Alabama's Beautiful Gulf Coast Beaches, June 1912

Dauphin Island, 1912
From Roland Harper Photographs Collection
(Collection number 633, Folder number 3.337)

http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0001_2008032_0005179

Alabamians have long enjoyed their beaches, but for the people of Southwest Alabama and the coastal areas of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the Gulf is a way of life. As the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster slowly encroaches on our white sands, Cool@Hoole would like to share a few beach scenes from our collections from Alabama's shores taken by botanist Roland Harper nearly 100 years ago on June 12, 1912.

The Roland Harper Photographs collection, 1878-1966 contains over 7500 photographs, as well as negatives and albums. Subject include botanical and geological subjects like the Orange Beach photographs, as well as images of farms, people, houses and everyday scenes. The photographs cover thirty-one states, the bulk of the collection are from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New York, California, Arkansas, and Maryland. These images are a powerful and essential resource in understanding the natural history of this region, providing accurate and precise snapshot of the flora and formations of the Alabama Gulf Coast.

The papers of Roland Harper are also housed in the Hoole Library. Sixty three linear feet of materials from Harper, include his diaries, correspondence, research notes, writings, publications, personal and family materials, cemetery records, scrapbooks, as well as photographs, materials relating to race relations, and a substantial collection of transportation timetables and clippings. Some of the photographs and other materials from the collections are available online through our Digital Collections.

Bluffs at the outlet of Perdido Bay

Caption: Bluffs about 10 ft. high made by waves cutting into dunes near outlet of Perdido Bay. 1.31 pm
From Roland Harper Photographs Collection
(Collection number 633, Folder number 187.2)
http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0001_2008032_0005568

Dunes at Orange Beach

Caption: Looking South among older dunes, with Corradina in foreground, Pinus clausa (dead), Quercus myrtifolia, Ceratiola, etc. 2:04 pm.
From Roland Harper Photographs Collection
(Collection number 633, Folder number 187.6)
http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0001_2008032_0005575

Then state Geologist, Eugene Allen Smith on Orange Beach (in a suit, not a bathing suit!)

Caption: Near view of same bluff, showing bedding of sand [E.A. Smith in picture] 1:35 pm
From Roland Harper Photographs Collection
(Collection number 633, Folder number 187.3)
http://acumen.lib.ua.edu/u0001_2008032_0005569

Thanks to graduate student Alisha Linam, a native of South Alabama for her work with these items!

Keeping it Real: Pioneering Social Critique and Counterculture @Hoole

The Realist, a pioneering magazine in social criticism and satire, was edited and published by Paul Krassner, a journalist, comedian, author, and driving force behind the Yippies, the "New Left", and 1960s counterculture. Although the Realist is often considered part of the underground press of 1960s counterculture, it was first published in 1958 in New York City and was nationally distributed by 1959.

The Realist fell out of regular circulation in 1974, and received financial support from none other than John Lennon to stay afloat. The final issue of The Realist ran in Spring 2001. It is widely considered the first magazine to print conspiracy theories and criticizes political, religious and cultural issues.


Over the period of the Realist’s publication, contributing authors included social activists, comedians, and political radicals like Richard Pryor, Kurt Vonnegut, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, and Margo St. James. These people and many others wrote articles and illustrated cartoons on issues including racial and sexual freedoms, the Vietnam War, Communism, medical developments, and organized religion.

The Hoole Special Collections Library holds fifty issues of The Realist, including the first issue that ran in June-July 1958 as a “social-political-religious criticism and satire” publication and claimed, in its first headline, to be “An Angry Young Magazine…” Other issues range in date from April 1959 to April 1965.

Our collection of Realist magazines was donated by retired English professor Dr. Mathew Winston. This fascinating publication provides an almost continuous monthly record for over half a decade of what the counterculture was talking about, or often talking against.

Special thanks to Jamie Burke, UA American Studies major for her work with Hoole's copies of The Realist!

A privately developed online archive of the Realist is accessible here, and an edited volume, Best of The Realist was published by Krasssner in 1984.

A Glimpse at what's coming up....

Stay tuned!

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!

Adventures! Adventures!, or See you in May!

Sword and pen ; or, Ventures and adventures of Willard Glazier, in war and literature : comprising incidents and reminiscences of his childhood, his chequered life as a student and teacher, and his remarkable career as a soldier and author : embracing also the story of his unprecedented journey from ocean to ocean on horseback by John Algernon Owens (Philadelphia, P.W. Ziegler, 1881). pba02001, from the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture, Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama.

The coming months will have me fighting, with sword and pen (mostly pen -- well actually mouse and keyboard) as I research and write the book I have been working on. I will be on sabbatical leave and will return to Hoole, and to Cool@Hoole on Monday, May 17, 2010. Don't forget about this blog -- and have a healthy and happy new year! -- Jessica Lacher-Feldman

The Late Great Johnny Ace!

On 11/11/09, Dr. Jim Salem will give a talk and highlight his research on early Rock 'n' Roll legend, Johnny Ace. This talk, along with an exhibit of Ace materials, is in celebration of Dr. Salem's gift of his research to The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. The talk will be at the Hoole Library at 5 pm. The exhibit will be on display for the next few months.

These materials, now known as the James M. Salem Research Materials on the Late Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R&B to Rock ‘n’ Roll are highlighted in the exhibit, and include photographs, LPs, documents, and artifacts. The collection also includes a wealth of interviews with those associated with Ace, and copies of articles focusing on popular culture of the 1950s, and much more -- and will be a great asset to scholars interested in American Popular Music, and Cultural Studies. Thank you, Dr. Salem for this wonderful gift!

Tell us your favortite Southern Novel!

A Tennessee Judge: A Novel, by Opie Read (Chicago: Laird and Lee, 1893).

It probably isn't this page turner by Opie Read, but we have it the Hoole! Please send us a note with your favorite Southern novel, and tell us why you think it's cool, and who knows, we might just exhibit it in our new exhibit - FAVORITE SOUTHERN NOVELS!

We also welcome your information about Alabama authors, new and old! Send me an email at jlfeldma@ua.edu if you know of an author that we might not yet be aware of!