Battle of New Orleans comes to Tuscaloosa

The purse once owned by a guest's grandmother.

Subtlety was one of the ever-present subtexts in last night's ball drawing attention to the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. This fact reminded me often of our nation's complicated historical past and present.

A hand-drawn map of the epic battle led by Andrew Jackson was presented at the event, which was held at Tuscaloosa's historic Jemison Mansion. The map is one of several images posted here. Jemison House Manager and the ball's host Ian Crawford is the artist.

I look forward to  leading two separate conversations about the ball with students enrolled in my Antebellum American and Gender, Race and the Urban Space courses this week.

One especially memorable moment was entering Jemison and immediately noticing the purse of one guest. It was once owned by her grandmother (the Sherlock Holmes-like coat my husband wore was once owned by his father). Time and memory both seemed to be dislocated in such objects among other things at the ball, which received inspiration in part from Crawford
following the advice of his step-mother who pushed
him to follow his dreams.

This signage points to leisure moments in antebellum America.

A close up of the insert inside the invitation.

The invite to ball was printed on elegant paper.

Shield at entrance to Jemison.

Crawford's hand-drawn depiction of battle on canvas.

slideshow of images from "Druid City: A Music Video" Premiere at Jemison Mansion

Here's a slideshow of photos from our December 3, 2014 premiere of "Druid City: A Music Video" featuring the music of local band Bible Study. Special thanks to Courtnee "Voni" Cook, a student enrolled in "The Nineteenth Century City" during the Fall 2014, for sharing these photos with us.

three days until the music video premiere

Still of clock in downtown Tuscaloosa

Still of student Rae Mann in Edelweiss, a local coffee shop.

Now that we've won the Iron Bowl against Auburn, we can turn toward completing the rest of the school year in fine fashion. The "world premiere" of the students' music video is just three days away.   It features not only the video itself, but a documentary of the students "discovering" the nineteenth century city in Tuscaloosa. Here are two still photographs from the project, which runs about 13 minutes.

The premiere happens 5:30-6:30 pm this Wednesday, December 3, at Jemison Mansion, 1305 Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa. Dr. Robert Mellown, Associate Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Alabama, will be our guest speaker. There will be a silent auction of the students'  photography and refreshments.

Tim Higgins and Emily Dozier-Ewell, two members of the band Bible Study (whose music is featured in the video), will be present. Kori Hensell, composer of "Druid City," the song around which the video and documentary are deployed, will be there in spirit as she is now in Fairbanks, Alaska, pursuing an MFA. Talk about tensions between the frontier and the city!

Meanwhile, the students should also be studying for their final exam, which will take place December 9. Until then, Roll Tide!