Two Upcoming Community Events Involving UAH History Alumni

The UAH history department is pleased to announce two upcoming community history events, both of which involve the work of UAH history alumni.

The first is the multimedia production, "Upon their Shoulders: the Merrimack Story," from October 15-19, 2009, featuring the legendary actress Lee Meriwether. It will tell the rich history of Huntsville through the lives of the real people who labored in the city's textile mills. It will trace the lives of three boys beginning in 1911and feature rare photos and film footage and dramatizations of actual events.

Alumna Susanna Leberman has been consulting and helping with images and narration, and the production also quotes from UAH alumna Whitney Snow's history MA thesis, "The Cotton Mills of Huntsville."

The event will be at the Merrimack Performing Arts Center. Further information is available at www.merrimackhall.com or 256-534-6455.



The second community event is the annual Maple Hill Cemetery Stroll, held at Maple Hill Cemetery in downtown Huntsville on October 18, 2:00-4:30 pm. More than 65 costumed characters, representing historic Huntsville personages, will come alive to tell the history of the cemetery and of Huntsville. UAH history alumna Susanna Leberman will participate. Further information is available at http://www.huntsvillepilgrimage.org/.

Pictured her see a flyer for "Upon their Shoulders" and a photograph from a previous Cemetery Stroll.

Public History Student Elisabeth Spalding to Give Talk at Huntsville Library on Restoring Old Photographs

On Wednesday June 24, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Huntsville Library, history major Elisabeth Spalding will give a public lecture on "Preserving Your Past: Technology and Digital Restoration." This lecture will be based on the internship Elisabeth completed in the Huntsville Library Archives as part of the class she took Spring 2009 with Dr. John Kvach on "Public History."

Elisabeth will talk about the history of photography including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, and CDVs as well as the importance of restoring old photographs. She will also give tips on simple and easy digital photo touch-ups that anybody can do.

Please come and learn about the history of photography and about how to preserve your old photographs!

Public Talk on Alabama During the Civil War by UAH History Major Joseph Richardson

We are pleased to announce that history major Joseph T. Richardson, the winner of the new Dr. John Rison Jones Award in Southern History, will give a public talk on "I.D.W. Cobb: North Alabama Partisan Ranger: Researching a Local Civil War Soldier."

The lecture will be at the Huntsville Public Library on Wednesday April 15, 2008, at 6:30 pm in the Library Auditorium.

Richardson will present his research on I.D.W. Cobb (1847-1933), a local Confederate veteran who took part in North Alabama's untold partisan ranger conflict behind Union lines, serving under Captain Milus E. "Bushwhacker" Johnston and Colonel Lemuel G. Mead.

Starting from scratch with the name of a man he'd never heard of, chosen from a list of local veterans provided by my professor Dr. John Kvach, Richardson's research process helped him illuminate the life of this forgotten soldier in records, photographs, and finally his own words.

Richardson will also present a brief overview of his methods and sources, to encourage others to discover their own Civil War heritage.

Please come and bring a friend!

Film Showing Friday April 10: Conspiracy (2001)

All students and community members are welcome to watch the HBO Film "Conspiracy," made in 2001, on Friday April 10, 2009 at 1:00pm in Roberts Hall 423 (the history seminar room). The film stars Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci and examines the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 at which leading Nazis formalized plans for the "Final Solution" to kill all of the Jews in Europe.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Molly Johnson at molly.johnson@uah.edu

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Cahokia and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex

Dr. John E. Kelly of Washington University in St. Louis is an expert on eastern North American archaeology, particularly Mississippian culture as evidenced at the extensive site of Cahokia, just outside of St. Louis. Cahokia, a World Heritage UNESCO Site, possesses approximately 120 mounds, including Monk’s Mound, the largest mound in North America. It is also the location of the intriguing “Woodhenge,” a monument that marked the solstices and equinoxes much like Stonehenge in England. Dr. Kelly has been working frequently at Cahokia and other nearby Mississippian sites since 1969. He is interested in the role of ritual and kinship as manifested in the imagery and dispersal of various artifacts and techniques. This manifestation of Mississippian culture is referred to as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC).

March 30
"Cahokia's Mound 34 and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex" Chan Auditorium 7:30 PM

Film Viewing of "Downfall": Friday March 27

All students and community members are invited to view the German film "Downfall"
(2006). This film recounts the final days of Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazis in the spring of 1945 in Berlin. It is based in part on the memoirs of Hitler's secretary as well as on the works of leading historians.

The film will be shown at 1:00 p.m. in Roberts Hall 423 (the history department's seminar room).

Please contact Dr. Molly Johnson with any questions: molly.johnson@uah.edu

After a earning a Loyola University master's degree in public history, Brian Coffey worked as a public historian for both public and private institutions. He has published articles on American industrial history and participated in several historic preservation projects. For the last decade, he's served the National Park Service as a historian. In his role as NPS Historian in the Southeast Region, Brian has traveled to and worked in dozens of National Parks from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Great Smoky Mountains. He will be discussing this work from an "inside the NPS" perspective Tuesday, March 24th, at 7:30 in RH 419.