Tag Archives: feature: hidden gems

Hidden Gem: Storytelling from Bill Martin Jr.

Posted on April 7, 2016 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Audio | Tagged , | 1 Comment

If you don’t know the name Bill Martin Jr., you probably know the name of his most famous book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, illustrated by Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar.) Just two years after that book was … Continue reading →

Hidden Gem: Pictorial History of Fort Marion

Posted on December 2, 2014 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Photograph Albums, Photographs, Research, Southern History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Lately, we’ve been combing through Google Analytics data for our collections, and one thing it’s done is alert us to some popular items we didn’t know about, in part because they were not in particularly well-used collections. The Durst Family Papers is … Continue reading →

Hidden Gem: Peter Jennings at Emphasis ’69 (audio)

Posted on January 7, 2014 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Audio, Everyday Life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“It is nice to be invited back to Alabama, instead of sent here.” –Peter Jennings, referring to his previous trips to the South during the civil rights movement In April of 1969, the Emphasis program at UA, a yearly symposium dedicated … Continue reading →

Hidden Gem: 1892 Baptist hymnal

Posted on September 25, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Audio, Books | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I recently stumbled upon an interesting item in the Manly Family papers manuscript collection: a hymn book from 120 years ago, with selections chosen by Basil Manly, Jr., a Baptist minister and educator. The book was published in the year … Continue reading →

Witness to the Fort Mims Massacre, 1813

Posted on August 30, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Letters, Southern History, War | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Normally, I would call this item a hidden gem, but the subject matter is pretty grisly. Two hundred years ago, during the Creek War, the “Red Stick” faction of the local Muskogee Creeks attacked and captured Fort Mims, less than … Continue reading →

Hidden Gem: Travelogue of Juliet Bestor Coleman, 1833

Posted on July 18, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Cool Collections, Everyday Life, Southern History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

While we have a lot of large, impressive digital collections in Acumen, sometimes the most interesting things come in small packages. In 1833, about thirty years before the Civil War, 24-year-old Juliet Bestor traveled from her home in Connecticut to … Continue reading →

Hidden Gem: comedian Dick Gregory at Emphasis ’70

Posted on January 4, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: African-American History, Audio, UA History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

When he took the stage at UA in October 1969, African-American comedian Dick Gregory joked that he’d meant to be there six months before, for the previous Emphasis program, but he’d been in jail at the time and couldn’t make … Continue reading →