Dr. John Kvach and UAH Students Scanning Local Civil War Photos and Documents Saturday February 6, 2010

Do you have any old Civil War era photographs or documents?

Then head down to the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (915 Monroe Street) Saturday, February 6, 2010, where Dr. John Kvach, along with his UAH history students and 10th-grade students and teachers from Huntsville High School, will have a scanning session in the Heritage Room on the third floor from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Working with Kvach are Huntsville High teachers Diane Blocker and Amber Hall and local resource librarians Ranee Pruitt and Nancy Rohr. They are collaborating on the "Real People, Real History" History-Channel-funded project to highlight the history of the Civil War in Madison County by creating a website.

Kvach is asking those with documents or photos to schedule an appointment Saturday through Blocker at wdblocker@gmail.com or Kvach at 824-2570.

"We're hoping to get some photos or documents their great granddads or anybody else passed down," Kvach said. "We want to highlight the 150th commemoration of the Civil War."

Pictured here is a photograph showing Union troops occupying Huntsville. For more information, see the February 1, 2010 article in the Huntsville Times.

Speaker on "Gender and Treason in the Civil War," Monday Nov. 2

The history department is pleased to invite our public supporters to two lectures by Dr. Stephanie McCurry, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

On November 2, Dr. McCurry will discuss “Gender and Treason during the Civil War,” at 7:00 p.m. in the Roberts Recital Hall. On November 3, she will present “Arming Slaves in the Confederacy” during an afternoon Honors Forum from 11:10-12:30 p.m. in Frank Franz Hall Multipurpose Room.

Dr. McCurry’s Master’s of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country changed the way historians think about gender and politics. Her book was also instrumental in focusing scholars’ attention away from Southern planters and onto Southern yeomen, or smaller farmers. This excellent, ground-breaking work won numerous awards, including the John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association and the Charles Sydnor Award of the Southern Historical Association.

In the spring, Harvard will publish her newest work, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South. In this monograph, McCurry takes a new look at popular politics in the Confederate States of America, concentrating on the disenfranchised and the transformation of the southern body politic before military defeat and Reconstruction. She will be sharing work from this soon to be published work with UAH and the Huntsville community in November.



Both lectures are free and open to the public. Support is provided by the UAHuntsville Distinguished Speakers Series, History Department, Honors Program, and Women’s Studies Program.

Please come and bring a friend!

AIA Talk: Children in Wartime, October 14

Dr. John Oakley of the College of William and Mary, author of critically acclaimed books including The Wedding in Ancient Athens and Coming of Age in Ancient Greece, will examine representations of children in Greek art during the war between Athens and Sparta and then compare this evidence to images of children during war in the modern world. Dr. Oakley will speak on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 PM in the Shelby Center at UAH. More information at 824-6114.

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!