September 28, 2009  

Alabama Illustrated exhibit coming to TROY Dothan Campus

DOTHAN—An exhibit coming to Troy University’s Dothan Campus Oct. 1 will give viewers a glimpse at Alabama in the 19th century.

The “Alabama Illustrated” exhibit features 30 reproductions of images from 19th century American magazines, including Harper’s and Frank Leslie’s Weekly, depicting scenes from Alabama.

Designed at the time for primarily northern audiences, the historic images examine Southern life within an emerging sectionalized political and cultural framework that changed over the century.

The free, self-guided exhibit will be on display inside the Gallery Hall of the Library/Technology Building through Nov. 15.

The Dothan Campus will also host two lectures during October that will further explore the themes of the “Alabama Illustrated” exhibit.

On Oct. 8, Jim Baggett, head of the Birmingham Public Library Archives, will present “Old South/New South: Looking at Alabama through the Eyes of the 19th Century Press.” Baggett will examine how national newspaper coverage of Alabama evolved in the 19th century from portrayals of an exotic antebellum South, to a wartime enemy, and finally to a modern New South.

On Oct. 29, Dr. Graham Boettcher, the William Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art, will deliver “Depicting Dixie: Alabama in 19th Century American Visual Culture.” The lecture examines the images of Alabama and the Deep South in the popular media of 19th century America and discusses how these images helped to shape popular attitudes and misconceptions about the region.

Both lectures are free and open to the public and will be held inside Sony Hall at 6:30 p.m.

The “Alabama Illustrated” exhibit and accompanying lectures are sponsored by the Dothan Campus Archives of Wiregrass History and Culture (AWHC) and the Wiregrass Museum of Art and were funded in part by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

For more information, contact Dr. Marty Olliff at (334) 983-6556 or via email at molliff@troy.edu.