Only One Week Left to Visit Sweet Home: Alabama's History in Maps

by Mary Beth Newbill, Department Head, Southern History and Government Documents Departments, Central Library

Sweet Home: Alabama's History in Maps
Sweet Home: Alabama's History in Maps is on display in the downtown library's Fourth Floor Gallery for one more week. The exhibit has been garnering rave reviews and is a must see for anyone interested in the history of Alabama or the Southeast. Dr. Melinda Kashuba, visiting scholar from California, said it rivals exhibits she has seen in "Chicago and Washington, D.C." The library's Southern History Department worked for almost two years putting the exhibit together and is thrilled with the community response.

The exhibit is partially funded by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation and consists of high quality reproductions of 54 maps carefully selected from the library's collection of over 2,000. Beginning in 1545 and continuing through the 1990's, the maps tell the story of Alabama from the Age of Discovery through the territorial period to the modern day. There is also a special section for maps that depict Alabama's abundant natural resources which have played such an instrumental role in the history of Birmingham and the surrounding counties.

If you can't make it downtown before April 30, 2017, and would still like to see Sweet Home: Alabama's History in Maps you have a several options. The entire exhibit (images and descriptions) is available online. Since the exhibit is part of the statewide celebration of Alabama's bicentennial, it's going to be traveling to libraries and museums of all sizes over the next two years. Its first stop will be Old Alabama Town where it is scheduled to open on May 15, 2017.

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