African American
History and Life
Antebellum
Collection
Miscellaneous
Documents, 1820-1859
(AR 308)
This collection includes slave
receipts, diaries, land sales and other documents
collected by the library staff. The documents primarily
relate to Alabama and Jefferson County.
Size: 1 box
Birmingfind
Project
Ethnic and
Community Photographs
(AR 829)
Birmingfind was a project funded
in the 1980s by a grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities to collect historical information on
Birmingham ethnic groups and neighborhoods. This
collection contains photographs showing individuals,
families, businesses, churches, school groups and other
subjects from Birmingham’s Lebanese, Greek,
Italian, African American, and Jewish communities and
the neighborhoods of Brookside, West End, Wylam,
Woodlawn, North Birmingham and Ensley.
Size: 666 photographs
Birmingfind
Project
Papers
(AR 809)
Birmingfind was a project funded
in the 1980s by a grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities to collect historical information on
Birmingham ethnic groups and neighborhoods. This
collection includes oral history interviews, clippings,
publications, census data and other material relating
to Birmingham’s Lebanese, Greek, Italian, African
American, and Jewish communities and the neighborhoods
of Brookside, West End, Wylam, Woodlawn, North
Birmingham and Ensley. The project also published a
series of booklets on the histories of ethnic groups
and neighborhoods.
Size: 4 boxes
Birmingham, Ala.
Board of Education
Photographs,
circa 1920s
(AR 1078)
Photographs showing students and
teachers in classrooms, libraries, playgrounds, shops,
lunchrooms and other areas of Birmingham city schools
while classes are in session. The collection includes
images from white and African American schools.
Size: 330 photographs
Birmingham
Baseball
Photographs
(AR 1436)
Photographs of players and games,
primarily from the Birmingham Black Barons and the
Birmingham industrial leagues. Many of these images
come from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the
Memphis-Shelby County Public Library, and permission
from those institutions is required to copy or publish
the images. Additional baseball photographs are
available in the Archives’ collections
Photographs: General Collection (AR 1556) and
Lorenzo “Piper” David Photographs (AR
1700).
Size: 36 photographs
Birmingham
History Collection
Miscellaneous
Documents, 1868-1899
(AR 314)
Clippings, publications,
correspondence, diaries and other miscellaneous
documents relating to the history of Birmingham
collected by the Archives staff. An index is available
in the Archives.
Size: 6 boxes
Birmingham
History Collection
Miscellaneous
Documents, 1900-1939
(AR 315)
Clippings, publications,
correspondence, diaries and other miscellaneous
documents relating to the history of Birmingham
collected by the Archives staff. An index is available
in the Archives.
Size: 12 boxes
Birmingham
History Collection
Miscellaneous
Documents, 1940-1980
(AR 316)
Clippings, publications,
correspondence, diaries and other miscellaneous
documents relating to the history of Birmingham
collected by the Archives staff. An index is available
in the Archives.
Size: 16 boxes
Birmingham
History Collection
Miscellaneous
Documents, 1980-
(AR 317)
Clippings, publications,
correspondence, diaries and other miscellaneous
documents relating to the history of Birmingham
collected by the Archives staff. An index is available
in the Archives.
Size: 1 box
Birmingham
Public Library. Smithfield Branch Library
Clippings Files
(AR 1824)
This collection contains
photocopies of clipping files holding newspaper
clippings, magazine articles, pamphlets, and other
materials relating to Alabama African Americans,
African American organizations, and events. The staff
of the Smithfield Branch Library compiled these files.
Size: 3 boxes
Birmingham World
Office Files
(AR 1102)
This collection contains an
extensive body of correspondence, clippings,
publications, photographs and other material collected
and created by the staff of the Birmingham World, the
city’s longest running African American
newspaper. Topics include civil rights organizations
and their activities, sports, music, education, and
politics.
Size: 62 boxes
Brown’s
Studio
Photographs,
1942-1963
(AR 1777)
During the period of racial
segregation, many businesses owned by African Americans
such as banks, insurance companies, funeral parlors,
and photo studios served an exclusively black
clientele. One such photo studio, Brown’s, made
the photographs in this collection. Located on 17th
Street Norht, the studio was operated by Leon W. Brown
from about 1938 until about 1968. This collection
contains 36 images, a tiny fraction of the total number
of images that a professional photographer like Brown
would have created. The photographs in this collection
are all group portraits showing the Birmingham Motion
Picture Machine Operator’s Union, Fairfield
Industrial High School students, Praco High School
students, Madam C. J. Walker Beauty College students,
and graduating classes from Parker High School and
Ullman High School.
Size: 36 photographs
Colvin, Lessie
Beatrice White
Papers,
1934-1964
(AR 1334)
Lessie Colvin was a 1934 graduate
of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School and a 1950
graduate of Alabama State College for Negroes. She
taught in the Birmingham city schools. This small
collection includes her diplomas, material relating to
Council and Western and Olin schools and genealogical
material.
Size: 1 box
David, Lorenzo
“Piper”
Photographs
(AR 1700)
Lorenzo “Piper” Davis
was born in the coal mining community of Piper, near
Birmingham, in 1917. Davis played baseball in
Birmingham’s industrial leagues and joined the
Birmingham Black Barons in 1942. He became manager of
the Black Barons in 1948 and later played for various
minor league teams. He worked as a scout for the
Detroit Tigers and other teams until his retirement in
1986. In 1993, “Piper” Davis was inducted
into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. This collection
contains photographs collected by Davis of himself and
other athletes, including Willie Mays, Leroy
“Satchel” Paige and Charlie Pride.
Size: 29 photographs
