Daughters
of the South. Alabama Gold: Golden Harvest of the Piedmont. The 1948
Keller Super Chief: Aero-Engineered Auto for Tomorrow. Read
article excerpts below.

Daughters
of the South
By Christine Crafts Neal
Clara Weaver Parrish and Anne Goldthwaite set out to challenge the cultural mold
established by the artistic community of the early twentieth century. In a time
when women received little support or recognition for their artistic endeavors,
these two Alabama women worked to overcome male stereotypes of the time by showcasing
their art in New York City and traveling extensively in France and Italy. In
the Summer 1991 issue of Alabama Heritage, Christine Crafts Neal shows
how these two women, although influenced by different movements, gained the respect
and admiration of influential artists of their time and supported other female
artists in an attempt to remove the art world’s prejudices against women.
Golden
Harvests of Piedmont
By Lewis S. Dean
The southern gold rush that began in North Carolina found its way into Alabama
in the 1830s. Despite initial reports of the “motherload,” the expectations
of Alabama’s gold miners never quite panned out. Lewis S. Dean recounts
how miners were hindered by poor, inefficient mining techniques, local attitudes
toward foreign miners, and the new “lawless” mining towns that sprang
up throughout Alabama. By the late 1840s, gold mining in Alabama was on its way
out, as miners turned their eyes toward new prospects in California.
The
1948 Keller Super Chief: Aero Engineered Auto for Tomorrow
By G. Ward Hubbs and A. R. Gibbons
Hubert P. Mitchell saw the future, and the future was automobiles. Before the
Volkswagen ever made it to the American shore, Mitchell had already begun production
of an affordable, economy-sized automobile in Alabama, which he called the Keller.
G. Ward Hubbs and A. R. Gibbons tell how a former vaudeville performer from Hartselle
came within arms reach of being the first in America to produce the economy cars
that were in such high demand after World War II. The company changed many hands
and took many names but always kept the public interest with the promise of a
bright future. When George Keller, the company face, died, Mitchell’s dream
of bringing the automobile industry to Alabama came to an abrupt end.
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