual collaboration between the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Preservation Alliance once again brings the state’s threatened landmarks to the forefront. This year’s list includes historic homes in Greenville, Selma, Tuskegee, Hartselle, and Eufaula, along with historic gas stations statewide. Alabama’s first public school building, Mobile’s Barton Academy, and one of its oldest cotton gin plants, Prattville’s Old Pratt Gin Factory, also found their way to the Places in Peril list. Homewood’s Rosedale Park Historic District, Clay’s Ware House and Barn, Oxford’s Davis farm complex, and Coatopa’s Christian Valley Baptist Church round out the list of endangered historic places for 2005.

To Get Involved 
Since 1994, the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Preservation Alliance have joined forces to sponsor “Places in Peril”, a program that each year highlights some of the state’s significant endangered properties. As awareness yields commitment, and commitment yields action, these endangered properties can be saved and returned to their important place as treasured landmarks. The “Places in Peril” program has helped to save many important landmarks that may otherwise have been lost. These include the Forks of Cyprus ruins in Florence (listed 1997), the John Glascock House in Tuscaloosa (listed 2001), the Lowe Mill Village in Huntsville (listed 2002), the Coleman House in Uniontown (listed 2003), and Locust Hill in Tuscumbia (listed 2004). 
Everyone can play a role to help save those resources that are in peril. Adopt one of the properties. Tell everybody you know that it is important. Write letters of support. Volunteer time or expertise to the local preservation group. If one of the places really strikes you, go ahead and buy it! A generous (or even modest) donation to the “Endangered Property Trust Fund” can help statewide. For more information on the fund or joining the Alabama Preservation Alliance, call 334-834-2727 or email. For Additional information on the “Places in Peril” program, visit the Alabama Historical Commission website or contact Melanie Betz at 334-242-3184.

Additional Information
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Public Education in Antebellum Alabama 
  • Daniel Pratt 
Multimedia:
  • Barton Academy 
  • Barton Academy 
  • Pratt Gin Company Factory
  • Pratt Company Advertisement, 1856 

About the Authors
Melanie Betz Gregory joined the staff of the Alabama Historical Commission in the fall of 1989. A native of Illinois, she holds a B.A. in art history from Western Illinois University and a M.A. in architectural history and historic preservation from the University of Virginia. Ms. Gregory is currently working with the Endangered Properties program.

Ellen Mertins currently serves as Director of Outreach for the Alabama Historical Commission. She joined the staff in 1970. She has a B.A. in history from Tulane University.

To read about more places in peril, click here for our Places in Peril blog.
Back to Top

DEPARTMENT  ABSTRACTS


Mobile, AlabamaMobile, c. 1711
(University of South Alabama Archives)
Alabama Mysteries
Mobile's Anastasia

By Pam Jones

When a royally attired young woman arrived in colonial Mobile claiming to be the Russian Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, who was to doubt her? Many, as it turned out, and with good reason: The real Princess Charlotte had reportedly died in 1715 and was buried in a royal tomb in St. Petersburg. Charlotte’s “survival” story, wild as it was, included a fake funeral and flight from an abusive husband, culminating in a trans-Atlantic journey on a ship full of German immigrants. The deception survived until 1765, when her masquerade was exposed by Voltaire himself.

Additional Information
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Mobile 
  • Early European Exploration in Alabama 

About the Author
Pam Jones is a freelance writer in Birmingham with a particular interest in criminal cases from Alabama’s past.

Back to Top

Southern Architecture and Preservation 
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Gets a Lift

By Aaron Welborn

Most of us know about the tragic Sixteenth-Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963. But how many of us are aware of the second disaster that struck the historic building? Time. One of Birmingham’s most important civil rights landmarks was almost lost to mould, groundwater leakage, and the insidious spread of cracks through the exterior masonry. However, efforts are being made to reverse the damage. In conjunction with the feature story, Places in Peril, Alabama Heritage brings you a story of architectural success.

To Get Involved 
If you wish to contribute to the capital campaign to restore and maintain the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, or if you have questions about the project, feel free to contact them: 

Sixteenth Street Foundation Inc.
P.O. Box 2146
Birmingham, AL 35201
205-326-2193

Additional Information
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 
  • Modern Civil Rights Movement in Alabama 
Multimedia:
  • Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 
  • Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing 
  • Sixteenth Street Baptist Church 

About the Author 
Aaron Welborn is an assistant editor at Alabama Heritage. Brittani Tingle contributed to this article.
Back to Top

A painted buntingA painted bunting
(W. Mike Howell)
Nature Journal
Birding Dauphin Island

By L. J. Davenport

Spring migration to Dauphin Island is a pilgrimage for birdwatchers, as well as for the birds themselves. The island is one of the most heavily trafficked bird migration sites on the continent, bringing in more than 180 avian species during peak season, including the rare and illustrious painted bunting. Bird fanatics gather here in equal numbers, hoping for a glimpse of this rare, bright-feathered jewel.

Additional Information
For more information on Dauphin Island, or to plan your own birding trip, visit:
  • Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries 
  • Alabama Gulf Coastal Birding 
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Estuarium (DISL) 
  • Birds of Alabama 
  • Dauphin Island Sea Lab (image)

About the Author
Larry Davenport is a professor of biology at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.

Back to Top
Online Store
​Customer Service
Meet Our Team
Board of Directors
Corporate Sponsors
News
Join Our Email List

Employment
UA Disclaimer
UA Privacy Policy ​
​Website comments or questions?  

Email ah.online@ua.edu
Published by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
​Alabama Heritage
Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Local: (205) 348-7467
Toll-Free: (877) 925-2323
Fax: (205) 348-7473

alabama.heritage@ua.edu