Issue 76, Spring 2005

The image appears to be the cover of a magazine titled “Alabama Heritage,” specifically issue number 76 from Spring 2005. Artwork Description: The cover features an intricate artwork that depicts a series of figures in various poses and states of motion. The style of the artwork is characterized by vibrant colors and dynamic brushstrokes. The figures seem to be engaged in some form of dance or ritual, conveying a sense of movement and energy. Abstract shapes and forms in the background complement the figures without overshadowing them. Text on the Cover: The price listed on the cover is “SIX DOLLARS.” The main title, “Alabama Heritage,” is prominently displayed. The subtitle indicates that this publication is by “The University of Alabama” and “The Alabama Department of Archives and History.” The issue number, “78,” and the season, “Spring 2005,” are also mentioned.

Issue 76, Spring 2005

On the cover: Detail of a painting by Zelda Fitzgerald, Marriage at Cana. [Courtesy Fitzgerald Estate]

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Features

The image you’ve uploaded depicts an urban skyline with a captivating blend of Cubism and Surrealism. Let’s delve into the details: Buildings: The focal point is a collection of tall buildings, possibly skyscrapers. Rendered in muted shades of gray, pink, and white, they appear distorted due to varying angles and perspectives. This distortion creates a dreamlike, disorienting effect. Foreground: On the left side, torn pieces of paper or newspapers are scattered. Unfortunately, the text on these fragments is unreadable. This adds to the abstract nature of the scene. Conveyor Belt or Bridge: Towards the center, there’s a structure resembling either a conveyor belt or a bridge. It leads toward one of the central buildings, further enhancing the surreal atmosphere.
Brooklyn Bridge, 1944. [Fitzgerald Estate]

Zelda Fitzgerald: A Special Section

Perhaps best-known as the Alabama-born wife of the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald has a new opportunity to be remembered for her own art. An exhibit of her paintings is currently traveling the country. Overshadowed by her husband’s career, Zelda’s own artistic life was stunted. She also publicly suffered from mental illness. Even when she was producing original and intriguing works of art, the critics tended to overlook her. Throughout her travels in Europe with her husband she hobnobbed with many great artists of the modernist era, and their influence is evident in her paintings. The new exhibit of her visual work, Everl Adair writes, sheds new light on the Montgomery-born belle turned jazz-age flapper who was not just a novelist herself, but a talented modernist painter in her own right.

Articles In This Feature:

  • The Art of Zelda Fitzgerald by Everl Adair
  • The Debutante Flapper by Jennifer Pemberton
  • The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum by Wesley Phillips Newton

William Benson and the Kowaliga School

By Michael Sznajderman and Leah Rawls Atkins

The son of a former slave turned prosperous farmer, a young Howard University graduate named William E. Benson came back home to Tallapoosa County to build a school for the community’s children. Incorporated in 1898, the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute recruited distinguished individuals, including Booker T. Washington and Oscar Garrison Villard, to its board of trustees. For over thirty years, hundreds of rural black children received their schooling at Kowaliga. The Dixie Industrial Company, founded by Benson in 1900, grew to control ten thousand acres, farming and processing cotton and lumber, and built the Dixie Line, the first black-owned railroad in the country. Benson’s impressive achievements would outlast the personal tragedies that marked the end of his life.

The image you provided appears to be a vintage-style photograph. The individual is dressed in a formal suit with a tie. The sepia-toned background adds to the nostalgic aesthetic of old photographs.
William Benson. [Ben Russell Historic Files]
The image depicts a black and white photograph from the early 20th century. In the foreground, there’s a vintage truck loaded with several wooden crates. The truck has solid rubber tires, characteristic of that era. A driver sits in the open cab area, wearing period-appropriate attire, including a hat. The driver raises their right arm, possibly signaling someone. On the left side, an individual stands on a loading dock or platform next to a building. This person also wears early 20th-century clothing and seems to oversee the loading process. The scene provides a glimpse into historical transportation methods and daily life during that time.
In November 1923, the Mobile Customs House and Federal Building was the site of a sting that uncovered a local conspiracy to circumvent prohibition. [University of South Alabama Archives]

The Great Mobile Whiskey War

By Samuel L. Webb

On November 13, 1923, federal prohibition agents conducted a dramatic sting in Mobile, seizing over ten thousand quarts of illegal whiskey and arresting dozens of suspected bootleggers. The arrests sparked off a series of scandalous trials that would uncover a massive local conspiracy to circumvent the Eighteenth Amendment’s ban on alcohol. Among those accused of running the so-called “Whiskey Ring,” several held prominent positions in the community, including the sheriff, the chief of police, a well-known local lawyer, and a state representative.

In the high-profile legal struggle that lasted the next three years, Hugo Black (future U.S. Senator and U.S. Supreme Court Justice), Frank Boykin (future congressman), and Oscar Underwood (U.S. Senator) would play major roles. But the lead role was played by Aubrey Boyles, the U.S. District attorney who led the investigations and put the members of the “Whiskey Ring” on trial. Boyles challenged Mobile’s elite, and for his audacity paid a severe price.

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Departments

Recollections

Tuxedo Junction: “Where the Town Folks Meet”

By Donald E. Rohar

From the mid-1920s until the mid-1950s, the part of Birmingham known as “Tuxedo Junction”–the basis of the song of that name–provided music and entertainment to the surrounding, predominantly African American, community. Though the prominence of Tuxedo Junction has faded, it is still remembered in Birmingham’s “Function in the Junction,” an event that commemorates the importance of the area, both local and in the wider world of jazz music.

This black and white photo shows a man in profile playing a trumpet.
Erskine Hawkins. [Birmingham Public Library]
The image depicts a large, classical-style building with a central portico supported by columns. The architecture suggests it could be an important historical or government building. The clear sky above and grass in the foreground indicate that the building is set in an open space, possibly a park or estate.
Gaineswood, a house influenced by classical architecture. [Gaineswood, Alabama Historical Commission]

Southern Architecture and Preservation

What Is “It” About Alabama’s Historic Buildings?

By Thomas Kaufmann

The architecture of Alabama is bound up in the larger trends of American history. As such, the historic buildings found in the state represent contributions to the history of architecture no less important and interesting than the more famous contributions of architects outside the South.

The Nature Journal

Nom de Bloom: The Gardenia Story 

By L. J. Davenport

Though the gardenia is a popular flower in gardens around Alabama, its history is less placid. The process of naming the flower was politically fraught and bound up in international tensions surrounding the respective intellectual and political roles of America and Europe.

The image displays a close-up of a single white flower with multiple layers of petals. The petals appear soft and delicate, with the outermost ones being more spread out and the inner ones tightly clustered around the center, which is not fully visible. The flower is set against a backdrop of dark green leaves that provide contrast to its bright white color. It’s a serene and beautiful composition, capturing the intricate details of nature.
A gardenia flower. [Staff photo]
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