Football! Football! Football!: Images from early 20th century Corollas

From the 1903 Corolla

From The 1909 Corolla

From The 1901 Corolla

From The 1906 Corolla

"...and walk through a door that leads to opportunity for others.”

“There will come a day in your life when you must act for others–your family, perhaps your community–and you must be ready. What you have done to reach this milestone today is part of that preparation. So take from all the books you have read, all the lessons you have learned, the certain knowledge that one day, any day, you must be bold, have courage, and walk through a door that leads to opportunity for others.”

-- Vivian Malone Jones (class of 1965), in her commencement speech to the UA class of 2000

June 11 marks the anniversary of the successful integration of The University of Alabama. It was on that day in 1963 that Vivian Malone and James Hood registered for classes in Foster Auditorium. On that day, all eyes were on our campus, witnessing both a "stand" and more importantly a profound and bold act of courage.

Two short years later, Ms. Malone graduated from The University of Alabama, and featured above is a page from the 1965 University of Alabama yearbook, the Corolla with her senior picture, along with thirty-one of her classmates (she is the face in the third row from the top and in the third column from the left). It's impossible to measure just what went it took to be just another face on a page in that yearbook. Ms. Malone's being "just another senior" in the graduating class of 1965, forty-four short years ago, is something worth recognizing, pondering, commemorating.

The entire 1965 Corolla (volume 73) is available online through our digital program and was made possible by Shirley Dowling McCrary as part of the University Libraries' Corolla Digital Initiative.

In addition, a full run (1893-present) of the Corollas are available to browse in the Hoole Library's Gandrud Reading Room. An exhibit of Corollas is currently on display in Gorgas Library on the 2nd floor in the Pearce foyer. If you are interested in sponsoring the digitization of a Corolla, please contact us.

Remembering Robert F. Kennedy

This photograph of Senator (and Presidential Candidate) Robert F. Kennedy and University of Alabama president, Frank Rose was taken when Kennedy visited UA in March of 1968 as part of the Emphasis program.

Robert F. Kennedy not only visited campus as part of Emphasis, but he is to be remembered as the Attorney General of the United States who oversaw the successful and peaceful integration of The University of Alabama in June of 1963. Working with his future successor, Nicholas Katzenbach, Kennedy brought about this important step forward and is forever part of UA's place in American Civil Rights history.

When Senator Kennedy visited campus in 1968, just three months before his assassination, he gave the keynote address for Emphasis '68 -- a talk entitled "America at the Crossroads". To listen to the audio file of his speech, visit here. To view the program for Emphasis '68, visit here. You can also read his speech and view it as it was given to us here. All of this material is part of the Emphasis collection, part of the UA Libraries' Digital Collections.


In his address to the students of The University of Alabama, he said the following -- words which ring true today as they did some forty years ago.

"It is the fate of this generation to live with a struggle we did not start in a world we did not make. But the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice. And while no nation has ever faced such a challenge, no nation has ever been so ready to seize the burden and the glory of freedom."

Of birthdays, Campus Humor Magazines, and the Pulitzer Prize!

One of the most beloved Alabamians and University of Alabama alums has a birthday this week - Happy Birthday, Harper Lee! And it was 47 years ago this week that she received quite a birthday present -- the Pulitzer Prize in Letters for her novel (and one of the most read and beloved books of the 20th century), To Kill a Mockingbird.

What many people don't know about Ms. Lee is that she got her literary start right on The University of Alabama campus as a columnist and editor. In 1946, she served as the editor of The University of Alabama's humor magazine, Rammer Jammer. The UA Libraries have started to digitize the Rammer Jammer , with some of the earliest issues available here with more to come!

The images featured here are from three of the major University of Alabama student publications -- an article from the Crimson White ("Little Nelle" Heads Ram, Maps Lee's Strategy") which appeared in the October 8, 1946 edition; a page from the 1947 yearbook, the Corolla (which are also being digitized as part of the Corolla Digital Initiative -- did you know that you can sponsor a Corolla and make it available online! ); and Rammer Jammer, the UA humor magazine which was published from the mid-1920s through the mid-1960s -- it later became known as Mahout.


All of these publications are housed at the Hoole Special Collections Library (of course!) and are very, very cool -- and now some of them are available online, which is also very cool indeed. But we all know who is the coolest -- and we wish her a very Happy Birthday!

A-Day 2008: UA Athletics and Terry Saban help raise funds for University Libraries

This cool image from 1968 Corolla - the '68 Corolla is available online as part of UA Libraries' Digital Collections (and part of the Corolla Digital Initiative and of course analog versions of all Corollas are available at the Hoole Library

Celebrate A-Day and give to a great cause! UA Athletics and Coach Saban's wife, Terry will help raise funds in order benefit academics for all UA students by taking donations for the University Libraries at the A-Day Game tomorrow, Saturday April 12, 2008. Terry Saban, UA students, faculty, staff, and student-athletes, including members of the UA men’s basketball team, will be collecting donations for the University Libraries at each gate at Bryant-Denny Stadium and in the Walk of Champions area before the A-Day Game and inside the stadium throughout the first half. Volunteers collecting donations will be wearing green shirts with the message “Athletics & Academics Support UA Libraries” printed on them.

“By helping raise money for the Libraries we are helping the entire University,” said Mal Moore, director of UA Intercollegiate Athletics. “Our Libraries must remain in the forefront with new resources and services and 21st-century technology,” said Terry Saban, wife of UA head football coach Nick Saban. “The University’s libraries provide critical services and resources that our students need to excel academically. We want our libraries to be just as good and nationally recognized as our athletic programs.”

“The money raised for the University Libraries on A-Day will be invested solely in what we know students need,” said Louis A. Pitschmann, dean of UA Libraries. “Although the Libraries continue to invest heavily in books, we need to acquire more and also to provide students with the online databases they need to remain competitive academically. Students at the Capstone are using libraries more than ever before, more than 1.3 million times last year.”

On A-Day, donations can also be made at the Bruno, McLure, Rodgers and Gorgas Libraries. Donations will be accepted in cash and check form. Donors who wish to give via credit card can go online to participate at www.lib.ua.edu , then must click on the “Make a Gift” link. For more information, contact Cheryl Altemara at 205-348-1416 or caltemar@ua.edu.

Forty Years After -- Emphasis '68 -- Directions: American Society at the Crossroads

In March of 1968, The University of Alabama hosted a powerful group of speakers brought together to discuss problems and issues in American Society. Emphasis '68: American Society at the Crossroads stands today as a snapshot in time, that serves to help us understand the political, social, cultural, and economic shifts that were taking place in 1968. Among the speakers were Robert F. Kennedy, who would be assassinated just a few short months later in June of 1968.

Sponsored by The University of Alabama Student Government Association (SGA), the student-run Emphasis Committee organized annual symposia in the late 1960s and early 1970s that served to enlighten and inspire students on the UA campus. It is interesting to note that former Alabama governor, Don Siegelman was president of the SGA when Emphasis '68 took place and was instrumental in bringing these speakers to The University of Alabama campus.

The featured speakers for Emphasis '68 were Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Roy Wilkins, Melvin Belli, John Kenneth Galbraith, Strom Thurmond, Ferenc Nagy, and several others.

Our digital collections now feature the 1968 Emphasis program, as well as streaming digital audio and transcripts of some of the speeches, which are accessible here. (You will need RealPlayer to access these speeches, which is available here) In addition, we have now made the 1968 Corolla is also available online though our Digital Collections.

The year 1968 -- forty years later it evokes -- even for those who didn't live through it -- thoughts of unrest, war, violence, uncertainty, change. In 1968, we lost not only Robert F. Kennedy, but the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. It was a revolutionary year for politics, music, art, and more. Emphasis '68 serves as a fascinating time capsule that allows us to better understand campus life at The University of Alabama as well as the world around us during that tumultuous time, exactly forty years ago.

(Images featured here are the cover of Emphasis '68 -- Directions: American Society at the Crossroads; a detail of the Emphasis '68 program featuring drawings of then SGA President Don Siegelman, and Emphasis '68 co-chairs Redding Pitt and Ken Rogers, and page 146 of the 1969 Corolla which features information about the Emphasis '68 program. All this and more is available as part of our digital collections at University Libraries. All original items are part of holdings of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library.)

Corolla Digital Initative

Imagine over 100 years of The University of Alabama's yearbook, the Corolla, fully searchable and accessible with the click of a mouse! The UA Libraries have launched a project that will do just that --the Corolla Digital Initiative. Yearbooks are a source of history, humor and nostalgia, and are used by scholars interested in the history and culture of higher education.

We are using this as an opportunity to allow alums, groups of alums, individuals, and others interested in the project to sponsor the digitization of a Corolla in honor of a family member or friend, or just because! For more information about the project visit the Corolla Digital Initiative page, and to see what we've done so far, click here. To sponsor a Corolla, contact Jody DeRidder at jlderidder@ua.edu or 205.348.0511.