Issue 117, Summer 2015
On the cover: Roderick MacKenzie’s painting of the Delhi Durbar (detail). [History Museum of Mobile]
Features
“A New and Wonderful World”: An Alabama Artist in India
by Scotty E. Kirland
Growing up in one of Mobile’s orphanages, Roderick MacKenzie probably never believed he would escape his current life. However, thanks to the intervention of others—from the chief deaconess of the orphanage to Sadiq Mohammad Khan IV, the Maharajah of Bahawalpur—MacKenzie pursued both formal education and experiential learning as an artist worldwide. MacKenzie’s most significant works of art date from the years he spent in India, painting everything from colorful government ceremonies to dramatic tiger hunts.
“A Wild Heart, Throbbing in the Reed”: Sidney Lanier in Alabama
by May Lamar
Nineteenth-century poet Sidney Lanier never achieved the fame for which he strove, and throughout his life, he struggled to support himself by writing, more often resorting to the kindness (and well-tested patience) of family members. Looking back on his life, however, May Lamar finds a literary talent with a flair for finding himself in complicated situations. Civil War veteran, participant in a few too many romantic entanglements, and eager to shape the poetry scene of his era, Sidney Lanier proves that an artistic soul can always leave its mark.
The Governor and the President
by Earl H. Tilford
When Frank A. Rose set out from his Kentucky home to speak at a Florida meeting of his fraternity, he likely had no idea that this speech would change the course of his life. Rose, the president of Transylvania University, piqued such attention that he was quickly invited to become the president of the University of Alabama. Hired largely because of his commitment to civil rights, Rose helped integrate the university—all the while under the sometimes-hostile shadow of the state’s obdurate governor, George Wallace.
Children’s of Alabama: A Legacy of Innovation and Care
by Tina Likos Wilson
Most people entering the door of Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital (or, more properly, one of the many structures that constitute its complex network of medical care facilities) probably do not pause to consider the institution’s history. However, the rich legacy of Children’s offers valuable insights to the area’s own social and economic history, along with a strong reminder of the significant impact that a devoted group of women can have on the health of their community, their neighbors, and eventually even the medical community across the nation.
Departments
Southern Architecture and Preservation
Fact Versus Fiction: The Cook’s House at Oakleigh
by Lauren van der Bijl
Historic Oakleigh in Mobile has been open to the public for some sixty years. In 2013 preservation consultant Lauren van der Bijl and her team set out to learn more about the post-Emancipation life of the African Americans who had once worked at Oakleigh and the “cook’s house,” which allegedly sheltered them. But the research team discovered a different story than expected. Often ignored or given only superficial attention by house museum staff s, dependency structures such as the “cook’s house” may sometimes be worth a second look.
Becoming Alabama
Quarter by Quarter
By Joseph W. Pearson, Megan L. Bever, and Matthew Downs
In this quarter’s installment of “Becoming Alabama,” the authors consider the tenuous 1815 peace emerging after the Treaty of Ghent, the initial uncertainty and emerging tensions of Andrew Johnson’s early days as US President, and the groundbreaking passage of the federal Voting Rights Act. Each event held a significant role in shaping Alabama’s consciousness in these critical historical eras.
Editor’s Note: Alabama Heritage, the Summersell Center for Study of the South, the University of Alabama Department of History, and the Alabama Tourism Department offer this department as a part of the statewide “Becoming Alabama” initiative—a cooperative venture of state organizations to commemorate Alabama’s experiences related to the Creek War, the Civil War, and the civil rights movement. Quarter by quarter we will take you to the corresponding seasons 200, 150, and 50 years ago—sometimes describing the most pivotal events, sometimes describing daily life, but always illuminating a world in flux. We will wait for the ultimate outcomes as our forbears did—over time.
Alabama Governors
John Murphy (1825-1829)
By Samuel L. Webb
As a strong advocate of the state bank, Gov. John Murphy struggled to accept the formation of the national bank, ultimately sacrificing his political career to this position. However, his time as governor had a profound influence on the state, namely through his authorization of the legislation leading to the formation of the University of Alabama.
From the Archives
War’s End in Alabama
by Robert B. Bradley
Many mementoes of the Civil War remain scattered in collections throughout the south, and one important such collection is housed at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archivist Bob Bradley guides readers through several of the collection’s most significant and noteworthy items, from the sword that signaled the Confederacy’s surrender to photographs of notable military personnel.
Alabama Politics
The Disintegration of Creek Indian Government in Alabama, 1825-1837
by Christopher D. Haveman
The Creek Nation’s long history in the land that would become Alabama had some of its most tumultuous moments after statehood. As Alabama codified its identity as a state, determining crucial policies and positions, it increasingly disenfranchised its native peoples. Ultimately, those Creeks who remained did so in the face of numerous restrictions, including the state’s insistence that it held jurisdiction over the Creek Nation. In the face of such life, many Creeks moved west into so-called “Indian Territory.”
Revealing Hidden Collections
Cartes de Visite in the American South
by Christopher Sawula
In November 2014, the A. S. Williams III Americana Collection launched the online exhibit Likenesses Within the Reach of All. Created by Christopher Sawula and Christa Vogelius, the digital project allows users to explore images from the collection’s substantial archives. Known as cartes de visite, these small photographs provide a valuable window into southern life.
Recollections
Dixie’s Heretic? Ren Kennedy and the Great Hunting “Debate” of 1948
by Tennant McWilliams
After witnessing the horrors of trench warfare in World War I, Ren Kennedy, a Princeton seminarian who had returned to his native Alabama as a minister, refused to eagerly embrace the hunting culture of his home state—a culture he now saw as cruel and unnecessarily harsh. Kennedy lodged his complaint in the form of an article in the periodical Outdoor Life, leading to a strong response from readers and from Kennedy’s neighbors and parishioners in Camden.
The Nature Journal
Beadle, Boynton, and Biltmore
Many people know of the general history of the grand Biltmore estate, located near Asheville, North Carolina. What they may not know, however, is that in its early years, the estate housed a significant structure in the nation’s botanical history: the Biltmore Herbarium, which endeavored to become one of the most important plant collections in the country. Larry Davenport traces the Herbarium’s history and its intersection with several important botanists whose travels led them on collecting sprees in Alabama.
Reading the Southern Past
King Cotton
In this quarter’s book review column, Stephen Goldfarb explores the complicated history of cotton in the state of Alabama, looking at Walter Johnson’s River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom (Harvard University Press, 2013), Gene Dattel’s Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power (Ivan R. Dee, 2009), and Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014).
