TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Professors aren’t known today for the practice of “spying” on their students during class, but a recently rediscovered historical artifact at The University of Alabama suggests that one legendary UA professor fashioned a peephole in a massive bookcase to do just that.
In the course of a year-long renovation of historic Tuomey Hall on the UA campus, workmen uncovered two inch-wide peepholes in small hinged doors in a massive, wall-length bookcase in the main second floor classroom of the building.
According to Alexander Sartwell, public information officer and historian for the Alabama Geological Survey, the peepholes were likely employed by legendary UA chemistry and geology professor Eugene A. Smith. The building, built in 1888, housed UA’s Department of Chemistry from 1888 until 1910 and the room containing the bookcase was the main chemistry classroom.
“Professor Smith’s son, Merrill Smith, told me that his father’s office was adjacent to the bookcase. The peepholes enabled a viewer to check on the classroom from the vantage point of the office. From the stories told about Professor Smith, he was a man with wry sense of humor. Since he taught in Tuomey Hall for decades, no doubt Smith made plenty of use of the peephole over the years, if he didn’t create them.”
The massive bookcase, with hinged doors and peepholes intact, was restored as part of a $1 million renovation of Tuomey Hall, which will now serve as an Academic House in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, a special liberal arts program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Before its restoration, the bookcase was dismantled and moved to the main room on the first floor of Tuomey.
That room will be dedicated as the Danford-Yarbrough Library on April 27 at noon as part of rededication ceremonies for the building. Becky Danford of Dothan established the library with a gift in honor of her late husband, UA alumnus John Granger Danford Sr., and Dr. James D. Yarbrough, dean emeritus of the College of Arts and Sciences. Photographs from the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, which show the bookcase in Smith’s classroom in the 1890s, will hang in the library.
Smith was born in 1841 in Philadelphia. He was a student at UA during the Civil War, graduated in 1862, and returned to the Capstone in 1871 to teach geology and chemistry after earning a doctorate from Heidelberg in chemistry. He was appointed as state geologist for the Alabama Geological and Agricultural Survey in 1873, a post he held for 54 years. Known affectionately as the “Little Doctor,” Smith made significant contributions to the knowledge of Alabama’s mineral resources. Smith died in 1927, but his legacy was memorialized in the construction of Smith Hall, which is located only a few yards away from Tuomey Hall.
A Treasure Revealed
The fine wood finish of the bookcase, which was covered under layers of paint, might not have seen the light of day if not for the historical detective work of Sartwell, the interest of Wayne Hogg, project superintendent for renovation contractor Bill Burnett Inc., and plenty of elbow grease by UA senior art student Alex Neville.
“Alex showed me this old photograph of the bookcase when it was stained, and it was clear that this was a truly beautiful and historic piece,” Hogg said.
Hogg showed the photograph to Dr. James D. Yarbrough, dean emeritus of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Blount Undergraduate Initiative Advisory Board, who enthusiastically lobbied for restoration of the bookcase. Tuscaloosa demolition and restoration contractors Hazard One were hired to strip the 114-year old piece. Neville, a woodworker and senior in the Department of Art who met Hogg while salvaging old materials from the project, was hired to refinish it.
Workers had intended to stain the shelves, but Neville recommended a different technique of preservation. He spent more than 40 hours preserving the wood by rubbing it with tung oil, which leaves a natural finish. “I think it turned out really beautiful,” said Neville who received no course credit for his work.
Tuomey Hall was named in honor of Alabama’s first state geologist Michael Tuomey, who also taught at the University in the 1840s and 1850s. Tuomey and its twin building, Oliver-Barnard Hall, were the last two buildings on campus to be constructed in the 19th century.
Begun in 1999 with a freshmen class of 100, the Blount Undergraduate Initiative is a program dedicated to creating an intensive learning environment for highly motivated students.
The program enables students to live in a close-knit community of undergraduate teachers and students. Students are taught through a series of foundation classes and interdisciplinary seminars where they explore classic academic disciplines and learn to be self-reliant thinkers.
The College of Arts and Sciences is the state’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division with 6,000 students, 340 faculty, and more than 26 departments and programs.
Contact
Rebecca Paul Florence or Ashli Chaffin, 205/348-8663