Smithfield Library Hosting Traveling Postcard Exhibit of Iconic Scenes across Alabama

A traveling exhibit from Troy University Libraries is making a stop at the Smithfield Branch Library.

Wade Hall Postcards: Historical Scenes of Alabama will officially open at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 20, 2018, and run through October 11, 2018. The exhibit features postcards ranging from the early 1900s to the 1960s from the Wade Hall Collection housed at the Troy University Archives in Troy, Alabama. Hall, a native of Bullock County, was an avid postcard collector, owning about 25,000 vintage postcards from his worldwide travels.

An author, folklorist, and professor, Hall donated his extensive collection to the Troy University Archives and the University of Alabama (UA) Libraries. Hall, who died in 2015, was an alumnus of Troy State Teachers College and obtained a master’s degree from UA before becoming a professor at universities across the country.

The exhibit originally opened on the Troy University campus in 2016 and is traveling the state. About 400 of Hall’s postcards featuring scenes from across Alabama are in the book Greetings from Alabama: A Pictorial History in Vintage Postcards. Many of these postcards are in the Wade Hall Postcards exhibit visiting Smithfield Library. The postcards include an iconic view of 20th Street in downtown Birmingham when it was a bustling business district, plus a nighttime view of Gadsden’s Broad Street.

Ruth Elder, one of three librarians from the Troy University Library who spearheaded the project, will appear at the Smithfield Library exhibit unveiling.

Broad Street at Night, Gadsden, Ala.

Links:

Troy Today. "Traveling postcards exhibits to showcase Alabama's historic streets, buildings." September 27, 2016"

A small sampling of Wade Hall Postcard Collection featuring Streets and Historical Buildings throughout the state of Alabama.