Special Expanded Edition JOIN OUR LIST · pianos peaked in 1924 ... John and Margaret Harper, Mary...

Newsletter Birmingham history Center Vol. 5 No. 6

Thomas E. Jernigan, Sr. Memorial

ov., 2015

IN THIS ISSUE

JOIN OUR LIST

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Special Expanded Edition

310 18th Street North, Suite 401, Birmingham, AL 35203Tel/Fax – 205-202-4146 www.birminghamhistorycenter.org

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Page 2

Note from the DirectorFeatured New Artifact

Pages 3 - 4

E.E. Forbes Player Piano

Page 5

Fifty Years After

Page 6

BHS Supporters 2015

Pages 7 - 13

Vision –The Future of the Past

An exhibit featuring the artifacts and storyline of the

Birmingham History Center at the

Alabama Power Archives Museum

600 North 18th

St.

Birmingham, AL

205-257-2067

Exhibit Dates: - May 15 – August 8, 2014

Newsletter Birmingham history Center age 2

Note from the Director

Artifact of the Month – Camp Mary Munger

As the foremost interpreter of metropolitan Birmingham’s history, we will enable the public to understand more about the city’s past and present and to shape its future.

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Every major city in Alabama has a general full-service history museum except one – Birmingham. Since the founding of the History Center in 2004, it has always been our vision to find or build a place that collects, preserves and presents the comprehensive history of this city, a place that is educational and entertaining, a place for scholars, visitors to the city, school children and the local public.

In this special edition of our newsletter we want to assure our donors and friends that we still believe in that vision by presenting some of our ideas about a new Birmingham History Center. In the past history museums were viewed as dark places with old items under glass that cannot be touched and explained by boring “books on the wall.” History is not boring, the way it has been presented is boring. We believe that history museums must also be entertainment venues. . . we believe we have a vision to accomplish that goal.

Camp Mary Munger Patches

Our board co-president, Garland Smith, recently donated a grouping of Camp Mary Munger activity patches, councilor handbooks, brochures and post cards. Camp Mary Munger was founded in 1924 on sixty-five acres near Trussville on the headwaters of the Little Cahaba River. The land was donated by Mary Collett Munger, the wife of Robert S. Munger. The Mungers were famous for their philanthropy during their lifetime and were owners and restorers of Arlington Ante-Bellum home. In 1961, the total cost for a girl for one week of camping was $25.50.


E. E. Forbes Upright Player Piano

We will recognize our responsibility to help build a better future—locally, regionally, nationally, and globally—through history. We will bring a credible and authoritative historical perspective to bear on civic issues, and we will help to shape the future by fostering historical scholarship and understanding.

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The History Center recently received a donation of a 1920s E. E. Forbes Player Piano along with 60 piano rolls. The piano was donated by Yvonne Wood Sides who generously paid to have the piano delivered to our offices in the Pythian Building. The piano was purchased by her grand-parents, Arthur and Pauline Wood for their Belview Heights home. The piano was inherited by their son Paul Wood in 1966.

The piano uses foot pedal pumps to blow air through perforated paper rolls, an invention that was first patented in 1842. Sales for these pianos peaked in 1924 – soon to be replaced by the improvement of phonograph records.

The piano rolls include songs from 1920 – 1950 and represent the major piano roll companies, Vocalstyle, Imperial, Aeolion, and QRS – the only piano roll company still in business today with a library of over 45,000 piano rolls. In the 1920s these rolls would sell for about a dollar.

1920s E. E. Forbes Upright Player Piano

Arthur and Pauline Wood at the Player Piano

Assorted Piano Roll Box Labels


E. E. Forbes Upright Player Piano (cont.)

Every museum needs help to achieve its vision. Fortunately, we are not alone in wanting to help people make meaningful and personal connections to history. Throughout greater Birmingham, there are many who share this passion. We need their help.

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According to Forbes Family lore, Everett Erasmus Forbes came to Birmingham in 1886 looking for work. Being industrious, enterprising and a natural born salesman, he soon got at job selling organs for local music dealer Gilbert Carter for $15 per month plus room and board, with a promise of $30 per month if he sold one organ during the month. After selling five organs off the back of a horse-drawn wagon in the first month, Carter made him a junior partner. That led to Forbes establishing his own company in 1889.

store. Other greats that tickled ivories courtesy of Forbes were Nat King Cole and Billy Joel. At one point the Forbes Piano Company had 25 branch locations across the State of Alabama. During the Great Depression, the company also sold furniture, ranges and refrigerators. When Forbes died in 1959, he left the company to his five sons. The company closed its last family-owned store in Homewood in 2010.

20th Street Location - 1909

The Forbes Company began manufacturing their own brand of pianos sometime in the 1920s (perhaps including our player piano). Famous Russian virtuosos Sergei Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz. played on Forbes pianos. Horowitz even performed a small concert in the downtown


We will recognize our responsibility to help build a better future—locally, regionally, nationally, and globally—through history. We will bring a credible and authoritative historical perspective to bear on civic issues, and we will help to shape the future by fostering historical scholarship and understanding.

P“Fifty Years After” Traveling Exhibit

Here are a couple of the twelve panels from the History Center’s traveling exhibit “Fifty Years After: The Revival and Redemption of an American City – 1956-2015.


BHS Supporters in 2015

As the foremost interpreter of metropolitan Birmingham’s history, we will enable the public to understand more about the city’s past and present and to shape its future.

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Benefactor

Thomas E. Jernigan, Sr. Foundation, Henry Lynn, Red Diamond, Inc., Garland Smith, Alice and Tom Williams

Premium

Francis Crockard, Jefferson County Historical Association, Sallie and Jim Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. William Rushton, III, Bayard Tynes

Supporter

Mr. and Mrs. Craig Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bradford, Charles and Mary Ruth Caldwell, Mr. and Mrs. Russell Cunningham, Patrick Cather, Ed and Lila Hardin, Mr. and Mrs. James Harris,

David Herring, Mr. and Mrs. William Hulsey, D. Paul Jones, Jr., Terry Oden, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Ritchie, Sam Rumore, David Tharpe, Lucille Thompson

Friend

Leah and George Atkins, Arlington Historical Association, Tony Bell, Harold and Nancy Blach, Mary Bledsoe, John Brock, Walter Clark, Henry Crommelin, Betsy Dumas, Mr. and Mrs. James Halsey, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. James

Hancock, John and Margaret Harper, Mary Hubbard, Bill and Yvonne Jenkins, Mr. and Mrs. Willard McCall, Christopher Metcalf, Nelda Osment, Joan and J. Wray Pierce, Bill Pradat, Laura and Erskine Ramsey, Gates and

Margo Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. James Shepherd, John Schoppert, Hansen and Melissa Slaughter, Lisa Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Mel Smith, Nancy and Murray Smith, Dr. Ed Stevenson, Dansby Stewart, George Thompson,

Dr. Jack Trigg, Mr. and Mrs. George Wheelock, III, Lynda Whitney

Individual/Family

Mr. and Mrs. William Clark, John Coleman, Jane and Charles Ellis, Shirley Evans, David and Terri Glasgow, Dr. and Mrs. Juan Gutierrez, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hare, Rona Harper, Melissa Hogan, Martha and Chervis Isom,

Susan Justice, Suzanne Lucas, Emily and Travis McGowan, Kevin Middleton, Millbrook Study Club, Bruce Rawls, Elberta Reid, Mr. and Mrs. William Satterfield, John Spinks, Louise Vance,

Greg and Sandy Vitalis, Sally Woolley, Janis Zeanah

Thanks to all for your support!

Newsletter Birmingham history Center age 7Vision – The Future of the Past

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Newsletter Birmingham history Center age 8PVision – The Future of the Past


1 Employee – No Public Funding

Stamp310 18th Street North, Suite 401Birmingham, AL 35203

Birmingham History Center

The Birmingham History Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 2004 by a group of preservation-minded citizens who wanted a repository and exhibit platform for artifacts of local history Thanks primarily to a bequest from the Thomas E. Jernigan, Sr. foundation and other donors, the History Center operates from offices at 310 18th Street North, Suite 401 in Birmingham, across from the Lyric Theatre in the Pythian Building.

Officers

Dr. Bayard Tynes, ChairmanFox De Funiak, III, Co-President

Garland Smith, Co-PresidentSamuel A. Rumore, Jr., Vice-President

Alice Williams - Treasurer

Board of Directors

William A. Bell, Jr.Harry Bradford

Thomas Carruthers, Jr.Patrick Cather

Wyatt R. HaskellAnne Heppenstall

Mary HubbardThomas E. Jernigan, Jr.

John NixonTerry Oden

William A. TharpeScott VowellLee Woehle

Mission Statement

The Birmingham History Center seeks to educate and entertain the general public by collecting, preserving and presenting the comprehensive

history of the Birmingham region.

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