The Alabama Genealogical Society, along with the Alabama Bicentennial Commission and six state humanities partners, is offering a unique workshop focused on family and local history for anyone interested in history or genealogy. The event will be held August 9-10, 2019, at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, 624 Washington Ave., Montgomery. The workshop is designed to strengthen skills in family and local history research and to bolster the organizations who support this research. Attendees are encouraged to come to one day or both, depending on level of interests. 

The Spring 2019 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine features author Emily McMackin’s detailed look at the Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) School in Marshall County. What started as a viral post about the school’s founding on the Alabama Heritage Facebook page, the magazine’s editors knew the school and its history were worthy of a cover story. Built on land donated by the community, with local families helping construct the original building, the DAR school construction began in October 1923. Funds were raised by the Alabama Daughters and local community groups to furnish the classrooms. The school continues to elevate the community around it with more than half of the teachers and staff as alumni. 

Alabama Heritage was a proud co-host of the seventy-second annual meeting of the Alabama Historical Association in Tuscaloosa. The event, held April 25-27, 2019, brought together historians from across the state for three days of sessions and tours. Musician and storyteller Bobby Horton entertained the attendees during the annual awards banquet.

Congratulations to Associate Editor Susan Reynolds, as ALABAMA WOMEN: THEIR LIVES AND TIMES won the 2018 James F. Sulzby Award from the Alabama Historical Association! Susan wrote the section on Augusta Evans Wilson in this contributed volume edited by Lisa Lindquist Dorr and Susan Youngblood Ashmore.

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!”

​The Winter 2019 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine uncovers an early sketchbook by Nicola Marschall. Author Wolfgang Ulbrich acquired the sketchbook from Marschall’s descendants and discovered several pencil drawings of Alabamians. The sketches offer insights into both the Alabama artist’s practice and nineteenth-century life in the state.

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.