Tag Archives: photographs

New Book Release – Coming Soon!

This is the story of a neighborhood just west of the Birmingham city center. Known since a subdivision in 1887 as Smithfield, North Smithfield, Graymont, and East Thomas, the neighborhood’s current name honors the seminal legal battles for attainment of civil rights that unfolded here from 1946 to 1965. The 88-page book includes photographs, maps and accounts of the legal battles and civil rights fights, reflections of neighborhood leaders and participants in the struggles, as well as the stories of children, who grew up here in the 1950s and 1960s, describing their lives on the hill as they unknowingly witnessed history unfolding before them.

Publication expected mid-November at which time a celebration place and date will be announced. Stay tuned!

88 pages, 126 maps and photographs, $26.95

Genealogy Research – Ask a Librarian!

Birmingham Historical Society frequently receives requests for information on family histories, photograph archives, or specific Southern history items.

The Birmingham Historical Society researches specific subjects and are not the best resource for genealogy. However, we are fortunate to have the excellent Department of Southern History at the Birmingham Public Library. Not only do they offer classes in computer research for genealogy, but for specific requests, you can ’ask a librarian’ in writing to research individual questions.

They offer databases of building photographs, browsing by subject and/or name, and digitized obituaries, newspapers, and magazines. Cemeteries, stories, census records, church histories, military & civil rights histories, marriage records, and maps are just a fraction of the information to which you have access.

The digital collection contains more than 30,000,000 documents and 500,000 photographs.

So next time you want to discover more about your Southern history, ask a librarian!