This photograph is Alabama Landscape-- near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was printed in 1981 with type C print on paper. The photographer, William Christenberry, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1936. The photo was gifted by Michael B. Gross to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Peter Bryce (1834-1892) laid the groundwork for the care of the mentally ill in Alabama, not by the mere holding of a position, but by his own sensitive, patient nature and by the inauguration of treatment methods that mark him as a pioneer in psychiatry.
Bryce, a native of South Carolina, was elected superintendent of the newly created, not yet completed, Alabama Insane Hospital in 1860, when he was only 26 years old. He gave the remaining 32 years of his life to the hospital that now bears his name. The idea of "moral treatment" of the insane, discarding the use of shackles, jackets and other medical restraints was 70 years old but still virtually unknown in this country when the first person was admitted by Bryce in 1861. The young physician enforced strict discipline among his attendants, requiring nothing short of absolute courtesy, kindness and respect toward the patients. This conscientious nursing bore fruit in the form of warm relationships and by 1882 a policy of absolute non-restraint could be initiated. Bryce set up programs of work - farming, sewing, maintenance - and of amusement for his patients; programs valuable both as therapy and as a means of making ends meet. The very survival of the hospital during its early years, when the state's interest and finances were directed to other needs, must be listed as one of the superintendent's greatest accomplishments.
Bryce created a mental institution recognized as one of the best managed in the country. An understatement, but nonetheless true, is Bryce's own assessment, written just before his death: "I feel that I have done my work, and hope, without selfpraise, to be permitted to say I have done it well."
(from the Alabama Hall of Fame, 1968, "ASC Archives", as posted at the Historic Asylums of America)
A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Peter Bryce received his medical degree from New York City University in 1859. At the age of twenty-six, on the recommendation of Dorothea Dix, Dr. Bryce became the superintendent of the newly constructed hospital for the insane in Tuscaloosa. At a time when little was known about the care of insane patients, Dr. Bryce opened vistas of care and treatment unheard of at the time, and the hospital became a national example of care and compassion. Dr. Bryce's methods included tender loving care, no use of mechanical restraints, and individual patient occupational therapy. Although Dr. Bryce was known as a friendly and loving person, he would not tolerate discourteous treatment; impolite language; or failure to keep patients clean, neatly dressed, and properly attended at all times. Dr. Bryce's wife, Ellen Clarkson Bryce, also was credited with exerting a profound influence on patients through her musical programs and classes. Dr. Peter Bryce died of Bright's Disease in 1892 and was buried on the lawn of the hospital. Six months later the hospital was renamed the Alabama Bryce Insane Hospital in Dr. Bryce's honor for his thirty-two years of service.
(from the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame)
The Bryce Hospital Collection is available at the Hoole Special Collections Library on the University of Alabama campus. You can find another photo of Dr. Bryce here.
And here is an old Winston ad from the same issue of the Rammer Jammer. Boy, life sure was breezy.
I found these wonderful pages from an early issue of Rammer Jammer on the University's digital archives page. Note the cars and pun on the word "parking".
"The night the stars fell" - memories of a slave named Amanda Young about the meteor shower.
In 1934, "Stars Fell on Alabama" as sung by Guy Lombardo was the number 1 song on the billboards.
"Abe Lincoln and the Leonids", a good Yankee's perspective on the shower.
Kathryn Tucker Windham describes the lingering impact of that night on Alabama history:
Many of Alabama’s finest stories used to begin with a reference to “the night the stars fell,” and even now there is an inclination among some residents to divide local history into two segments: before the stars fell and after the stars fell. That would make November 13, 1833, the dividing line.
Thousands of Alabamians, thinking the end of the world was at hand when they saw the heavenly spectacle, fell to their knees to plead for mercy and forgiveness. Others promised eternal renunciation of sin (card playing, dancing, whiskey drinking, cursing, and associated vices) if they were spared whatever catastrophes were in the offing. Still others jumped upon horses and tried to outrace the fearful menace they believed was pursuing them.
That night, the night the stars fell, may have branded Alabama as a strange land, her people forever set apart by a horoscope of enchantment and turmoil. Some historians, sociologists, romanticisms, astrologists, and conjure women say so. Maybe it did. It was quite a night.
Storytelling spots aren’t all on front porches: they’re any place where storytellers gather. But the best stories are a family’s very own tales, stories whose humor and pathos provide nostalgic links with kinfolk who were here awhile ago.
Carl Carmer: Haunted Man in a Haunted Land
Sometimes it seems difficult to tell which came first-- Carmer's haunting, or Alabama's. For those who love ghosts as much as they savor folk-say, a detour through Carmer's life and doings is worthwhile.
Alabama is the only state where a woman is known to have been struck by a meteorite, specifically, the Hodges meteor. Kathryn Tucker Windham tells the story best-- "When Stars Fell on Mrs. Hodges".
Teacher's Guide to lesson on "The Wetumpka Crater".
Only when standing between the magnolias can one gain a true sense of Alabama's history, culture, art, literature, and hauntings.
In My Head
Alabama Authors
Alabama Center for the Book
Alabama Center for Traditional Culture
Alabama Filmmakers Association
Alabama Filmmakers Co-Op
Alabama Genealogy Web
Alabama Heritage
Alabama Historical Commission
Alabama Poverty Project
Alabama Representational Art History
Alabama State Archives
Alabama State Council of the Arts
Alabama Maps at UA
Alabama Museums Association
Alabama Poorhouse History
Alabama Public Television
Alabama Virtual Library
Alabama Writer's Forum
Alabama Mosaic
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham Public Library
Black Warrior Review
Cahaba River Society
Center for Public Television & Radio
Center for the Study of Southern Culture
CountryDog Review
Doc's Political Parlor
Documenting the American South
Flying Monkey Arts
Ghost Towns of Alabama
Highway 431
Hoole Library
Hoole Library Blog
Huntsville Art Blog
Institute of Southern Jewish Life
Joe's Alabama Roads History Page
National Forests in Alabama
North Alabama Peace Network
Marr's Field Journal
Pickett's History of Alabama
Samford University Special Collections
Society of Alabama Archivists
Southern Compendium
SouthernFolklife Collection
Southern Historian
Southern Literary Review
Southern Literary Trail
Southern Scribe
Southern Spaces
storySouth
The Alabama Experience
The Alabama Historical Quarterly
The Alabama State Legislature
The Alabama Review
The Crimson White
The Southerner Journal
The Southern Quarterly
The Southern Register
This Goodly Land
UA Press
UAB Archives
USA Archives
WPA Life Histories from Alabama
WVUA
