The Willie Pape Scrapbooks: An Antebellum Alabama Child Prodigy

William Barnesmore "Willie" Pape

William Barnesmore "Willie" Pape was born February 27, 1850 in Mobile, Alabama, the son of William O. and Tabitha McBride Pape.  His talent for music was discovered at a very early age and in 1854, Willie’s father began giving him music lessons.  He was so gifted that even at the age of thirteen he was able to play many of the most demanding piano sonatas from memory.

Concert program, 1863.

Willie and his father traveled to New York in preparation to travel to Europe just as the American Civil War erupted.  Alabama, in fact seceded from the Union while they were traveling in January of 1861.  Rather than going abroad as planned, they stayed in New York for two years.  Willie continued his studies under Sebastian Bach Mills.  After brief concert tours to Havana, Cuba, and Canada, Willie and his father finally left for England in 1863.

Sheet music cover featuring Willie Pape

Willie's first public performance in England on 27 April 1863 was a huge success and eventually led to the patronage of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1864.  He spent several more years in England, performing and touring, until returning to the United States in 1875 and resettling in Mobile.  He retired from his musical career at the tender age of seventeen years old.  When he left England, Willie gave up the piano completely, though he did play church organ throughout his his life.


He was married twice; first to Ella Anderson (around 1880) who died on 9 August 1889; and then to her sister, Mary Anderson.  Ella and Willie had three daughters, Ethel, Ella, and Hazel; Mary and Willie had one son, William Sherwood.

He began his second career not long after he returned to Mobile, studying medicine. In 1882, Pape graduated from the Medical College of Mobile and began his practice in Mobile. He also served on the faculty of his alma mater where he was a Professor of Physiology and Hygiene.  He died August 30, 1901.

William Barnesmore Pape in later life

The Willie Pape scrapbooks were donated to The University of Alabama Libraries in 2012 by Dr. William Pape Wood.  We would like to thank the descendants of William Barnesmore "Willie" Pape for this generous and historically important piece of Alabama and music history.

A letter from Mother, March 21, 1861

The two Willie Pape scrapbooks offer interesting insight into his world as a young musician and performer.  The letters he received, as well as concert programs, reviews and other materials are contained in these rare scrapbooks.  They include impassioned letters from his mother and grandmother that discuss family business as well as the War, illness, disease, and death. We also know that young Willie Pape sent a letter to President Abraham Lincoln just two weeks before his assassination.  The letter spoke passionately about a young man's struggle to connect with his family during the Civil War and the heartache that the war and prolonged separation had caused him. 

It reads:

Willie Pape, 9 Soho Square London Pianist to the Royal Family at Marlboro House
By Command of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, June 6, 1864
March 29, 1865

Your Excellency --

I left my native town, Mobile, Alabama, for the purpose of pursuing my studies under the best musicians in Europe, on the 1st of March, 1861 -- now four years since. On my arrival in New York I was informed by my father who accompanied me that our State had seceded from the Union, & that we had better remain a while before we embarked for England. I remained in the North for two years studying and occasionally appearing in public for the benefit of charities. On my arrival in England I was permitted to appear at several Grand Concerts, at which the Royal Family attended, and I have been honored by the highest position attainable by an artist.
 

I have written my mother many times, and to my Grandmother, by the way all letters to the South go. (I don’t know how that is, only they are deposited in a basket at Bishopgate street, & prepaid), but I have not heard a word from any of my family since the mails were stopped.
 

I was fifteen years old on the 27th of last month, and have been absent from Mobile since I was 11. I am very anxious to hear from my Mother if there is means of doing so.

I am in daily communication with Her Majesty or the Prince of Wales. They are my patrons & friends, and despite jealousies of native pianists, they awarded me the highest honors. It has been a source of great dissatisfaction to the Royal Academy that an American should have been so honored, but in this country merit alone gives precedence in the fine arts.

The honor of your answer will make very happy one who, although raised to so high a pinnacle of favor, is at all times unhappy and despondent.

I am informed that property left me by Grandfather has been confiscated through our absence from the so-called Confederate States.  Our property was assessed at 25,000 dollars.

To the Hon. Abraham Lincoln.

The Pape scrapbooks will be on exhibit in the lobby of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library beginning Friday, December 15, 2012.   The University of Alabama Libraries would like to thank the descendants of William Pape for their generous gift of these treasured and historically significant items

Now that they've seen Paree!

It was 122 years ago this week, on March 31, 1889, that the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by the tower's designer, Gustave Eiffel. Among the dignitaries were the French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard and over 200 construction workers -- the men who risked their lives to build the tower.


These two images of the Eiffel Tower are from a photo album/scrap book belonging to Dr. Herman and Mattie Hesse. The album contains picture postcards and photographs from the Hesses' trip to Europe aboard the S.S. Berlin in the summer of 1930. These souvenir cards are typical of the items sold near the tower. This photo album is part of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library's extensive photograph collections. While the name may sound familiar, it is not the same (Nobel Prize-winning) Hermann Hesse of Siddhartha and Steppenwolf fame!



The remarkable landmark structure of the Eiffel Tower plays a role in the mystique and draw of Paris as the ultimate destination --- signifying decadence, exoticism, and elegance among other things.

Sheet music from the Wade Hall Sheet Music Collection offers incredible insight into the sounds of eras gone by. The piece featured above is housed in the Hoole Library, and is included in our rich digital collections -- the piece is available here: http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0004_0000002_0001605

This World War I era hit, How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After they've seen Paree) really says it all. Paris at the end of the first World War and in the 1920s was in stark contrast to rural life in America.

This wartime hit continued to be sung and performed and remained popular through the 1930s and 1940s. It was performed in the World War II era classic film, For Me and My Gal, by none other than Judy Garland!

Here are a few versions for your listening pleasure -- one from the 1910s, one from the 1930s, one from the 1940s, and two more "modern" versions in banjo and "barbershop"!

The Alabama Slide!

The Alabama Slide -- A Fox Trot (1915)
from the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture. Accessible through the University Libraries Digital Collections!

Cool@Hoole is back from a semester-long hiatus! So glad to be back -- and looking forward to sharing some really, really cool things with you!

Robert Loveman: Poem, Song, and a little Jewish History Too!

On Valentine's Day, who better to talk about than a guy whose name screams all things romantic. A poet with a name like Loveman? You couldn't make this stuff up.

Robert Loveman (April 11, 1864 - July 9, 1923) was a well-known 19th and early 20th c. American poet. He is largely unknown today but in his time, he was widely read and appreciated.

And like so many who came before and after him, he arrived in Tuscaloosa to study at The University of Alabama. The year was 1888.

While living in Tuscaloosa, he resided with the Friedman family in their beautiful home on Greensboro Avenue, now known as the historic Battle-Friedman House. Bernard Friedman, one of the earliest Jewish settlers in Tuscaloosa, was in business with the Loveman family of New York and Dalton, Georgia. The Friedmans and Lovemans were also related through marriage.

Battle-Friedman home (Then known as the Alfred Battle House, built 1835)
(silver gelatin print by Sydnia Keene-Smith, ca. 1929) and accessible at http://www.lib.ua.edu/digital

While Loveman's time in Tuscaloosa was short, it was productive. It was during his years at The University of Alabama he wrote his famous "Rain Song" poem, inspired by the gardens surrounding the house. That poem later served as the inspiration for the famed Al Jolson song "April Showers."


Loveman's song "Georgia", with music by Lollie Belle Wylie, was the official state song of Georgia before 1979 (when it was replaced by "Georgia on My Mind"). A biographical study by our namesake, William Stanley Hoole, It's Raining Violets: The Life and Poetry of Robert Loveman, was published in 1981. The image of the sheet music above is from the Wade Hall Sheet Music Collections.

The Loveman materials featured here are a recent gift of Carole Wellington, the great granddaughter of a dear friend of Robert Loveman, Dr. Robert John Henderson. Dr. Henderson was a professor at the Georgia State Teachers College. Thank you, Ms. Wellington!

These items are a welcome addition to the Hoole Library collections on Loveman which include published materials and a manuscript collection. (Finding aid accessible at http://www.lib.ua.edu/content/findingaids/pdf/ms_0879.pdf)

Advertisment for Loveman's books

Letter and envelope from Mr. Loveman to his friend Mr. Loach.

Title page of The Blushful South and Hippocrene
by Robert Loveman (Lippincott, 1909)

Here is the original recording by Al Jolson from 1921.



Here is an especially lovely version of April Showers by none other than the Velvet Fog himself, Mel Torme.




The Loveman materials are featured in the exhibit, Campus meets Town meets all Around: Glimpses at Tuscaloosa's Jewish Community from the Hoole Library Collections held in conjunction with the 7th Annual Jewish Cultural Festival, held each year in Tuscaloosa. The exhibit is in the lobby of the Hoole Library, and features interesting information about the Jewish community -- on campus and in the city itself dating from the 1860s to the present. Here's to Loveman and to Love!

Stark Paget '27 and the Song of the Crimson Tide!

This sweet-faced young man was named Stark Paget. He passed away in 1934 at the young age of 37. He suffered from severe food poisoning, and died at the home of his mother, Mrs. Lucy Paget in Troy, Alabama.

Paget was born in 1897 in Searight, Alabama, the son of J.E. Paget and Lucy Thomas Paget. He spent most of his youth in Andalusia. He came to The University of Alabama in 1923, after serving in the Quartermaster Corps in WWI and attending Auburn University for a short period of time.

Cover, Song of the Crimson Tide by Stark Paget

Though he has been gone a long time, Paget's legacy remains --a legacy of music. During his short life, he had a career as an auditor and stenographer for several companies, but he also was a pianist, appearing on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit in Alabama and Florida. He was a gifted singer and musician, but also a composer as well. He was very active in the UA Glee Club. And he composed a song that was popular regionally, called "The Kappa Sigma Dream Girl", which was dedicated to The University of Alabama chapter of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma. He was perhaps best known for composing the then widely known and performed song, "Song of the Crimson Tide", which was published by the Supe Store in 1930, and performed by Paget and the Glee Club on the opening of their then new location in the Union Building (now known as Reese Pfifer Hall)

Page 1, Song of the Crimson Tide

This song is not as widely known as the 1926 song, Yea Alabama! by Lundy Sykes, perhaps it will make a resurgence....

Cover, Rammer Jammer Magazine, May 1926, announcing the "new official song, Yay, Alabama"

This photograph of Stark Paget, along with his biographical information and this rare piece of sheet music (which the Hoole Library did not have until now!) was donated recently by Mrs. J.W. Hamiter of Andalusia, whose grandmother was Stark Paget's sister. These were given to us by Janice Fink, editor of the UA Alumni Magazine, who often receives materials like this and they know to pass them on to us. It is a greatly appreciated effort that helps us to preserve and document the history and culture of the University, the community, and beyond. These materials are now part of the Hoole Library's collections.

The Swinging Sounds of Babe Ruth!

Ninety-four yeas ago, on July 11, 1914, the soon-to-be legend Babe Ruth made his debut in Major League Baseball -- he played for the Boston Red Sox, but in the 1919 season he was sold to the New York Yankees.  He retired in 1935 - his one year as a Boston Brave, and is universally recognized as one of the greatest athletes of all time and the greatest baseball player of all time.  For example, In 1927, Ruth was the first player to hit sixty home runs in one season, a record which stood for thirty-four years, when it was broken by Roger Maris in 1961. The Babe's lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record for thirty-nine years, until broken by Mobile, Alabama native Hank Aaron in 1974.

This piece of sheet music, Babe is inscribed by Ruth to Mel Allen, UA graduate, Alabama native, and "Voice of the New York Yankees".  Though Allen joined the Yankees a few years after Babe Ruth's retirement in 1935, they did work together and were friends until Babe's death in 1948. 

Here's Mel Allen on  his time with Babe Ruth:  



And here is a great 1937 Vitaphone reel -- with Babe Ruth doing a little acting, and a little singing, too!

In addition to Babe Ruth's incredible prowess as a baseball player and celebrity, he is credited for changing the sport -- and bringing it from a slow moving to a more exciting and fast-paced game. 

And with all the talk about Yankee Stadium - as this famous and important structure stands for its final year, its kind of cool to think about one of its monikers -- The House that Ruth Built!  

And don't worry --- there will be something cool here on our beloved Mel Allen soon!