When Gordon G. Martin, senior vice president of Alabama Power Company, accepted the reins as president of the Friends of Alabama Heritage Board of Directors, he asked outgoing president, Dr. Cathy Randall, “Where’s the gavel?” What was a funny dialog between board members turned into the creation of a welcomed and treasured gift.
 
After the 2018 Friends of Alabama Heritage Board Meeting, the board took a quick tour of the Bryce facilities with Tim Leopard, associate vice president for Construction Administration at the University of Alabama. Tim presented each attendee a small slab of wood from a ca. 1850s beam that was removed during the Bryce renovations. Martin realized this historic beam would make the perfect gavel, and he worked with David Traylor, owner of Birmingham’s City Hardwood, to create the piece.
 
The gavel was presented by Martin to the Friends of Alabama Heritage Board at its February 2019 meeting for its inaugural use.

Alabama Heritage welcomes Tonta Mauter to its team as its new business manager. Mauter replaces Sara Martin who recently retired after 25 years with the University of Alabama, the magazine’s co-publisher. Born in Arkansas and raised in Missouri, Mauter made her way to Alabama 35 years ago where she settled with husband Barry. She earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from the University of Alabama. Mauter comes to Alabama Heritage from UA’s Culverhouse School of Accountancy, where she worked for 17 years; before that she worked in Advancement Services for UA. Mauter has two daughters, Page (Michael Hollified) and Kaity (Daryll Spangler) and two grandsons, Will and Charlie Hollified, who Mauter calls “the most amazing, wonderful, coolest little boys in the world!”

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

After twenty-five years of diligent watch-care over us, our “mama-bird” has decided to leave the nest for a well-deserved retirement. Since I arrived sixteen years ago, Sara Martin, our marketing director, has been my rock. She knows this magazine, its customers, and the university procedures, protocols, and politics. She knows what works and what does not. She can sense a land mine a mile away. Her instincts, her strength and courage, her willingness to speak her mind, and her kindness and diplomacy in all things have protected and guided many a baby bird at Alabama Heritage—myself, most of all.

The Fall 2018 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine highlights twenty-five years of Places in Peril. The Places in Peril program began being published in Alabama Heritage in 1994 as a way to highlight threatened historic sites throughout Alabama. The list is compiled by the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation. Besides the 2018 list of endangered landmarks, Michael Panhorst assesses what has happened to many of the historic locations over the past 25 years.

​CALL FOR PAPERS (DEADLINE EXTENSION: 10/31/2018)
 
The Alabama Historical Association invites paper proposals for its annual meeting to be held in Tuscaloosa on April 25-27, 2019. 
 
This meeting is open to scholars, educators, public historians, students, local historians, and the general public who share an interest in the history of Alabama.
 
Click through for more details on submissions: 

The Summer 2018 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine highlights Bert Hitchcock’s account of “The Writing Life and Afterlife of Joe David Brown.” Published nationally and internationally, author and Birmingham-native Joe David Brown created fictional worlds that became popular novels and successful films. “Stars in My Crown,” the popular 1897 church song that inspired the title of Brown’s debut 1947 novel later became a Hollywood film starring Joel McCrea, Alan Hale, Ed Begley, Dean Stockwell, and James Arness.

Alabama Heritage received the Digital History Award in the Large Project Category from the Alabama Historical Association at its annual meeting in Birmingham. The magazine has digitized a substantial portion of the articles it has published since its debut in 1986.
 
The AHA Digital History Award recognizes excellence in projects that contribute to promulgating state and local Alabama history by digital means. Projects are reviewed on their delivery of exceptional and hidden information about Alabama’s past using websites, blogs, social media, and other forms of digital media. This is only the second year that the Digital History Award has been given. 

The Spring 2018 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine highlights the history of Skyline Farms, which was created in 1934 as a program of the Federal Emergency Relief Agencyto provide purpose and a new life for Alabamians affected by the Great Depression. Located in Jackson County, Alabama, the remains of this vibrant community include a school, commissary (now a museum), colony office building, factory, warehouse, cotton gin, and approximately one half of the original colony houses. 

The Winter 2018 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine highlights the 160th anniversary of the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. ​Written by AIDB’s Director of Institutional Advancement Lynne Hanner, “A Brother’s Love” outlines the journey of AIDB’s founder Joseph Henry Johnson. The article unveils how AIDB began with Johnson’s motivation to aid his brother who was born deaf and resulted in the school’s internationally recognized success today.

The Summer 2017 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine features expanded articles, a pullout map, and a detailed foldout timeline that highlight Alabama becoming a territory, and is published in conjunction with the launching of Alabama 200, a three-year-long celebration of the Alabama Bicentennial Commemoration.

​This packed issue contains more editorial content with almost 30 pages of additional articles by state historians and award-winning authors.