Issue 138, Fall 2020
On the cover: While still a child, Helen Keller championed a library for her hometown of Tuscumbia. It was the first public library in Alabama. [Library of Congress]
Features
Revisiting the McCrarys, Alabama’s Oldest Farm Family
By Joseph M. Jones
Alabama Heritage readers were introduced to the McCrarys in Issue 91: “The McCrarys of Madison County: Two Hundred Years and Counting” by Joseph Jones. In his latest feature, Jones brings us up to date on some recent developments with the family. First, the family has consolidated land into a trust, which includes approximately the same amount of land as Thomas McCrary held when he died in the late nineteenth century. Second, Rosemary McCrary has recreated the original farmhouse on its original land, creating a space well-suited to preserving the history of the home, the family, and their contributions to the community. Jones traces the family’s history and illustrates the importance of these efforts to preserve its legacy.
On the Razor’s Edge
Shandy Jones Makes His Way through the Nineteenth Century
By G. Ward Hubbs
Born into slavery, Shandy Jones appeared to have few prospects for success in nineteenth-century Alabama. Despite that, after being freed as a youngster, Jones grew into a prosperous citizen and legislator. As a Black man, however, he often found his success and his work towards equality met with vitriol and the threat of violence. G. Ward Hubbs traces Jones’s life and the forces that challenged him, offering a portrait of Alabama life both before the Civil War and in the era that followed. In the process, he explores early attempts to integrate the University of Alabama and the role some newspapers played in perpetuating segregation and encouraging violence against formerly enslaved people.
Kymulga Grist Mill
An Operating Mid-Nineteenth Century Alabama Watermill
By Ken Boyd
Watermills offer a picturesque break in the natural landscape, though they are increasingly harder to spot as technology advances. However, Alabama’s wonders include the Kymulga Grist Mill, built in 1864 and still standing over 150 years later, despite being slated for destruction during the Civil War. Through photographs and text, Ken Boyd recounts the structure’s history and value, offering an important plea for its preservation and protection.
Helen Keller and the Little Library that Could
By Emily McMackin Dye
While many parts of Helen Keller’s life story are well known, less familiar are her contributions to generations of readers in her hometown of Tuscumbia. As a young woman studying in Boston, Keller wrote a letter home with a seemingly simple question: her school had a grand library. Why didn’t Tuscumbia offer its citizens something similar? From that question, emerged the Helen Keller Library and Literary Association, which evolved over time into the Helen Keller Public Library—an institution that continues to serve Keller’s hometown still today.
Department Abstracts
Portraits and Landscapes
The Trail of Tears in the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area: Then and Now
By Carolyn Barske Crawford
One of Alabama’s many treasures is the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area (MSNHA), which includes land in six of the state’s counties. This area contains natural wonders, such as the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River, but it has also witnessed a substantial amount of significant and painful human history, including the removal of many indigenous people along the Trail of Tears. Some Native American families began their forced migration along the river in what is now MSNHA land. Today, officials at MSNHA have embarked on a number of projects designed to preserve the history of this land and to promote dialogue around historic and ongoing instances of injustice.
Behind the Image
Color My Garden Black and White
By Frances Osborn Robb
In this quarter’s installment of “Behind the Image,” Frances Robb leads us through the history of the daguerreotype and its intersection with Cahaba, Alabama, best known in the 1850s for its abundant flora. At the center of the tale is prominent citizen William Fambro, whose image (by William Worthy Barnes) provides evocative visual evidence for Robb’s account.
From the Archives
A Virtual Exploration: Alabama History@Home
By Alex Colvin
It’s no secret that the pandemic has shifted ways of life for individuals throughout the world. However, it has also had profound effects on institutions. Fortunately for us all, the staff at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) has nimbly adapted to the changing circumstances, creating a wealth of resources available to people researching or learning from home. Chief among these resources is the ADAH’s new statewide initiative called “Alabama History@Home,” a new website that serves as a clearinghouse for exploring the state’s history through online resources. Thanks to this site, Alabamians and others interested in the state’s history can discover streaming media, educational materials, and resources from partner organizations.
Adventures in Genealogy
Embracing the Genohistorian Within
By Donna Cox Baker
In this quarter’s installment of “Adventures in Genealogy,” Donna Cox Baker evaluates her own genealogy experiences and how her training as a historian has influenced that journey. In the process, she explores that connection between genealogy and history, proposing a new field, genohistory, where they intersect.
The Nature Journal
Featherfolis
When a biological mystery arises, you can be sure that Alabama Heritage’s resident naturalist is on the case. This time, it involves a puzzling form of plant life called the featherfoil—an occasional visitor to Tarrant’s North Lake.
Reading the Southern Past
Photographing Alabama
Several books explore Alabama’s rich photographic history. This installment of Alabama Heritage’s book review column considers Frances Osborn Robb’s Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography, 1839–1941, and a List of Photographers (University of Alabama Press, 2016); The Image of Progress: Alabama Photographs, 1872-1917 (University of Alabama Press, 1980) compiled by Melton A. McLaurin and Michael V. Thompson; Birmingham View: Through the Years in Photographs by Pierce Lewis and Marjorie Longenecker White (Birmingham Historical Society, 1996); and Magic City Realism: Richard Coe’s Birmingham by Katelyn D. Crawford and Lynn B. Williams Katz (Birmingham Museum of Art, 2018)
