Issue 35, Winter 1995
On the cover: Cherokee Love Birds, 1992, by B. F. Perkins. Acrylic on canvas. Dimensions: 23 1/2 by 18 inches. Gift to Fayette, Alabama, from Artist. [Courtesy Crane Hill Publishers]
Features
Revelations: Alabama’s Visionary Folk Artists
By Kathy Kemp
Photographs by Keith Boyer
Introduction by Gail Trechsel
During the 1970s, public interest in painting and sculpture by artists who had not been trained formally began to grow, with an enthusiastic audience enjoying these works in museums and galleries as well as on album covers, T-shirts, and at folk festivals. Alabama’s part of this folk art is rich, as Gail Trechsel’s introduction notes the rural and religious influences of life in this state. Accompanied by stunning photographs of the artists’ work, Kathy Kemp writes profiles of two of Alabama’s most noted visionary folk artists, painter Woodie Long from Andalusia, and painter/sculptor Lonnie Bradley Holley from Birmingham.
King Cotton in Alabama: A Brief History
By Thomas W. Oliver
For 130 years, Alabama was a leading producer of cotton, with pioneers rushing to the state in search of riches they hoped the plant would provide. Cotton did produce much wealth, ascending to the throne of Southern agriculture. But the crop was hard on the soil and harder on the people who worked with it, as Oliver’s article notes the rise and fall of King Cotton in Alabama from the 1830s to the 1960s. Dealing with cultural changes, technological advancements and the infamous boll weevil, cotton production has changed drastically, and though cotton now represents only a small fraction of the state’s economy, the author describes how Alabama still holds a position of great importance in the cotton industry.
Sentimental and Memorial Jewelry
By Marion Ruth Yount Sams
During the nineteenth century, it was common practice to ask a friend or loved one for a lock of hair or to give them one of your own as a keepsake. Often, this hair was boiled, weighted, glued, spun, woven, plaited, knitted, and crocheted into a dizzying variety of shapes and designs, and placed in jewelry designed specifically for this purpose. This article tells of the centuries-long history of this type of jewelry: sentimental jewelry, containing the hair of a living person, and memorial jewelry, containing the hair of someone deceased. With detailed photographs, the author notes the story and value of these pieces, including the personal link they represent: a loving relationship between two people who lived a century or more ago.
From Plantation to Hacienda: The Mexican Colonization Movement in Alabama
By Karl Jacoby
A man named “Peg Leg” Williams began recruiting African Americans in central Alabama in 1895 to move to Mexico for the establishment of a colony. The promises of rich and fertile soil, economic prosperity, and equal rights to all inspired several hundred Tuscaloosa citizens to make the move to the northern Mexican state of Durango. Once there, the hopeful new life proved elusive, as author Karl Jacoby describes the poverty, ill-treatment at the hands of Mexican overseers, and poor living conditions encountered by the colonists. This article relates an interesting aspect of nineteenth-century black migration, one which proved fruitless and fatal to many.
Departments
Report from the Historical Commission
A Future for the Past
By F. Lawerence Oaks
F. Lawerence Oaks discusses the origins of the Alabama Cultural Resources Preservation Trust Fund. The positive effects of the Fund have already become evident, and the money distributed promises to aid in the preservation and understanding of many facets of the state’s history.
Southern Architecture and Preservation
Gulf Coast Lighthouses
By David M. Smithweck and Mindy Wilson
Hurricanes, Yankee gunfire, and time have taken their toll on Alabama’s three Gulf Coast lighthouses, but the structures–and their quaint, sometimes tragic histories–live on, primarily because of the affection many Gulf Coast residents have for these beacons of light, and the time and money they are willing to commit to their preservation.
The Nature Journal
Giant Swallowtails (And Metamorphosis)
One of the most spectacular of Alabama’s butterflies is the giant swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes. Ranging from Canada to the Mexican border, “giants” are the largest North American butterflies, with some individuals measuring six inches from one black-and-yellow wing tip to the other., L.J. Davenport discusses the life-cycle of this remarkable butterfly.
At the Archives
Early Photographs From the Collection
By Tanya L. Zanish
The Alabama Department of Archives and History has over 150 daguerrotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes in its visual collection. These early photographs, created by the reaction of silver compounds to light or chemicals, span the years from 1840 through the 1920s. Although many of the photographs are not identified, the images provide and important link with the past and illustrate changes in dress styles as well as the evolution of the photographic process.
