Fourth Floor Gallery Exhibit: Alabama Illustrated: Engravings from 19th Century Newspapers

In the 19th century many Americans received news and learned about the world beyond their home towns by reading illustrated newspapers. Prior to the 1890s, the technology did not exist to economically publish photographs in newspapers, so some publishers employed artists to draw and engrave images. From the 1850s to the 1890s, more than 250 engraved images of Alabama were published in national and international papers. This exhibition contains 30 of those engravings showing Alabama at work, at play, and at war.

Details
Fourth Floor Gallery
Central Library
February 13 - March 31, 2010

Accompanying Lectures
February 23, 6:30 pm, Birmingham Public Library, Arrington Auditorium
“Depicting Dixie: Alabama in 19th-Century Visual Culture”
Graham Boettcher, Birmingham Museum of Art

March 3, noon, Birmingham Public Library, Arrington Auditorium
“Birmingham Illustrated: Images of the Magic City in the 19th Century Press”
Jim Baggett, Birmingham Public Library Archives

Canceled: March 10, noon, Birmingham Public Library, Arrington Auditorium
“Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspapers as Art”
Kelsey Scouten Bates, Chinati Foundation

March 7, 3:00 pm, Birmingham Public Library Gallery
“Gallery Talk on Alabama Illustrated”
Jim Baggett, Birmingham Public Library Archives

March 21, 3:00 pm, Birmingham Public Library Gallery
“Gallery Talk on Alabama Illustrated”
Jim Baggett, Birmingham Public Library Archives