Issue 90, Fall 2008
On the cover: Picture of Me (detail) by Mose T, circa 1975, 13 x 25 inches, house paint on wood paneling. [Collection of Anton Haardt]
Features
Lilies, Jaybirds, and George: The Art in Mose T’s Trees
By Anton Haardt
A man of humble beginnings, Mose Tolliver—better known as Mose T—rose from obscurity to become one of America’s most celebrated folk artists. Tolliver’s paintings were fresh and unconventional. Before his fame reached its peak in 1982, they hung from trees outside his home in Montgomery and often sold (if they sold at all) for no more than three to four dollars a piece. Inspired by nature, this self-taught artist painted works that remain sought-after collectors’ items to this day.
From the humble beginnings of painting on salvaged surfaces like birdhouses and scrap metal to a train ride to the nation’s capital where his work was displayed for First Lady Nancy Reagan in an illustrious gallery, Mose T became an iconic figure in the world of folk art. Collector Anton Haardt describes the life of the extraordinary man and the seminal exhibit that propelled Mose T to fame and helped solidify the importance of folk art to American culture.
Honorary Degrees for the Alabama Corps of Cadets
By Matthew C. Edmonds
When the Civil War erupted in 1861, the duty-bound and rather “gung ho” Alabama Corps of Cadets of the University of Alabama itched to join the fight. Although denied formal permission by the University to suspend all their educational responsibilities, these cadets left en masse, eager to “see the elephant.” Many would never return, and those who did found only ash and rubble where their university had once stood. Some fifty years after the Civil War’s end, with the efforts of local members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, these soldiers were not only memorialized by a bronze plaque on a “handsome monolith of Georgia granite” on the UA campus, but with the help of UA President George H. Denny, they were also awarded honorary degrees for their sacrifice. The Alabama Corps of Cadets—some in person and some posthumously—received academic closure at last.
Captives of Consumption: Alabama’s Battle with Tuberculosis
By Alissa Nutting
Long known for its stubborn persistence and a staggering ninety-percent fatality rate, tuberculosis had claimed countless lives by the start of the twentieth century, indiscriminately affecting rich and poor, young and old, celebrities and common men. In the late 1800s, the sickness had claimed so many lives in Alabama that it was recorded as the leading cause of death in the state. Despite its seeming invincibility, Alabama health officials, medical practitioners, and civic organizations became committed to eradicating it somehow—or at least minimizing its impact.
Over the decades, hopes were elevated by the construction of TB clinics and sanatoriums, aggressive public education programs, and the eventual identification of the disease’s source. By the mid-twentieth century, a vaccine for children at last set the coming generations free and rendered the horrors of “consumption” a relic of darker times. Former Alabama Heritage staff member Alissa Nutting looks at Alabama’s long journey from helplessness to empowerment over the indiscriminate air-borne killer.
Places in Peril 2008: Alabama’s Endangered Historic Landmarks
By Melanie Betz Gregory
The rich history represented in the beautiful, yet crumbling, remains of many historic buildings in Alabama is in perpetual danger of being demolished and erased from memory. In this latest addition of “Places in Peril,” The Alabama Historic Commission, the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation and Alabama Heritage have collaborated to highlight homes, business structures, forts, churches, and schoolhouses that stand at risk from neglect, underfunding, or development. From sites that provide an understanding of Alabama’s colonial beginnings to structures integral to the civil rights movement, these endangered properties tell the Alabama story. With much-needed preservation, these structures will survive to educate, inform, and inspire future generations.
Departments
Southern Architecture and Preservation
The Workaday Alabama Landscape
By W. Andrew Waldo
While perusing collections at the National Archives, Andrew Waldo encountered a remarkable treasure. In an early twentieth-century project to inventory the holdings of U. S. railroad companies, thousands of photographs documenting the “workaday” life near the tracks were captured and are now stored and available to the public. In this brief photographic piece, Waldo provides a “sneak peek” at what this archival wonder holds for the lovers of Alabama history.
Recollections
Cedar Cove: A Town That Disappeared
By Aileen Kilgore Henderson
Of all the places that have been torn down and nearly forgotten in Tuscaloosa County, the lost coal mining town of Cedar Cove remains one of the most enigmatic, as only a pair of tombstones remained to mark its location as late as 1973. Now even those are missing. Built in 1916 on the site of the Reed Plantation cemetery, the town was sustained by tight-knit families, community-mindedness, fun, games, hard work, coal dust, and hot baths. Cedar Cove thrived until the Great Depression forced these proud Alabamians to disperse, leaving their beloved town to be scrapped, plowed over, and all but forgotten. Aileen Henderson reflects on daily life in the small mining camp that seemed like a palace to her as a small girl.
The Nature Journal
Union Chapel Mine: Or, When Salamanders Slimed the Earth
By Larry Davenport
Several million years ago, prehistoric reptilian creatures slithered in the shallow surf covering much of what is now central Alabama. The footprints etched into sandy beaches, the fossils of organisms long extinct, and even the curving trails where fish tails grazed the shallow sandy bottom are forever preserved in sheets of gray shale fortuitously unearthed by strip mining. Dr. Larry Davenport chronicles the efforts of a team of scientists who visited Union Chapel Mine to search for relics of Alabama’s primeval past—evidence of the salamanders that slimed the earth.
Reading the Southern Past
Freedom Riders, the Race Beat, and Alabama
At the height of the civil rights movement, numerous groups and individuals worked to advance the cause. In this latest addition to “Reading the Southern Past,” Stephen Goldfarb reviews three books that chronicle these efforts. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault (Oxford University Press, 2006) explores the people who traveled—often at great risk—the interstates of the South, registering black voters and defying the segregation of public transportation. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation by Gene Roberts and Hank Kilbanoff (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) explores the role of news journalists in the movement. And Frye Gaillard’s Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America (University of Alabama Press, 2004) describes the epicenter of the civil rights showdown of the 1960s—the towns and cities of Alabama.