New Hoole Hours!

Twelve striking sermons
Louisville, Kentucky: Pentecostal Publishing Company, 1918
From the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture
and featured in Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books

Beginning on Monday, 10/3/2011,
the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library will be open:

Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 9 am - 5 pm

and extended hours on Tuesday & Thursday from 9 am - 9 pm.

We look forward to your visit!

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"!

Love, and the Year of Alabama Music

In honor of Valentines Day, and of course, in celebration of the Year of Alabama Music! Love Will Keep Us Together, by the Captain and Tennille, A&M Records, 1975, from the Wade Hall Sound Recordings Collection at the Hoole Library. So, here's Alabama's own Toni Tennille -- of the Captain and Tennille!

Cathryn Antoinette Toni Tennille was born in Montgomery on May 8, 1940. Part of a musical family, her dad, Frank Tennille, was the singer for Bob Crosby and the Bobcats, a local big band ensemble. Her mom, Catherine, was the host of Montgomery's first daytime talk show. Toni studied at Auburn University and went on to worldwide fame as part of this musical duo.

Love Will Keep Us Together was written by Howard Carpenter, and was the title track of their A&M Records debut album in 1975. The song had been covered by Neil Sedaka on his 1974 album Sedaka's Back. Just one year later, Love will keep us Together the first of many #1 hits for Captain & Tennille, topping the Adult Contemporary Chart. Love Will Keep Us Together was also the first of two of their songs to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Enjoy!

Sending you Patriotic Wishes!

A few envelopes selected from the Commemorative and Patriotic Illustrated Envelopes
donated by Dr. Wade Hall. Happy Independence Day!

The man behind the album covers: Remembering the Artist Tom Wilkes

Elite Hotel (LP 12978, 1975) and
Blue Kentucky Girl (LP 9615, 1979)
Covers by Tom Wilkes
From the Wade Hall Sound Recordings Collections

The award winning artist, designer and photographer Tom Wilkes passed away last week. He leaves behind a massive catalog of album covers -- work that he did over a career that spanned more than four decades and includes these two covers by Alabama native, Emmylou Harris.

Wilkes made his name as the Art Director for the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967, creating iconic psychedelic images that forever branded the festival in our memories and our imaginations. He went on to a long and successful career that brought us album covers such as the Flying Burrito Brothers' Gilded Palace of Sin, and Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones. His creative genius will be missed, but will surely live on.

Let's celebrate once again Alabama's amazing musical legacy with Emmylou Harris, from the album Elite Hotel -- Together Again.

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!

Remembering the King (and the man who crowned him)

Elvis passed away 31 years ago yesterday. This photograph was taken in 1974 in Memorial Coliseum (now Coleman Coliseum) on The University of Alabama campus and is part of our vast holdings of University photographs, a component of The University of Alabama's archives which as housed at the Hoole Library. These photographs range in scope to include campus buildings and scenes, specific events, and everything in between.  We have made some of the photographs available in our digital collections, and are continuously adding more.  This group of digital materials is called The University of Alabama Encyclopedia. 

Elvis Presley played at UA twice in the 1970s -- and he wasn't alone. The campus attracted huge acts, especially in the 1950s through the 1970s including the Rolling Stones, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, and many, many more.  In the earlier years, concerts were held in Foster Auditorium, and later at the Coluseum. Tuscaloosa's spot between Atlanta and New Orleans made it an ideal venue for these kinds of performances. 

While we remember the King, it's not a bad idea to think about the man who made him what he was. That man was Sam Phillips. He moved from his native Florence, Alabama to Memphis, and opened a recording studio where he worked with Blues pioneers and made some of the very first Rock and Roll recordings.  The image of this current historic marker which stands in Florence, Alabama is courtesy of biologist and Florence native, Stuart McGregor. 

Phillips got his start as a DJ in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and relocated to Memphis in 1950 where he opened the Memphis Recording Service.  He also launched his own record label, Sun Records, where he recorded Elvis and many others. 

Phillips is credited by many as not only with discovering Elvis Presley, but also recording the first Rock and Roll record,  "Rocket 88" by a band called Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. That band was led by none other than Clarksville, Mississippi native Ike Turner. 

Materials about Sam Phillips, Elvis Presley, Memphis blues, music, and much more are available in the Hoole Library's Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture.

A Lucky Birthday for Alabama's Eddie Floyd -- Knock on Wood!

Happy Birthday to Alabama-born soul singer and songwriter Eddie Floyd. Eddie Floyd was born Eddie Lee Floyd on June 25, 1935 in Montgomery, Alabama and though he has an album coming out next month -- his first in six years-- he is probably best known for his work on the Memphis-based Stax Records label in the 1960s and 1970s - first as a songwriter, then as a surprise mega-hit singer!

Growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Floyd founded the the group The Falcons, which was a forerunner to future Detroit vocal groups such as one of the most famous Detroit bands (who got their start in their native Birmingham, Alabama!), The Temptations.

The 1959 hit by the Falcons, You're So Fine has been said by some to have been the first true Soul song. Wilson Pickett (yet another Alabamian -- he hailed from Prattville) was later recruited into the group and sang lead on the group's next success, I Found a Love. Pickett left shortly after to begin a a solo career, and The Falcons disbanded.

Floyd signed on with Stax Records as a songwriter in 1965. He wrote some hit songs including Comfort me, and also worked as a songwriting team with guitarist Steve Cropper to write songs for Wilson Pickett, who by now was signed to Atlantic Records (Atlantic distributed Stax). The Pickett recording sessions were a great success and yielded several hit songs, including the Floyd co-written Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do) and 634-5789 (Soulsville USA).

In 1966, Floyd wrote the song Knock on Wood, and recorded it himself though it had been intended for Otis Redding. Music producer Jerry Wexler convinced Stax president Jim Stewart to release Eddie Floyd's recording of the song and Knock On Wood launched a solo career that has spanned over four decades.

Knock on Wood is one of those remarkable songs that has a life of its own -- having been recorded by over one hundred different artists including David Bowie, Count Basie, Cher, and Ike and Tina Turner. The song became a #1 Disco hit for the recording artist Amii Stewart in 1979. Here are a few versions - including Eddie Floyd's, Amii Stewart's version and a couple of others for your entertainment. And be sure to visit the Hoole Library to learn more about Alabama's incredibly diverse and rich musical history -- the images featured here are from items the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture and the Ed Hall Sound Recordings Collection. Here's to a very cool birthday, Mr. Floyd -- and good luck with your new album!
Please enjoy this mega-hit's legacy with versions by Mr. Floyd, two by Amii Stewart, Buddy Guy, Cher, James Last and David Bowie! (Note that while I can't embed the best one - which is from 1966 and probably from the television show, Hulabaloo, you can access it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSH4Nk5bPcE)

Hamp@Hoole: Happy 100th Birthday to the Legendary Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton would have been 100 years old this week. He passed away in August of 2002 at the age of 94, a musical legend and performer for a remarkable eight decades.

Hampton was born on April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky. After his father was killed in World War I, Hampton and his mother moved to Birmingham, Alabama. They later moved north to Kenosha, Wisconsin, then to Chicago. His earliest musical experiences were in Birmingham, playing drums in a Holiness church. He started his professional musical career as a drummer, touring with bandleaders in the 1920s, then moving to Los Angeles in 1927.

Everything changed for Hampton in 1930, when during a recording session with Louis Armstrong. It was in this session that Hampton would first play the vibraphone -- the instrument he made legendary. When Armstrong asked him if he knew how to play, he said "yeah, I can play that" (based on his experience with a xylophone), and he recorded "Memories of You" on vibes with Armstrong.

Hampton went on to play in the 1930s with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and soon after was recording under his own name for RCA Victor -- recording sessions with musicians like Dizzie Gillespie. In 1940 he assembled his own big band, with members including such legends as Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, and the legendary singer and Tuscaloosa, Alabama native, Dinah Washington. Though he is most widely known as a vibraphonist, he is often remembered for his wild drum performances. Most performances included him working the drums, vibes, singing, and playing piano.

Hampton's legend lives on as a dynamic band leader and vibraphonist -- and it is he that was responsible for making the vibraphone what it is today. And his passion for music and life is reflected in the legacy he left behind both in recordings, and in his good works in politics and in the community.

The W.S. Hoole Library's sound recordings include several by Lionel Hampton from the Wade Hall Sound Recordings. Images from a few of the albums are featured here.

Here's an early television recording of Hampton and his orchestra with his hit, "Flying Home".

Libraries Lecture Series: The Warrior Image with Andrew Huebner

Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday April 15 at 4 pm Gorgas 205 for:

The Warrior Image, Soldiers in American Culture from the Second World War to the Vietnam Era (UNC Press 2007) with Dr. Andrew Huebner, UA Assistant Professor of History [Download the flier here]

A reception and signing will follow his lecture and presentation. This event is sponsored by UA Libraries with the generous support of Dr. Lakey and Susan Tolbert. Please join us!

About the book: Images of war saturated American culture between the 1940s and the 1970s, as U.S. troops marched off to battle in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Exploring representations of servicemen in the popular press, government propaganda, museum exhibits, literature, film, and television, Andrew Huebner traces the evolution of a storied American icon--the combat soldier.

Huebner challenges the pervasive assumption that Vietnam brought drastic changes in portrayals of the American warrior, with the jaded serviceman of the 1960s and 1970s shown in stark contrast to the patriotic citizen-soldier of World War II. In fact, Huebner shows, cracks began to appear in sentimental images of the military late in World War II and were particularly apparent during the Korean conflict. Journalists, filmmakers, novelists, and poets increasingly portrayed the steep costs of combat, depicting soldiers who were harmed rather than hardened by war, isolated from rather than supported by their military leadership and American society. Across all three wars, Huebner argues, the warrior image conveyed a growing cynicism about armed conflict, the federal government, and Cold War militarization.

The Hoole Library's Wade Hall Photograph Collection holds an important subset of photographs of American soldiers and military personnel. Most of these photographs are snapshots and studio portraits created for personal use and date from the Civil War era through the first Gulf War.

Happy Birthday to Alabama's own Clarence Carter!

Patches [sound recording] / Clarence Carter. (Detail)
New York : Atlantic, c1970. Sound disc : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in. From the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library Wade Hall Sound Recording Collection, LP 14010

January 14 is the birthday of Clarence Carter, a native of Montgomery, Alabama. Carter was educated at the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega and Alabama State College in Montgomery with a Bachelor's Degree in music. He released his first album, This is Clarence Carter, forty years ago in 1968.

Carter's career spans four decades, with his most known hit being th 1970 song, Patches, which reached #2 on the UK charts and #4 on the US pop charts and was nominated for a Grammy in 1972. Carter was inducted in the Alabama Music Hall of fame in 2002.

Carter recorded Patches, and several other songs in Muscle Shoals -- where recording artists of all stripes - pop, jazz, rock, soul, and country, made hits using that famous Muscle Shoals sound. Carter reinvented himself for a whole new audience in the 1980s and 1990s with songs like Strokin'. His most recent album was released in 2007 entitled, The Final Stroke.

The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library's holdings include excellent resources for those interested in learning more about Alabama's rich and diverse musical history. Materials from the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture, as well as our sound recording and sheet music collections and manuscript collections and of course materials from the Alabama Collection, provide a wealth of information on Alabama music.

Speaking of Sound Recordings, be sure to stop by and see Hear Hair Here: Hair Do's and Hair Don'ts from the Hoole Special Collections Library.

Need a break? Let your hair down with Hear Hair Here! Hairdos and Hair Don'ts from the Hoole Library's Sound Recording Collections

If the stress of final exams, papers, and the holidays have you down, and you want to take a little break -- please stop by the lobby of the Hoole Special Collections Library and see our exhibit, Hear Hair Here! Hair Do's and Hair Don't From the Hoole Library's Sound Recording Collections. Most of the records selected are from the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture and feature some amazing, gravity-defying looks that will brighten your day! The Hoole Library is open M-F 8 am to 5 pm, with Thursday evening hours until 9 p m.

I’ll pray for you [sound recording] / The Liberty Sounds.
Central City, Ky. : Cardinal, [196-?]
1 sound disc : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in.
Wade Hall Sound Recordings | LP 9514

Quiet fire [sound recording] / Roberta Flack.
New York : Atlantic, 1971.
1 sound disc : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in.
Wade Hall Sound Recordings | LP 13188

UA Professor to speak on her book, which examines the role of ‘mammy’ in modern American Politics and Culture.

On Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 4:30 pm, Dr. Micki McElya, Assistant Professor of American Studies at The University of Alabama will discuss her new book, Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America (Harvard University Press, 2007). The event will be held in the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, on the 2^nd floor of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall, 500 Hackberry Lane, on The University of Alabama campus. The talk will begin at about 4:45 pm in the Hoole Library reading room, followed by a reception and book signing in the lobby of the Hoole Library.

McElya’s powerful and beautifully written book examines the far-reaching image of the nurturing, faithful enslaved woman and her hold on the American imagination. McElya exposes the power of the myth of ‘mammy’, an omnipresent figure in popular culture -- from film, song and literature, to advertising and our grocery store shelves, as well as in national monument proposals, child custody cases, white women’s minstrelsy, activism, anti-lynching campaigns and the Civil Rights movement . These images have existed and persisted from the era of the Civil War to today. It is through her carefully researched and thought provoking narrative that McElya argues, “if we are to reckon with the continuing legacy of slavery in the United States, we must confront the depths of our desire for mammy and recognize its full racial implications.”

Scott Sandage, author of Born Losers: A History of Failure in America says, “McElya shows vividly how ‘mammy’ serves as a perfect archetype for analyzing cultural politics of race and gender and how they changed. She gives us parlor theatrics, courtroom drama, legislative debate and movement politics. This is a wonderfully expansive book.”

A small exhibition of materials that illuminate aspects of McElya's book, will be on display in the Hoole Library, curated by Portia Barker, graduate student in American Studies and intern at the Hoole Library, along with Mary Keeley McAllister, undergraduate student assistant who is majoring in Visual Journalism with a minor in American Studies. Jessica Lacher-Feldman is overseeing the exhibit project. Most of the materials for this exhibit are from the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture.

Dr. McElya will refer to the exhibit in her talk. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Jessica Lacher-Feldman at jlfeldma@ua.edu or at 205.348.0500. This event is sponsored by UA Libraries, and in part by the generous support of Dr. Lakey and Susan Tolbert.

Hear Hair Here! Hairdos and Hair Don'ts from the Hoole Library's Sound Recording Collections

Please visit the Hoole Library and check out some of the biggest and wildest hair in the music industry. We were looking for a little levity, and found some in the incredible album covers in our collections. Most of the covers come from the Wade Hall Sound recording collections, and others from the Ed Hall collection (no relation!). The most difficult part was selecting from the thousands of sound recordings we hold at the library. Among the categories featured are "The Pantheon", "Just for Men", and "The Higher the Hair, the closer to God". The exhibit will be in the Hoole Library lobby through the Fall 2007 semester.