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Florence, Ala., 1890: The Philadelphia Of The South, Florence Land Sale Company

Documents

Viewbook and promotional for the city-Grand sale of lots commencing November 1890.

Mora Valley Of The Mills 2026: A Documentary Report History Of The Milling Industry And Cultural Heritage Preservation, Jose A. Rivera

Faculty Publications

The flour mills along the upper Mora River constitute the largest number of still standing commercial mills in the State of New Mexico, namely the Cleveland Roller Mill, the St. Vrain Mill, the Gordon-Sánchez Mill, and the La Cueva Mill at the Houser Raspberry Ranch. Notably, all four mills are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. During their heyday, 1964-1920, Mora County was seen as the “breadbasket of New Mexico” due to its bountiful supply of cereal and cool climate vegetables. Local acequia farmers supplied the mills with the input of wheat, corn and other grains that led …

"The Old Railroad Bridge At Florence And The River Crossing", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article offers a brief history of the Florence, Alabama railroad bridge and previous means of crossing the Tennessee River, such as various ferries and the previous bridge.

"Nitrate Plant Number Two", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Tennessee Valley Authority Nitrate Plant Two was constructed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama after President Woodrow Wilson authorized the project in 1916. The plant was one of two nitrate plants in the area. The first TVA nitrate plant is in Sheffield Alabama. Photographs of the employee housing and support facilities associated with the nitrate plants are available in the Nitrate Plant Image Gallery.

"The Forks Of Cypress", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article is organized by headings and is concerned with the Forks of Cypress, James Jackson family, and thoroughbred horses. The headings are as follows:

• The Forks of Cypress, pg. 1
• The Plantation and Manor House, pg. 1
• James and Sarah Moore Jackson, pg. 1
• The Thoroughbred Farm, pg. 3
• James Jackson's Training Watch, pg. 4
• The Currier & Ives Prints and the Copy of the Historic Painting of the World Famous Glencoe, pg. 4

"History Of Wildwood Park", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A brief overview of the history of one of Florence, Alabama's oldest parks, Wildwood.

"The Builder Of Wilson Dam", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article presents a brief overview of the people responsible for the construction of Tennessee Valley Authority Dam Number Two, later known as the Wilson Dam. The dam was designed by C. M. Hackett, while a team of engineers directed by General Lansing H. Beach oversaw the project's construction. McDonald places particular emphasis on district engineer Col. Hugh L. Cooper, "a self-educated engineer in hydroelectric energy" whom he recognizes as the "builder" of the Wilson Dam.

"Building The Bridge", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

After the Civil War, the reconstruction of the Florence, Alabama railroad bridge proved vital to local commerce. William Lindsey McDonald briefly describes the ferries used prior to the construction of the bridge as well as the infrastructural significance.

"The Canal Building Genius", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

George Washington Goethals, the engineer who constructed the Panama Canal, was also employed to construct the Muscle Shoals Canal in North Alabama. During the construction of the canal, Goethals lived on Wood Avenue near the University of North Alabama. Multiple historical markers commemorating Goethals' time in North Alabama exist, including the one designating his home, the Florence Walk of Honor, and his mention on the Muscle Shoals Canal Marker.

George W. Polk To Charles P. Jackson - Correspondence, George W. Polk

Correspondence

Correspondence from George W. Polk to Charles P. Jackson concerning their ancestral connection to James Jackson and the Forks of Cypress, as well as their "Uncle Harry," Admiral Richard Harrison Jackson.

Transcription

George W. Polk to Charles P. Jackson – Correspondence (Envelope + 3 pages) Date stamped: SPRING VALLEY, CALIF., APR 6 PM 1969; addressed to Mr. Charles P. Jackson, 2945 Balmoral Rd, Birmingham, Ala. 35223.

--- Page 1 ---

George W. Polk 9745 La Mar St. Spring Valley, Calif., 92077 5 April '69

Mr. Charles P. Jackson

Birmingham, Ala.

Dear Mr. Jackson,

I have been asked to write you …

"World War I Memorials", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Explanation of the World War I Memorials in North Alabama (Lauderdale County), including the Memorial Amphitheatre on the campus on the University of North Alabama.

The document includes two pages. However, both pages are remarkably similar and appear to be subsequent drafts of the same article.

Digitized images of the Memorial Amphitheatre are available in the University Architecture Collection To access the images, click the link, and use the search bar, located on the left side of the screen, to search the collection. In addition, an illustration of the design for the memorial amphitheater is accessible in the William Lindsey …

"Wilson Park", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Article about the creation and naming of Wilson Park, originally called the Town Walk, in Florence, Alabama.

"A Yankee Patient At Pope's Tavern", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article relates the story of Private Oglvie E. Hamblin, a union soldier and one of the last patients to be treated at Pope's Tavern when it served as a Civil War hospital.

"Wesleyan Hall, An Alabama Landmark", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A history of Wesleyan Hall, on the Campus on the University of North Alabama.

Digitized images of Wesleyan Hall are accessible in the University Architecture Collection and William Lindsey McDonald Image Collection. To find the images, simply click on a collection link, and use the search bar, located on the left side, to search for the images.

"The United States Post Office And Courthouse At Florence", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Brief depiction of the architecture of the Florence, Alabama Post Office and Courthouse Building and the heritage of the architect that designed it, John Robie Kennedy, Jr. Images of the Florence Post Office and Courthouse can be accessed at the William Lindsey McDonald Image Collection. To find the images, simply search the gallery via the search bar located on the left side.

The Everyday Monument: Architectural And Spatial Transformations Of Rome's Nasoni, 1874–Present, Sandra L. Santos

McNair Summer Research Program

Rome's nasoni are small public drinking fountains that have provided free water throughout the city since 1874. There are approximately 2,500–2,800 nasoni in Rome, actively supplying people with free drinking water. Although they are usually understood as ordinary and mundane hydraulic infrastructure, their persistence across different political periods makes them useful objects for examining the relationship between architecture, public service, and political meaning. This research asks how the forms, materials, and spatial contexts of late-nineteenth-century nasoni differed from fountains constructed or modified during the Fascist era.

Over my three weeks of fieldwork in Rome, I documented seventy-five public drinking fountains …

Front Matter Volume 2 No. 2, Editors Note

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This is yet another issue of the Zamani journal which takes on varied debates and discussions of historical importance through the contributions to the issue. As we embark on volume three of the new journal’s series, this volume carries six articles, varied in scope but interesting in terms of contribution and relevance to historical synthesis. As editors, we hope that the articles contained here will be of interest to a wider audience of not only historians but also of allied disciplines, practitioners and the general readership. As we publish this volume, we also note the advantage of expanding the scope …

Crises In The Nigerian Defence Sector In The Post-Civil War Period, Hussaini Jibrin

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

History has it that post-war period in any country in the world appeared to be with many challenges of re-planning the defence system. It involves the reconstruction of pre-war institutions that are destroyed during the war for onward growth and development. Contrary to this tradition, this article explores that, in 1970 while Nigerians were celebrating about the end of the Nigerian civil war, fresh crises emerged in the country’s defence sector. Thus, General Yakubu Gowon’s government redirected its focus on addressing the crises. The crises are numerous, however, this article dwells on four only. These are demobilization exercise in the …

Performance Of Buffer Zones In Tanzania: A Case Of Maswa Game Reserve, 1950s-2010s, James Benedict Kuboja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

National parks as core protected areas are universally regarded as the most important wildlife conservancies as they are protecting pristine nature or untouched wilderness. For this reason, global conservationists, with the assistance of colonial governments, introduced buffer zones in a bid to protect important protected areas from poaching and habitat destruction. Despite the promulgation of these buffer zones from the 1950s, scholars have not exhaustively evaluated their effectiveness in the conservation of wildlife resources within core protected areas and wildlife ecosystems at large. Using the case of Maswa Game Reserve in the Serengeti Mara Ecosystem, this article argues that internal …

Historicising Nyerere’S Presidency In The Nyakyusa Mythical Narratives, Ignas Fedeo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Julius K Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania, held office from 1962 to 1985. Much has been written about Nyerere's presidency, with the literature generally falling into two categories: strong advocacy for his decisions, actions, and ideas, and pointed criticism against him. Using narrative and new historicism theories, this article examines the recreation of the history of Nyerere’s presidency in local narratives, specifically Nyakyusa myths. The myths were collected using the oral history interviews from Kyela and Busokelo districts in Tanzania. The Nyakyusa believe that Nyerere was endowed with immense mystical powers, some of which embedded in his stick and …

Śaṅkha-Dvīpa And The Swahili Littoral: Reconstructing India–East Africa Contacts Before The Common Era, Narendra Vijayasimha

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article is the first focused attempt to explore India–East Africa relationships in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, approximately two to three millennia before the Common Era (3000–300 BCE) from a puranic perspective. While extensive scholarship exists on medieval and later Indo–African exchanges, the pre-Common Era period has remained underexplored. Drawing on Purāṇic cosmographies, Greco-Roman geographical accounts, African archaeology, and Indian Ocean trade studies, this research reconstructs possible networks of contact facilitated by monsoon navigation and long-distance exchange. Methodologically, the article integrates textual exegesis, comparative cosmography, and archaeological correlation. The findings suggest that Indian conceptions of Śaṅkha-dvīpa reflect …

Labour Migrancy And Ethnic Stereotypes: Experiences From Mufindi Tea Plantation, Ca. 1920s To 2000s, Hezron R. Kangalawe

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

While tea plantations brought good fortunes to some parts of Southern Highlands in Tanzania such as Mufindi and Rungwe during the British mandate, its production sites became centres of ethnic contestations in relation to work discipline. The colonial and post-colonial enterprises labelled some ethnic groups as “reliable labourers” and others “unreliable”. This article, uses the tea plantations in Mufindi district, Iringa, to debate the labour question and ethnic identity in tea plantations between 1920s and 2000s. It argues that tea plantations were practical point of colonial stereotyping whose architects were anthropologists. Interviews in Mufindi tea plantations and factories, archival and …

Collaboration In The Spread Of Missionary Christianity In Africa: The Case Of The Apostolic Church Of Nigeria, Caleb Abiodun Adeleye, Oluwasegun Peter Aluko

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article explores the significance of collaboration in the spread of missionary Christianity in Africa through a historical study of The Apostolic Church of Nigeria (TACN). It examines how the partnership between British missionaries and Nigerian leaders produced a hybrid mission model that combined Western ecclesiastical structure with African spirituality. Drawing on historical records, church documents, and existing scholarship, the article adopts a narrative–analytical method to trace how figures such as Pastors George Perfect, Idris J Vaughan and DO Odubanjo negotiated issues of theology, finance and cultural identity. The study finds that collaboration initially fostered institutional growth and doctrinal development …

Soft Korsi: An Embodied Spatial Interior System For Communal Warmth, Faezeh Panahandeh

Graduate Final Projects

ABSTRACT

Soft Korsi: An Embodied Spatial Interior System for Communal Warmth reconceptualizes the historic Iranian Korsi as an innovative textile-based interior system. Traditionally, the Korsi functioned not only as a heating device but also as a spatial, material, cultural, and embodied system, which brought people together around a shared warm focal point. The integration of a heat source, textile coverings, floor seating arrangements, closeness of bodies, and domestic traditions related to warmth made possible a collective experience, rather than an individual or environmental one.

This design project seeks to address the disappearance of the Korsi from contemporary domestic environments as …

[2026 Honorable Mention] Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, Daylyn R. Reese

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This research offers unique insights into the creation and development of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (N.M.S.) with a focus on indigenous populations’ roles (primarily Chumash and Costanoan). In this episode, I analyze what makes this NMS different from every NMS precluding it, how it recognizes a new goal in conservation (thrivability), and the areas in which improvements still must be made to authentically include and honor indigenous voices.

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Assessing Legacy Collections: Analyzing The Preservation, Recovery, And Interpretive Value Of Archaeobotanical Remains From Site 15le70 (Pine Crest Rockshelter), Lee County, Kentucky, Jennifer Carroll

Graduate Final Projects

This paper uses the archaeobotanical assemblage from Site 15Le70, a multi-excavated and extensively looted rockshelter in eastern Kentucky, while opening new lines of inquiry into gendered labor and practice during the Archaic-Woodland transition. Because legacy collections are often dispersed across institutions and/or research projects, the materials from any single site may be fragmented, as was the case for 15Le70. Such collections can be overlooked, yet this investigation into 15Le70’s archaeobotanical assemblage demonstrates that partial or scattered datasets can yield meaningful results and hold the potential to fill gaps in the archaeological record left by looting.

In this study, a small …

Kattam Choreography- A Facade Of The Virgin Islands, Kiyani J.M. Ottley

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Kattam Choreography reimagines a historic building in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI as a vibrant cultural hub that celebrates dance, memory, and commerce. Rooted in the embodied traditions of the qudrille folk dance, this project explores adaptive reuse as a performtive act—where architecture becomes a living archive of movement and heritage.

The design treats the building’s layered history not as a static artifact, but as a choreographic score. Quadrille’s spatial logic—its symmetry, rhythm, and communal gestures—informs circulation, program, and atmosphere. The building unfolds as a triptych: a dance pavilion, multi-purpose educational spaces, and a gift shop. Each element responds to …

The Log Cabin | Public Perception And Mediated Reality (1840 – 1980), Aspen M. Regan

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone examines the evolution of the log cabin from 1840 to 1980. At its core, the project questions the legacy of the log cabin from its origins as simply being a traditional dwelling typology to its establishment as a cultural icon or rather, an enduring vessel that established the American Dream and ideals of self-reliance, freedom, and individualism deep within the heart of American culture.

Chapter One situates the log cabin historically and architecturally, defining the popular frontier dwelling as being a single-pen horizontal log constructed cabin. It then explores the cabin’s emergence as a cultural image through political …

Demolition By Intent: Evaluating Charleston's Red X Placard Procedures, Enforcement Practices, And Communication Methods In The Loss Of Historic Structures, Jessica Stech

All Theses

This thesis examines whether the procedures, enforcement practices, and communication methods associated with the placement of Red X placards in Charleston, South Carolina, contribute to the demolition-by-intent of historic structures. Red X placards, also known as unsafe placards, are placed on the front façade of structurally unsafe structures by the Charleston Fire Department to inform first responders in the event of a fire or other emergency. Although these placards serve as a life-safety tool, they may influence how vacant structures are perceived by family or developer owners and the public.

Through using a qualitative approach, this thesis analyzes the outcomes …