Issue 31, Winter 1994
On the cover: Georgia Bibb, granddaughter of William Wyatt Bibb, Alabama’s only territorial governor and the first governor of our state, was painted c. 1853. Portrait attributed to artist Philip Romer. [Courtesy Jack and Emily Burwell; photograph by Chip Cooper]
Features
Sara Haardt and the ‘The Sweet, Flowering South’
By Ann Henley
When Sara Haardt left her Montgomery home in 1917, she vowed never to return to the South. Heading north to Baltimore for college, she quickly found unarguable literary success, while also meeting and marrying editor, essayist, and perhaps the harshest critic of the American South of the time, H. L. Mencken. While it is as Mencken’s wife she is best remembered, in her time Haardt’s writing was best known for being shaped and influenced by the region she fled, the place she called “the sweet, flowering South, the clinging tyranical South.”
In her article, Henley describes the intricate courtship of Mencken and Haardt, the physical frailties and sickness which brought about Haardt’s tragic premature death, and the literary achievements she created during her short life. With details from her early years in Alabama through her final trip abroad to Egypt with Mencken, Haardt is shown to be an unfairly overlooked literary figure from the South, with a legacy rarely accorded the recognition it deserves.
Alabama Made: Furniture from the Alabama Decorative Arts Survey
By Katherine Estes
Since 1985 the Birmingham Museum of Art has been conducting a survey of decorative arts made in Alabama between 1819 and 1930, canvassing each region of the state, locating and documenting Alabama-made objects. Unlike silver or paintings, which are nearly always signed by their creator, furniture rarely contains information about its craftsman. However, the objects in this exhibit all have documented provenances or traceable markings linking them to Alabama. In a series of detailed photographs, Estes describes the intricacies of the furniture pieces, revealing that, although the pieces may look primitive, Alabama cabinetmakers were in fact experienced master craftsmen.
When Shall Our Cup Be Full?: The Correspondence of Confederate Soldiers James T. and Reuben M. Searcy
By Maxwell Elebash
December 28, 1862, Murfreesboro, Tennessee…We are on the eve of a big battle…Orders have already come-I go into battle with a full hope and trust and confidence in God-both as regards my own welfare-and that of my country. I feel more for Reuben than for myself-God go with us.
So writes Confederate artilleryman James Searcy to his father in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. James, twenty-two, enlisted in the Confederate army two years after graduating from the University of Alabama, and his younger brother Reuben, then an eighteen-year-old sophomore in the Cadet Corps at the University, soon followed, against the wishes of his family and teachers, as well as his older brother James.
Through their correspondences to each other as well as to family back in Tuscaloosa, the two describe the hardships of army camp, bouts with sickness, and the excitement and horror of combat. The brothers, both literate and astute observers of their surroundings, detail their experiences in these letters, revealing their first impressions of army life through the 1863 battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Reuben was mortally wounded. Using the surviving one hundred fifty letters from James and thirty three from Reuben, Elebash, the great-great grand nephew of the Searcy brothers, relates a moving tale which serves as a vivid reminder of the triumphs and tragedies of two Civil War soldiers.
Departments
At the Archives
Guy Cobb: Escape Artist
By Mark A. Palmer
When Guy Cobb died at the Tuberculosis Prison Hospital at Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1932, few marked his passing except perhaps the clerk who made the citation of the fact. Cobb’s prison career, however, which included at least seven escapes, was anything but unremarkable. The details of that career, as of many other prisoners, are part of the Alabama Department of Corrections and Institutions records housed at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Cobb’s story is an example of the sorts of things that can be gleaned from among these records.
The Nature Journal
Black Walnuts
Black walnut trees–easily identified by their pinnately compound leaves and dark grey bark–offer many lessons in sheer usefulness. L.J. Davenport discusses these lessons in this entry in The Nature Journal.
Art In The South
An Alabama Portrait Returns Home
By Robert O. Mellown
Georgie Bibb (1848-1920), granddaughter of William Wyatt Bibb, territorial governor of Alabama and first governor of the state, was painted circa 1853. The portrait is attributed to artist Philip Romer, who lived near Mobile. After years of exile in the North, this portrait recently returned to the state, acquired by Jack and Emily Burwell of Huntsville, collectors of Southern antiques.
Report from the Historical Commission
The National Register: Facts, Myths, and Misconceptions
By Melanie A. Betz
The National Register of Historic Places means different things to different people. To some, it is the highest status for recognizing historic and architectural resources; to others, it implies troublesome restrictions and government interference. Still others believe that inclusion on the National Register provides ultimate protection for the nation’s important properties. In many instances, these views are incorrect. Melanie A. Betz untangles the fact from the myth in this report from the Historical Commission.
