UA Acquires Extensive Collection of American Historical Documents, Photos and Books

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Libraries is acquiring one of the most extensive collections of Americana and Southern history in private hands: the A. S. Williams III Collection of History and Culture of the South.

For more than 40 years, Williams, a Eufaula native and UA alumnus, collected rare Americana, primarily books, manuscripts and photographs relating to the history of the United States.

“Much of the content of the Williams Collection is unique and hence not available at other libraries or through online sources,” says Dr. George C. Rable, Charles Summersell chair in Southern history at UA. “The Williams Collection will support a vast array of research projects based on manuscript, print and visual materials.”

The University will receive the collection at 11 a.m. Monday, June 28, in Gorgas Library. Williams will be present to meet with representatives of the media. UA President Robert E. Witt is also expected to address the gathering. UA Libraries will exhibit representative items from the collection at that time.

“The Williams Collections builds on existing strengths and brings our special collections, particularly those pertaining to the South and the history of photography, to a new level of excellence and national prominence,” says Dr. Louis A. Pitschmann, dean of libraries. “We are honored that Mr. Williams has agreed to entrust us with his remarkable collection.”

The collection represents a lifetime of avid collecting by Williams, former executive vice president and treasurer of Protective Life Corp. A trip to Williamsburg, Va., in the early 1960s sparked his passion for collecting. Starting with his Presidential Collection, Williams acquired books written by and about the presidents, as well as books they signed or inscribed. He eventually expanded this collection by acquiring one or more documents written or signed by every former president.

He later broadened his scope to include material related to the history of Alabama and the South in general. The collection contains unpublished letters, diaries and documents written by Alabamians from the 1820s forward. These letters describe political and historical events as well as daily life.

“For those of us who study Southern discourse, the manuscripts in this collection will be of tremendous value for both research and teaching,” said Dr. Catherine Evans Davies, professor of linguistics and chair of UA’s department of English.

“The Williams Collection is a treasure trove of material that will lend itself to new research initiatives for our faculty and students, and it will make our special collections library a destination of choice for many researchers from other institutions,” says Dr. Michael Picone, UA professor of French and linguistics.

Wartime history includes all aspects of the Civil War. The collection is especially strong in military manuals, histories and travel accounts, textbooks and novels.

In addition to presidential and historical documents, the collection also includes Indian land grants; unpublished archival collections of 19th-century business records; some 3,000 works of Southern fiction from the earliest examples to contemporary authors; and several literary archives. The collection is rich in first editions, signed copies, limited editions, association copies and rare books and manuscripts.

The photography portion of the collection has more than 12,000 photographs from the South and Alabama ranging from the late 1850s to the mid-1930s. Civil War photographs, perhaps one of the finest of its kind and a specialized archive and research collection titled “The Southern Photographer, 1860-1910” are features of this collection.  The work of Southern photographers contains approximately 4,000 images from 2,500 different studios.

Smaller sub-collections include early Southern maps; the African-American experience in the South, represented by photographs, books and pamphlets; and materials relating to the financial history of the United States from pre-Revolutionary times to the founding of the Bank of the United States.

The Williams Collection comprises more than 20,000 books and 12,000 photographs. The collection will be housed on the third floor of Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library and will open to the public in October 2010.

For more information about the collection, contact Donna Adcock, director of public relations for University Libraries, 205/348-1416 or dbadcock@lib.ua.edu.