Issue 29, Summer 1993
On the cover: The highlight of the Loeb collection of First Period Worcester at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is the brilliantly colored and exquisitely painted “Duke of Gloucester” fluted dish, circa 1775-78, thought to have been commissioned by William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1743-1805), the third son of Frederick, Prince of Wales. [Photograph by Chip Cooper]
Features
Osceola: The Man Behind the Myths
By Patricia R. Wickman
Though he eventually chose to live with the Creeks in Florida, the legendary figure Osceola had both Creek and European heritage. Newspapers raved about Osceola’s exploits against the United States Army in the Second Seminole War, even going so far as to call him invincible. Forced into a permanent game of hide-and-seek with the U.S. government, when Osceola was eventually captured, he quickly succumbed to malaria and died. As Patricia R. Wickman notes, the legend of Osceola did not end with Second Seminole War. This remarkable man’s story lives on in American mythology.
The Loeb Collection of First Period Worcester
By Louise Joyner
Within the walls of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts lies the Loeb porcelain collection, fifty-one unique pieces of porcelain produced by the Worcester Company. Now called “Royal Worcester,” the company is well known for its use of soft-paste porcelain and its durable glaze. The beautiful, uncracked china has endured over two centuries of wear and reveals the merits of the Worcester product.
Souvenirs from the Grand Tour
By Jeff Mansell
When newlyweds Ivey and Kate Lewis took their Grand Tour across Europe, they made a list of the paintings they wished to be copied and brought home with them. Jeff Mansell observes that their list of religious, mythological, and landscape paintings ranged in style and nationality. For many years these paintings graced the walls of the Lewis’s Marengo County home, Bleak House. The Bleak House collection survived the Civil War as well as several location changes, only to be split upon Kate Lewis’s death in 1925. Today only fourteen of these paintings, adorned with gold-leaf frames, have been located.
Big Time Baseball: Alabamians in the Major Leagues
By Mark Inabinett
In this engaging story, an English naturalist provides a rare and thoughtful view of plantation society in antebellum Alabama. Author Harvey Jackson writes “Alabama, (Gosse) was told, was a place where men of learning like himself were sought and prized” and with that, Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) set out on an adventure in Alabama, landing in Mobile, then on to King’s Landing, south of Selma. He worked as a teacher of the children of several elite families, living closely with these early settlers of Alabama and “document(ing) regional distinctiveness in its early stages of development.” He detailed the food they enjoyed, their topics of conversation, their humor, and social mores.
Departments
At the Archives
The Flag of the 22nd Alabama Infantry
By Bob Bradley
With this issue, Alabama Heritage begins a new department which will highlight historically significant materials housed at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. Founded in 1901, the Archives is the oldest state agency of its type in the U.S. Bob Bradly, head of Special Collections at the Archives, will serve as the column’s editor.
Bradley discusses the flag of the 22nd Alabama, which was issued to the regiment early in 1863 and carried by them until it was captured Sunday, September 20, 1863, during the battle of Chickamauga.
The Nature Journal
The Deadly Oleander
With this issue, Alabama Heritage begins a new department, “The Nature Journal,” which will deal with Alabama’s natural heritage. Samford University biology professor L.J. Davenport, whose many interests include endangered species of southeastern plants and the history of botany, will serve as editor of “The Nature Journal” and will write many of the columns.
This, the first entry in the series, deals with Nerium oleander, a flower which grows throughout the state. It is a beautiful, but highly toxic, plant. L.J. Davenport discusses the poisonous nature of the plant, as well as the reasons for its continued popularity.