The Doctors Harrison:
A Magnificent Obsession

By James Pittman

Two buildings and a statue at the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham bear his name, but Dr. Tinsley Harrison’s legacy extends beyond the structures and monuments. In his article, James Pittman tells the story of Tinsley Harrison, the seventh generation of Harrison family doctors, who helped change the way medicine is practiced in this country by changing the way medicine is taught. His forefathers had been country doctors who made house calls. Tinsley Harrison took this personal approach to the hospital where he made sure his students were looking to the patient, not to reference books, in order to make their diagnoses. But textbooks, too, were part of Harrison’s pedagogy; he literally wrote the book on medicine: Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, the bible of medical wisdom still used today by doctors and medical students.

James Pittman tells the story of Tinsley Harrison and his family of doctors and how they have perpetuated this magnificent obsession of teaching medicine, now into its ninth generation.

Interrupted Melody:
The Attack on Nat “King” Cole

By Gary S. Sprayberry

A highly anticipated Nat “King” Cole concert in Birmingham in 1956, which drew thousands of music fans from across Alabama, came to an abrupt and violent halt as a group of men from a pro-segregation organization charged the stage. In this article, Gary Sprayberry explains Asa “Ace” Carter’s motivations for planning the attack on Cole in April 1956 by telling the history of the North Alabama Citizen’s Council and Carter’s campaign to rid the state of rock-and-roll music. Carter accused the music of subverting white culture and teaching “coarse negro phrases” to white teenagers. His plan to interrupt the Nat “King” Cole concert and kidnap the singer was part of that campaign, but resulted in its undoing. The cost of the ill-conceived attack to the people of Alabama proved substantial because Nat “King” Cole never again set foot in the state of his birth.

The Greensboro Guards’ Civil War

By G. Ward Hubbs

At first glance the young men from Greensboro, Alabama, who joined the Confederate army were no different than the thousands of men from all over the South who did the same thing. What makes the Greensboro Guards different is the fact that many of the men were committed diarists. They did not simply write down the usual soldier’s complaints about weather and food and aching feet; instead, they used their journals to contemplate everything from why the Yankees were fighting to who was the prettiest girl. G. Ward Hubbs has compiled excerpts of these journals into a narrative, and together they tell the well-rounded and complicated story of what it was like to be a soldier in the Civil War. Using many excerpts from the diaries themselves, Hubb’s article takes the reader to the battlefields, the hospitals, the prison camps, and the lonely tents of the common Civil War soldier.

Southern Architecture and Preservation

A Roman God in Alabama: Birmingham’s Vulcan

By Karelisa Hartigan

The iron man of Birmingham, the world’s tallest cast iron statue, has looked over the urban landscape of Alabama’s largest city for years. Vulcan stands unique in modern art, not only as the largest statue of its kind made in America, but also because no other large American city has a Roman god as its defining symbol. Vulcan has become Birmingham’s best-loved monument. While some may mock this ancient and ungainly figure for his prominence in the city, the very fact of his existence is worthy of attention.

Recollections

William Denson: An Alabama Gentleman in the Devil’s Court

By Joshua Greene

Those who knew him say “Bill” Denson was a real-life Atticus Finch–tall, handsome, soft-spoken, a man of principle, and a thorough gentleman. He taught law at West Point in 1941, exhorting young cadets to honor the constitution and human rights. But like most Americans, Bill had never seen the inside of a concentration camp. His allegiance to the principles of democracy was about to be tested when he became the chief prosecutor of “The Dachau Trials.”

Nature Journal

Bolas Spiders

By L.J. Davenport

The female bolas spider was first described in 1900 by Charles E. Hutchinson. Hutchenson’s meticulous description, as well as offering speculative reasons for the life-habits of the spider. In later years, Hutchinson’s predictions would be proven true, making his discovery of the bolas spider doubly remarkable.