The Alabama in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Research in the Southern Collection

Art --

The entire set can be found in the Southern Collection of the Birmingham Public Library. If a more complete research facility for Southern history and family history can be found in the Southeast, I don't know about it. Not suggesting there are not good resources elsewhere; it's just that if you want to be able to find something, it's more likely to be in this wonderful facility than elsewhere.

The former director, Yvonne Crumpler, went to great lengths to secure Alabama regimental histories and anything else that would tell the story of Alabama and the South from earliest history to the present day. Of course the Civil War period and family history always received her special attention. That means your books are available for readers, along with rare privately printed editions such as a volume listing all the 1865 paroles in North Carolina. Historic maps are another focus for this collection, but time does not allow further description.

Murals painted by Ezra Winter line the walls of the main reading room. You have to be there to appreciate their size and beauty, the wall above the bookshelves being about 12 to 14 feet high. Even if the collections available to those of us doing Confederate research were not superior in quantity and quality, this is still an extraordinary building. See the link below for details on each mural.

http://www.bham.lib.al.us/about/murals/LinnHenley.aspx

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Re: Research in the Southern Collection
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