News & Events

2012
McCall Library receives the papers of Jim Clark Jr., the sheriff of Selma, Alabama, during the Civil Rights Movement's voting rights demonstrations of 1965. An inventory to the collection is available here.

First portion of massive Doy Leale McCall Collection now open! Click here to access the guide.

2011
Former USA Archives Given Gift Worth $3.1 Million
     On May 6, the University of South Alabama held a press conference to announce that the former USA Archives has acquired a collection of historical documents worth $3.1 million. As part of the gift, the University also announced that the Archives will now be called The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection of historical documents donated by the family of Doy Leale McCall Sr. include material from the late 17th through the 20th century. In it are presidential land grants, papers related to slavery and Reconstruction, plantation documents, Civil War diaries, and papers of the Winter Iron Works, among others.

     The collection remains closed for now. Staff of The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library plan to open it in stages, with the printed material being first. Announcements of the periodic openings will be made. Below are two of the images from the May 6 press conference. You can also read the press release. For more information, please call 251.434.3800 or email us at mccalllib@usouthal.edu.

Signing the official gift agreement

Seated from left to right are Doy Leale McCall III, Margaret Rolfsen McCall, John McCall (grandchildren of Doy Leale McCall Sr.), USA president Gordon Moulton, Senior Vive-President for Academic Affairs David Johnson, and Vice-President for Development Joseph Busta.

Staff and students of the McCall Library

Staff and Students of The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the May 6 press conference.

 

Friends of the Archives meeting, Tuesday, May 10
     Plan to attend the next Friends of the University Archives meeting on Tuesday, May 10, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.. Featured will be more information on an exciting new collection and a presentation of some of the rich historic documents from that collection. For more information call 434.3800 or email archives@jaguar1.usouthal.edu.


Gulf South Historical Association Annual Conference
     Call for papers for the 2011 Gulf South Historical Association's annual conference. A .pdf of the CFP is available here.  

 

Wilson C. Burton Portrait Index Now Online
     The Wilson C. Burton portrait collection is made up of nearly 77,000 negatives taken between 1935 and 1998. Primarily consists of portraits but also includes other significant images. An index to the collection is available here.

2010
Panoramic Images Now on Sale!
     The Archives is pleased to announce the long-term sale of nearly 160 panoramic images taken by Erik Overbey from the mid-1910s through 1940. For more info, please click here.


Large Bequest Left to Archives
     On June 8, the archives received a check for $45,944.53 from the Mark J. Hanrahan Trust. The amount was left to us by Mr. Hanrahan in memory of his long-time partner Robert E. Bell. Mr. Hanrahan donated Mr. Bell’s papers to the archives after Mr. Bell’s death in 1999. Mr. Hanrahan’s trust contained no instructions for how the money should be used, and its disposition has not yet been decided. We plan, however, to do something in memory of Mr. Bell. Do you have an idea? If so, give us a call at 251.434.3800 or email us at archives@jaguar1.usouthal.edu.

Book Signing
     The local chapter of The Links, Incorporated, presented three opportunites to see and hear Linda Kenney Miller, whose book, Beacon on the Hill, about her grandfather's relationships with Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, was recently published.

Friends of the Archives' Spring Meeting

     The Friends of the University of South Alabama Archives held its annual spring meeting on Tuesday, March 30, 2010, in room 181 of the University Library. The featured speaker for the event was Scotty E. Kirkland, a recent MA graduate at the university. The title of his talk was "Mobile, the Boswell Amendment, and the transformation of Alabama's Democratic Party." Please click here to see some images from the event.

Archives Receives Another Grant

     Late last year we told you about our grant application, in conjunction with Junior League of Mobile, to the J. L. Bedsole Foundation for funds to purchase supplies to process Junior League Records. On January 11, we received confirmation from the foundation that our grant application had been fully funded. The check will soon be in hand, the records transferred to us, supplies purchased, and processing begun. Please click here for the press release announcing the grant award.

2009
Grant Awarded
     On November 25, the Archives was notified that its grant application in the amount of $5,917 to the National Endowment for the Humanities was fully funded as a We the People grant. The monies will go to complete processing of the Wilson C. Burton Collection and begin processing of the Wilbur F. Palmer Collection. We will continue to post reports on the progress of the projects. 

Check out the Archives' wishlist.

Archives partners with Junior League of Mobile
    
Several months ago the Junior League of Mobile approached the Archives about donating its records. The two organizations then partnered to apply for a grant from the Bedsole Foundation for funds to purchase archival supplies to re-house and organize the Junior League's papers. We should receive word on the success of the grant by the middle of December. The official donation of the records is pending that decision.

Archives completes requirements for NHPRC/HRAB grant
     On April 6, 2009, the National Historic Publications and Records Commission, through the Alabama state Historical Records Advisory Board, awarded the Archives a $2,500 grant. The grant was applied toward supplies to re-house and organize the Wilson C. Burton photographic collection. The monies arrived and this past summer, graduate students began working on the collection. To date, 80 percent of the collection has been re-housed, or an estimated 72,000 negatives. For more on the collection, please see our guide to photographic collections.

Archives announces change to scan policy
     Effective October 1, 2009, the Archives instituted a new policy for scans. Scans for for personal use, for computer monitor viewing, or for a web site viewing are limited to 72 to 96 dots per inch (dpi). Those for inclusion in powerpoint presentations will not be scanned any higher than 300 dpi. Only scans for commerical publication or special projects (with the prior approval of the archivist) will be reproduced at a dpi higher than 300 .jpg.