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Summersell Center Helps UA Students tell the Stories of Tuscaloosa County Lynching Victims.

This article appeared originally on The University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility’s website. by Erin Mosley and Jamon Smith Dr. John Giggie describes the eras most Americans refer to as Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties as periods of racial terror for a significant portion of the country’s population. “At a time when the United States was in fact growing and prospering, many African-Americans feared for their lives,” says Giggie, associate professor of history and […]

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“Dixie’s Great War: World War I and the American South” Symposium to be held October 6.

Register today and plan to attend the one-day symposium, “Dixie’s Great War: World War I and the American South,” to be held Friday, October 6, 2017 at the Ferguson Center Great Hall on The University of Alabama’s campus in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Dixie’s Great War symposium, hosted by the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, “is considered to be the largest conference in the country on World War I and the South,” says John Giggie, Associate Professor and Director […]

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The University of Alabama in WWI

By Matthew Culver The 1918 campus of the University of Alabama would be a strange sight for the modern observer. Familiar classroom buildings such as Morgan and Smith Halls would be present; however, the students filing out of them would be wearing strange, round brimmed caps and earth toned uniforms. The quad that now serves as a field of festivity and recreation was instead witness to the precision of military cadence and the spectacle of bayonet drills. The University of […]

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Black/White Intimacies: Reimagining History, the South, and the Western Hemisphere

This two-day symposium explores interracial interactions and the forming of American culture during the antebellum period and beyond. We will address questions such as: What were the limitations of interracial intimacies and how might people have addressed those limitations in various settings – domestic spheres, legal systems, religious spaces, classrooms? If people across races and cultures lived, ate, slept, and traveled together, what were the implications for cultural understanding—or lack thereof? What was interracial intimacy and how might expressions of […]

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PHI Intern Ryan Tullock Explores House Museums

By Ryan Tullock I went on my first house tour when I was in the eighth grade. I toured The Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee. I can almost remember every detail about that tour and was blown away by the fact that someone, albeit a very important someone, had their house turned into a museum. From that point on, it has been a wish of mine to be involved with a house museum of some sort. With that in mind, and […]

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PHI Intern Matthew Culver Works with Gorgas House to Create Exhibit on Centennial of US Entry into WW I

By Matthew Culver For the spring of 2017 I am working with the Gorgas House Museum to curate and display an exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of American entry into the First World War. I chose this internship to compliment my prior experience in military museums, as well as have the opportunity to serve in a “leadership” capacity during exhibit curation, which will afford me invaluable experience in the curation process. I picked the subject of WWI based on my […]

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PHI Intern Ashley Tickle Creating an Exhibit at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library on a Day in the Life of a Miner

By Ashley Nicole Tickle I decided to do the project at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library because I am interested in museum work. I felt that creating an exhibit using the materials in the collection would give me the best experience for that type of work. Lewis and I met with Dr. Kate Matheny, the Reference Services and Outreach Coordinator for Special Collections at Hoole, in mid-December 2016 to discuss what materials are available to work with. She presented […]

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PHI Intern Kevin McPartland Works with Tuscaloosa’s First United Methodist Church

By Kevin McPartland I became interested in this project because of the time period spanned by the Church. The Church has its beginnings in some very unique times in American history. Not only was it a product of the second great awakening, but it also comes about during Alabama fever, and the establishment of a slave economy in what was then the American Southwest. Early America through the Civil War is my area of interest, so this project provides a […]

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PHI Intern Morgan Wilson Works with Civil Rights Commission

By Morgan Wilson This spring, I am participating in the Civil Rights Commission internship, which involves gathering and compiling information on civil rights in West Alabama. I chose to work on this project because I want to learn more about the rich but often underestimated civil rights events and legacies of the Tuscaloosa area. While American history and civil rights are not subjects that I have formally researched in recent years, I have a very personal investment in these topics […]

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PHI Intern Chandler Padgett Works with Gorgas House WWI Exhibit

By Chandler Padgett For my internship, I am primarily working on the WWI exhibit, while also giving tours. For the exhibit, I am working on one of three sections: the part focusing on William C. Gorgas. This project has involved a number of things. First, I have done an extensive amount of research on Gorgas’s life and his impact on the world around him. Second, I’ve translated that research into information for visitors through text and other interpretive tools. Perhaps […]

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