Ramsay High School photographs

Six photographs of Ramsay High School have been added to the collection. Take a look at the athletic field, an outdoor assembly, and the groundbreaking ceremony for Ramsay's auditorium here.

Birmingham magazine 1925-1927

June 1925, December 1925, September 1926 and December 1927 issues of the magazine Birmingham are now available online in BPL's Digital Collections database.

Some of the subjects discussed in these four issues include the history of Jemison & Company, Hercules Powder Company, Augusta Friedman Shop and Liberty Life Assurance Society. Industrial activities, civic events, state income tax and the city's growth are also highlighted.

Social interpretation of Birmingham in 1912

The weekly publication The Survey published a report about conditions in Birmingham, Alabama in January 1912. Topics included in the report cover the city's civic front, water and waste, health, childhood, labor, and religion. Numerous photographs documenting conditions in Birmingham are included in this report and make this social survey an interesting and sometimes shocking read. Local responses to the January 1912 publication were published in February 1912 and are located at the end of this document. The complete report is here.

Birmingham Magazine 1919

March and September issues of the magazine Birmingham published in 1919 were recently added to the Digital Collections' database.

1913 social directory

The names of citizens who participated "in the social and prominent life" of Birmingham in 1913 are found in the directory titled Blue Book Birmingham 1913. This book has been digitized and is available for viewing and searching. Names, addresses and phone numbers make up the majority of this book but there are also a few photographs of buildings and local advertisements included as well.

Birmingham Magazine 1915

We recently added the v.1, no. 1 edition of Birmingham Magazine to BPL's Digital Collections Database.

Table of Contents

• A Letter of Appreciation From E. H. GARY.



• The Industrial Situation By E. H. GARY.



• Social Service Work of City Commission By GEORGE B. WARD, President City Commission.



• The Diversified Farming Association, What it is Doing By MARIE BANKHEAD OWEN, Secretary Central Association.



• Education in Birmingham By DR. J. H. PHILLIPS, Superintendent of Education.



• Woman Suffrage in Alabama By MRS. BOSSIE O'BRIEN HUNDLEY.



• Editorial Comment Business Men's League Item By SAM H. FOWLKES, Secretary.



• Roads and Highways By ALMA RITTENBERRY.



• Birmingham Permanent Manufacturers' Exhibit By J. H. EDMUNDSON. Secretary-Manager.



• Library Talk By CARL MILAM, Director Public Library.



• Proceedings of City Commishion By the Board of Commissioners.



• Building Up a City



• Invitation to Alabama Merchants

Loveman's 1934 fire

In 1934, Birmingham's Loveman, Joseph & Loeb department store caught fire and burned. First-hand accounts from firemen, policemen, medical personnel and radio broadcasters were compiled and issued for the benefit of the Birmingham Firemen's Relief Association. This compilation, Illustrated Souvenir : Birmingham's $3,000,000 fire, March 10, 1934 is now available online.

1893 Birmingham book

The Birmingham, Alabama, September, 1893 : plain statement for the homeseeker, the investor and the manufacturer book is now available for viewing. There are 33 pages of text, drawings and photographs highlighting the advantages of living and working in Birmingham.

1906 Views of Birmingham pamphlet online

The 1906 pamphlet Views of Birmingham: the Iron Center of the World is available online for viewing. There are 32 pages of photographs depicting businesses, schools, churches, industry, and hospitals in the Birmingham area.

Ensley newspaper articles available

Newspaper articles about Ensley, Alabama are available for viewing. These 27 articles include the full text and cover such topics as Ensley's Chamber of Commerce, Christmas, schools, shopping, and construction. Additional items covering Ensley will be available soon.

1887 Pocket Business Directory available

The 1887 Pocket Business Directory and Guide to Birmingham, Ala. is available online with full text searching capabilities. The suburbs of Avondale, Elyton, Pratt Mines, and Woodlawn are included as well as information about city and country government, schools, churches, newspapers, and labor organizations.

Archives Will Digitize Birmingham's Founding Documents with New Overhead Scanner

Birmingham Public Library
Press Release
December 19, 2006

Celebrating 30 years of service to the Birmingham community, the Birmingham Public Library’s Archives will embark on an ambitious project to make its extensive collection more accessible to teachers, students, researchers, and the general public. With a state-of-the-art overhead scanner—purchased with grants from the community—the Archives will scan Birmingham’s founding documents including the original survey for the city. The 133-year-old volume contains the original maps and field notes of the survey team that laid out Birmingham's streets in 1872. The Archives will also now be able to digitize atlases such as the Beers and Ellis Atlas of Birmingham—a rare 1887 atlas containing full color maps of downtown Birmingham; Baist's Property Atlas of Birmingham—a rare 1902 atlas of full-color maps of downtown Birmingham; and other historic maps and illustrations of early Birmingham.

“With this type of overhead scanner, the Archives can safely scan materials that are too fragile or too cumbersome for a standard scanner,” said Head Archivist Jim Baggett. He anticipates that a high-quality scanner will allow the Archives to digitize many one of a kind historic documents and make them available on the Internet.

The Archives will share the scanner with Oak Hill Cemetery, which holds an estimated 10,000 burials and associated interment records from the city’s founding to the present. The Cemetery, which is the burial place for many of the city’s founding families, will use the scanner to digitize interment records, providing the public with important information about Birmingham’s founders.

According to Library Director Barbara Sirmans, “this equipment will enable the Library to push forward with several of our key goals. It will provide adequate and appropriate technology for users to access the information they need. It will also greatly accelerate our effort to offer outstanding online content drawn from the Library’s own special collections.” Using current technology for the benefit of patrons is crucial to the Archives. The number of files Archives staff retrieve for researchers has gone up more than 60 percent in the last six years, and placing fragile items online is imperative for original documents to remain in-tact for generations to come.

The Birmingham Public Library Archives holds over 30,000,000 documents and over 400,000 photographs on subjects ranging from local to international significance. Subject areas of particular strength include local government, urban and economic development, industry and the labor movement, women's history, religious history, art, music, literature, sports, and the largest collection in existence relating to the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham.

The collection is open to the public and draws researchers from the U.S. and around the world. In 2005 the Archives served nearly 2,000 local, national, and international researchers with a record 95,000 files. In 2004, the work of one researcher won an Academy Award, adding to works researched in the Archives that have earned an Emmy, a Peabody, and three Pulitzer Prizes.

The scanner purchase was made possible with very generous support from the Birmingham Public Library Foundation, Vulcan Materials Company, Glenn Ireland, William Ireland, Energen, David Herring and the Oak Hill Memorial Association, the Birmingham Historical Society and the Friends of the Birmingham Public Library.

History of Parker High School

The full text of Arthur Harold Parker's autobiography A Dream That Came True is available online. Parker, who was principal of Industrial High School (later renamed Parker High School), details the history of African American education in Birmingham, Alabama from 1888 through 1920.

Trucks photographed by O. V. Hunt

15 of Oscar V. Hunt's delivery trucks photographs have been added to the BPL Digital Collections database. Drive on in and check it out.

McElwain School, Krystal in Woodlawn & many more photos

Twenty-six additional photographs from the Jefferson County (AL) Board of Equalization were recently added to our BPL Digital Collections database. Images include businesses, churches, and schools in Birmingham.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce publication (May 1925)

The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce's Birmingham publication for May 1925 is now available. Contents include:

• A story of the Wofford Oil Company
• Industrial Birmingham, survey and outlook
• Junior Chamber of Commerce activities
• Birmingham's Safety Council functions
• Early history of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce

20 photographs of businesses, schools and theaters online

The Jefferson County (AL) Board of Equalization was responsible for photographing all structures within Jefferson County for the purpose of taxation. BPL's Archives Department is responsible for preserving 1500 boxes of the Board's files (including photographs) covering the years 1938-1977. Twenty of these photographs were recently added to our BPL Digital Collections database. Images include businesses, churches, and schools in Birmingham and Homewood.

Birmingham’s Victorian Bicycle Craze

Bicycles, known colloquially in the nineteenth century as “wheels,” offered a new kind of mobility that many women embraced. While some worried that having women riding about on bicycles would lead to moral decay, bicycle manufactures catered to the new clientele and Victorian era women found freedom on their bikes....(read more)

Newspaper Articles, Photograph and Postcard

(Part of Birmingham Magazine's monthly feature on Birmingham history highlighting items from the Archives’ collections)

Structures in Jefferson County (AL)

The Jefferson County (AL) Board of Equalization was responsible for photographing all structures within Jefferson County for the purpose of taxation. BPL's Archives Department is responsible for preserving 1500 boxes of the Board's files (including photographs) covering the years 1938-1977. Forty-nine of these photographs were recently added to our BPL Digital Collections database. Images include businesses, churches, and schools in downtown Birmingham, Center Point, and Ensley.

Birmingham's Vintage Service Stations

Birmingham's Vintage Service Stations
It seems unlikely that today’s American roadside architecture will ever inspire a sense of nostalgia. Big box discount stores and fast food restaurants are interchangeable from one location to the next. Gas stations, or to be precise, convenience stores, are distinguishable only by the color of the trim on the square, flat buildings. But the builders of gas stations, or to be precise, service stations, once used popular architectural styles and whimsy to catch the eye of passing motorists. More...