Category Archives: Scrapbooks

Newly Online: James B. Tipton papers

This year for Veterans Day, we celebrate a man who was a veteran twice over during his long career in the military. Major General James B. Tipton was a pilot and pilot instructor with the United States Army Air Forces (later … Continue reading

Becoming Kappa

When we say goodbye to buildings, we often say hello to interesting things that finally come out of them as their inhabitants prepare for demolition. Over the summer, we got to digitize one such discovery: a scrapbook of chartering documents from the UA … Continue reading

Food, Glorious Food!

By guest blogger Alex Olkovsky, a graduate student in American Studies While many collections in our archives contain business and legal documents, there are also numerous focused on people’s daily and domestic lives. Unsurprisingly, these collections are where we can … Continue reading

Campus Rewind: Foster Auditorium and Coleman Coliseum

It seems like it’s impossible to write a blog post about any building on campus without talking about what came before or after. In this case, a look at Foster Auditorium led down an unexpected path — to Coleman Coliseum. But how? … Continue reading

New and Notable in Acumen, Fall ’14 – Spring ’15

A lot has come through the digitization pipeline in the last six months or so. Here are some highlights. Diaries Martha Jane Coleman Banks commonplace book Contains diary entries, miscellaneous writings (some appear to be school related), newspaper clippings, recipes, and … Continue reading

UA Army ROTC Scrapbooks

Since last fall, we’ve had the opportunity to digitize a sizable set of large scrapbooks from a surprising source: the University of Alabama Army ROTC. Who knew that military men and women could be so interesting! Dating from 1953 to … Continue reading

A Day in the Life: November 28

On this date, through the years… * 1860. Alabama. Hugh Davis laments the political tumult of his day, which in hindsight we recognize as the prelude to Civil War. Davis writes: “Revolution. Fire. Precipitation. Slaughter. How rapidly, how fearfully the … Continue reading

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Service Men’s Center Scrapbook

Did you know that Tuscaloosa was home to a major WWII hospital? The Service Men’s Center catered to the wounded soldiers there, in addition to holding activities for soldiers at their facility (which is now the University Club). This massive … Continue reading

Small Photo Collections: James Harry Cowan scrapbook

The James Harry Cowan photograph scrapbook is a unique document, and uniquely presented. Each page contains multiple photographs of student life at UA — especially athletics — about a hundred years ago. In Acumen, when you click on the thumbnail … Continue reading

Happy Memorial Day!

In honor of Memorial Day, we are highlighting one of our collections that features our veterans, the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Service Men’s Center Scrapbook.  This volume contains photographs, letters, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, activity programs, and other items relating to the … Continue reading