Five Points West newspaper articles added

An additional 39 Five Points West newspaper articles have been added to collection.

More Photographs by Charles Preston

36 images photographed by Charles Preston are now available for viewing. Some of the subjects depicted are from the 1940s and 50s and include: bellhops, Barons, businesses, Bob Hope, Booker T. Washington Insurance Co., Bingle, Betbeze, Burns, and beans.

Charles Preston's Photographs

24 images photographed by Charles Preston are now available for viewing. Some of the subjects depicted are from the 1950s and include: Dale's Cellar, Bankhead Hotel, Loveman's, Alabama Theatre, Jim Burke Buick, Krystal Hamburgers, Duke Rumore and WSGN.

Birmingham's Tourist Courts

As automobiles became affordable and reliable in the early 20th century, many Americans ventured out on long vacation trips into areas of the country not served by rail. Finding few places to stay, early auto travelers often slept in their cars or camped in tents. Enterprising residents along highways rented camp spaces in their yards or rooms in their homes. Towns and cities opened green spaces for camping, and some provided amenities like toilets, showers, drinking water and fire wood. By the 1930s, tourist courts lined American highways. Offering the comfort and privacy of small one-room cabins, tourist courts were a significant step up from sleeping on the ground or in the back seat. More...

W. Cooper Green and H. M. Caldwell resources online

Learn more about the man behind the name Cooper Green through newspaper clippings and documents.



See a detailed engraving of H. M. Caldwell and read his pamphlet History of the Elyton Land Company and Birmingham, Ala.

Mountain Terrace pamphlet available

The pamphlet Mountain Terrace: the Residence Park of Birmingham (1907) is now available online. The entire text is included and is searchable.

History of Birmingham and the Elyton Land Company

H. M. Caldwell's book History of the Elyton Land Company and Birmingham, Ala. (1892) is now available online. The entire text is included and is searchable.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing

33 additional newspaper articles about the bombing, investigations, and trial of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing are available.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing Investigation

Newspaper articles about the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing investigation and trials are now available for viewing. To see all the photographs and newspaper articles about the bombing and the investigation click here.

Wild West comes to Birmingham

Founded during America’s westward migration, early Birmingham shared numerous traits with towns from the notorious Wild West. A nineteenth-century boomtown populated by many young, unattached men, Birmingham was once a place of dirt streets, wooden sidewalks, saloons and occasional gun fights. Read contemporary news stories here.

Birmingham's Turn-of-the-Century Lake Resorts

The streetcar brought tremendous changes to the everyday lives of Americans. Beginning in the late 1800s, the streetcar encouraged the growth of suburbs by allowing people to live miles from their work. The streetcar also opened new avenues for amusement that led to the development of Birmingham’s turn-of-the-century lake resorts. More...

Collection Included in Index

BPL's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing Collection was recently added to the
Librarians' Internet Index: Websites You Can Trust.

Five Points West

Thirty-two newspaper articles about the Five Points West neighborhood have been added to the database.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing

On September 15, 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and killed four little girls. These powerful images, newspaper clippings, and documents show the immediate and widespread destruction of the tragedy and heartbreak that inspired a movement.

Birmingham's Semi-Centennial

Newspaper articles and photographs depicting the 50th anniversary of Birmingham's founding are now available for viewing

Birmingham’s Ill-Fated Mardi Gras
Around 1900 Birmingham celebrated Mardi Gras with kings, queens, parades and balls. See contemporary accounts, photographs, and invitations to a short-lived part of Birmingham's history here.

Avondale photographs

14 photographs of the Avondale community were recently added. Check it out.

Photographs of Birmingham added

31 photographs from The Birmingham News Collection are now available online.

News release and flyer

Birmingham Public Library Launches New Digital Collections

Starting in January 2006 the Birmingham Public Library’s Digital Collections will be available over the Internet 24/7 without charge and will feature some of the great treasures of the library’s special collections and archives. Many of these collections offer rare or unique glimpses into the history of Birmingham. “By digitizing some of the library’s newspaper clippings, photographs, and other materials, we are able to offer these special resources to people all over the world. We also expect these digital documents and images to motivate people from Birmingham and beyond to come into the library to see more of the library’s historic collection,” said Library Director Barbara Sirmans. She added, “This project would not have been possible without the generosity of the Birmingham News and the Birmingham Post Herald that allowed us to reproduce many of the articles from their papers.”

The digital collections encompass a variety of topics from the familiar to the unusual and currently feature newspaper articles, photographs, local history, and full-text pamphlets. The digital resources will continue to grow as the library adds more materials from its special collections. The library is also using this project as a catalyst to ask the public for historical photographs, scrapbooks, high-school yearbooks, and other materials from private collections that document the city’s past, particularly from the 1930s forward.

Collections already online include a souvenir booklet on the tornado of 1901, memorabilia on the Alabama Theatre, and photos depicting the aftermath of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The digital collections are on the library’s Web site at http://www.bplonline.org.

Welcome

Welcome to the BPL Digital Collections blog.
Here you will find updates about the library's ongoing digitalization project and comments about our collections from our viewers. Please let us know what you think.