Hunt, Oscar V.

Photographs, 1890s-1940s

(AR 1075)

Oscar V. Hunt was one of Birmingham’s most prolific and adventurous early commercial photographers. Born in Bowdon, Georgia in 1881, Hunt lived most of his life in Birmingham. He worked briefly as a streetcar motorman for the Birmingham Railway, Light, and Power Company before spending a decade working and training in the studios of two of Birmingham’s best known early photographers, Bert Covell and R. T. Boyett. Hunt had his own studio by the early 1920s and also took photographs for the Birmingham Ledger newspaper. Hunt often focused on Birmingham streetscapes in his photographs and documented Birmingham area manufacturing and mining, trains and streetcars and the construction of downtown buildings. He is credited with making the first aerial photograph of Birmingham in 1912 and he photographed leisure activities such as parades and day trippers at local parks. Hunt’s photographs show an interest in individuals, especially working people, and his construction and industrial images often highlight workers. Some of Hunt’s photographs, such as one of Terminal Station with the old Magic City sign out front, have become iconic images of Birmingham. During his later years in the 1950s, Hunt’s studio became a favorite hang out for young photographers and photo enthusiasts. Oscar Hunt died in Birmingham in 1962.

Size: 1,269 photographs

Jefferson County, Ala. Board of Equalization

Appraisal Files, 1939-1977

(AR 270)

The Board of Equalization is the agency that appraises property in Jefferson County, Alabama for purposes of taxation. Established in 1938, the BOE maintains files on each piece of taxable property in the county. The appraisal files contain basic information on structures (such as whether the structure is wood frame or brick, the type of roofing, heating, plumbing, number of rooms, size of structure) and the accessed value of the property for various years (but not every year). The files usually include an exterior photograph of the façade of the structure and sometimes date the structure. The structures appraised include residences, commercial and industrial buildings, schools, and churches. Some files include references for deeds and mortgages. Structures built before 1938 are included if they were still standing at the time of the Board of Equalization's first appraisal (generally 1938 to 1940). Structures built after the mid 1970s are not included in these files. The files do not include interior photographs, floor plans or other architectural drawings, names of architects, or detailed information on owners or occupants of a structure. In some cases files for demolished structures were discarded by the Board of Equalization before these files were transferred to the Archives Department in 1981.

Size: 1,500 boxes

Jemison, Robert Jr.

Woodward Iron Company Files, 1924-1926

(AR 6.2)

Size: 2 boxes

Kaul Lumber Company, Kaul Land and Lumber Company, Sample Lumber Company

Records, 1836-1966

(AR 1230)

John Kaul learned the lumber business by working in his father’s companies in his native Pennsylvania, and in 1889 he toured the South searching for investments. He bought part interest, and later full interest, in the Sample Lumber Company at Hollins, Alabama. In 1902, he changed the company’s name to the Kaul Lumber Company and incorporated the Kaul Land and Lumber Company, which would buy and hold land. The mill at Hollins was shut down in 1911. In 1912, near the city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the company built its new mill and company town. The town of Kaulton, with its wide lots, churches, clubs, and well designed houses, was a model of what owner John Kaul called the “new welfare emphasis in the southern lumber industry.” John Kaul died in 1931, and operation of the company was taken over by a group of trustees, headed by John’s son Hugh. In 1931 the Kaulton mill ceased operations. The Kaul Lumber Company still owned large tracts of land, and throughout the 1930s until the early 1960s the company continued to operate out of its Birmingham offices. The records include voluminous land records relating to tracts, rights-of-way, and timber rights purchased by the company in Tuscaloosa, Hale, Perry, Bibb, Shelby, Coosa, and Clay counties, Alabama. These files, which generally run from the 1880s through the 1920s, contain land grants, deeds, mortgages, court papers, and correspondence. An index to these land records, listing owners by name and county, is available as part of the published guide to the collection. The collection also contains material relating to the southern lumber industry, industrial paternalism, and the company's role during World War II. Lesser amounts of material relate to the company during the Great Depression and New Deal. Scattered but significant amounts of material relate to race relations and labor-management relations, the operation of the company's railroad, and the company's relationship with state and local governments. The records of the Sample Lumber Company provide greater detail about the daily operation of a lumber mill. Photographs in the collection show the Kaulton mill and houses, lumber camps, and timberlands. To conserve office space the company instituted a policy in 1916 of systematically destroying inactive files. This process seems to have been accelerated following the shut down of the Kaulton mill, and almost no employee personnel records have survived, nor have most of the files relating to the town of Kaulton.

Size: 40 boxes

Mabel Mining Company

Ledger, 1903-1906

(AR 420)

This ledger records the company’s accounts.

Size: 1 volume

Montgomery, James Alexander

Papers, 1865-1944

(AR 158)

James Alexander Montgomery was an inventor and industrial engineer and a leader in the development of the coal and steel industry in Birmingham. He came to Jefferson County at the age of 20. In September 1888, he helped organize and became a major stockholder of the Mary Lee Coal And Railway Company. It mined and sold coal sand and iron ore and diversified into the sale of coke, iron, and steel. Montgomery was later associated with the Birmingham, Powderly, and Bessemer Railway Company; formed in August, 1896, to carry freight and passenger. In January, 1910, the Montgomery Coal Washing and Manufacturing Company were organized from the capital assets of the dissolved Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land Company. Montgomery was a longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church. The papers contain personal files from 1892 to 1944 and Business Files from 1865 to 1930.

Size: 1 box

Photographs

Aerial Photographs of Jefferson County, Alabama, 1966

(AR 1559)

These oversize photographs show most of Jefferson County.

Size: 556 photographs

Photographs

General Collection

(AR 1556)

The general photograph collection is an artificial collection created by the Archives Department to house photographs acquired individually rather than as part of a larger body of material. New images are added to the collection as they become available. This collection contains photographic prints and negatives. The images relate primarily to the Birmingham area and to a lesser extent Alabama, and include streetscapes, buildings, and events. The images date from the 1870s to the 1990s with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Size: 4,900+ photographs

Postcard Collection

(AR 1081)

The Postcard Collection contains thousands of postcards from throughout the United States and from around the world. The cards showing Alabama scenes

have been indexed. The collection includes postcards showing Birmingham area industrial sites, including mines and mills.

Size: 1,946 postcards (Alabama images)

Pratt Fuel Corporation

Minute Book, 1921-1924 and 1931

(AR 1316)

Size: 1 box

Ramsay, Erskine

Papers, 1887-1953

(AR 1)

Erskine Ramsay was a mining engineer, inventor, business executive, and philanthropist. Included in this collection of his papers are business, family, and personal correspondence, biographical data, genealogical information, papers regarding Ramsay’s charitable gifts and honors, speeches and tributes, reports on coal mines and mining in the Birmingham, Alabama area, photographs of mines, coke ovens, iron furnaces, and other related structures in the same area, blueprints of mine layouts, maps of mines and mining properties in the same area, clippings, and birthday invitations. For the period of Ramsay’s employment by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., 1887 – 1901, there are letters and reports which reflect the economic and managerial difficulties of the company and provide statistical data on its yearly production. For the same period, there are letters which detail the efforts of the other mining companies to secure Ramsay as an employee. For the years 1903 – 1953, the papers provide information on Ramsay’s continued involvement in the mining industry.

Size:

Ramsay, Erskine

“Personal Notes Covering Inspection of European Mines,” 1911

(AR 1577)

Size: 1 volume

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