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King House
The King House was built in 1823 by Mr. King who owned a large portion of land in the town of Montevallo A.L. The House was built by slaves who took clay from a nearby river to build the bricks and glass windows were imported to add to the effect of…
King House
The oldest structure on campus is King House, built in 1823 by a Virginian planter named Edmund King who owned a large portion of land in Montevallo. King’s slaves used clay from the nearby river to make the bricks while imported glass windows…
King House
King House was originally built in 1823 by Edmund King and was later sold to the University in 1908. This photo of students in front of the King House in 1905 demonstrates that although the university did not actually own the King House yet…
Letter Regarding the Cleanliness of Milk Cans
A handwritten letter from U.D. Franklin to future president and current business manager E.H. Wills regarding milk cans being returned to the dairy without being cleaned thoroughly. During 1927 tuberculosis was at an all time high, and the first…
Letter to the Alabama Governor regarding the transition to Alabama College
A letter to the Governor of Alabama, William W. Brandon from the Alabama College Board of Trustees. This is the first page of the full letter from the Board which outlines the completion of the transition to the new name of Alabama College as well as…
Main Hall
This photograph shows unfinished construction on Main Hall. A basement, dining hall, and two more residential wings would be completed in 1908.
Main Hall
In 1896 the president of Alabama’s Girls’ Industrial School managed to board students with local families, but growing enrollments demanded the rapid construction of a dormitory. Remarkably, the west wing of Main Hall, with the capacity to…
Main Hall, 1902-1907
This photograph of the students in front of Main Hall at the Alabama Girls Industrial School was taken between 1902 and 1907. It is possible that Condie Cunningham would have been in her freshman year in this photograph.
Cunningham died in 1908…
Cunningham died in 1908…
Making a Four-Year College
This letter to the "Honorable Board of Trustees" from their chosen Executive Committee outlines important factors to the transition of Alabama Technical Institute and College for Women to Alabama College.
The Executive Committe notices some of…
The Executive Committe notices some of…
Matador Segis Walker
Matador Segis Walker was one of the many cows owned by the dairy farm at Alabama College. He was born December 18, 1926, a Pure Bread Holstein-Friesian. The registry traces the cow’s lineage back 3 generations. Its father, called a sire, was…
Mercury - Purple Stunt Character
In 1945, the Homecoming tradition included a stunt (comedy) and a dramatization (drama) skit. For 1945 the Purple stunt was called "Speak of the Devil" or "Ye Gods!", and was written by The Purple Writing Committee. In the play, Mr. Pluto tries to…
Milking Machine Letter
The Correspondence between President Thomas Palmer, of the Alabama Girls’ Technical Institute, and the Empire Cream Separator Company in Bloomfield, New Jersey began on January 15, 1918. On February 18 he confirmed in a letter that he had purchased…
Moo Manor
The Alabama College Dairy was shut down in 1960, after fifty years of operation. The herd and the dairy equipment were sold. The Dairy barn was then converted into an apartment house. The five two-bedroom and two three-bedroom apartment became…
Moving the Herd
This letter written in 1929 about Alabama College’s first dairy had been around for about 20 years at this point, but it had not been updated since it was first built. The letter is written by a building coordinator pleading with the board of…
Mr. Pluto - Purple Stunt Character
In 1945, the Homecoming tradition included a Stunt (comedy) and a Dramatization (drama) skit. For 1945 the Purple Stunt was called "Speak of the Devil" or "Ye Gods!", and was written by The Purple Writing Committee. Since Alabama College was still a…
New Name, New Catalogs, New Costs
In 1923, upon completing the transition from Alabama Girls' Technical Institute to Alabama College, State College for Women, a new academic catalog was released. The catalogs looked very similar to previous volumes although it displayed the new…
Not an Armchair Scholar
John Steelman grew at a time when mob violence directed at African Americans frequently erupted in the deep south. The issue deeply concerned Steelman and he made it the subject of his doctoral dissertation at the University of North Carolina, Chapel…
Palmer Hall
Constructed in 1929, Thomas Waverly Palmer Hall (named after the university's third president) serves a variety of functions. It houses several of the University of Montevallo's administrative offices, most notably the registrar's office, and is…
Permission to Leave Campus
The independent freedoms that students enjoy today at the University of Montevallo are quite different than the freedoms during the 1904 era. The school, then called the Alabama Girls Industrial School, required students to remain on campus unless…
Peterson Hall
Peterson Hall, originally built as an infirmary, was named for the university’s second president, Dr. Francis Marion Peterson. Construction for the building began in May 1913, and it was ready to house patients less than a year later in April 1914.…
Picture of the Sophomore class
The story of Condie Cunningham has captivated students at the University of Montevallo for generations. There are no known images of Condie Cunningham, but many believe that one of the young women pictured is Miss Cunningham. Interestingly enough…
President Palmer Improves Campus Safety
One important thing President Palmer did during his tenure as president was to address several safety issues that acquired a sense of urgency in the wake of a 1908 fire in Main Hall that tragically killed a student named Condie Cunningham. This…
President Reynolds with his Faculty
The Alabama Girls’ Industrial School opened in 1896 with a faculty of six (five women and one man) and a student body of 145. During Reynolds' three years as president, he acquired 25,000 acres of public land from Congress and built the first…
Purple Slow Song
College Night is the Homecoming tradition of the University of Montevallo. It began in 1919 as a competition between the classes. It evolved into two sides represented by the school colors, purple and gold. In the early years of the competition each…
Purple Stunt Staging Plan (College Night 1942)
For 1942's College Night, each side performed both a dramatic adaptation and a humorous stunt. "Flying Flossie's Flight," the Purple stunt, was the story of a trapeze artist and the psychiatrist called in to help her overcome the complex that…
Recommendation Letter Written to Dr. Palmer for Job Applicant
The Leland Powers School of the Spoken Word sends a letter of recommendation to Dr. Palmer on behalf of Olivia Ford, a recent graduate seeking employment as a teacher. Miss Ford sent a handwritten letter to Dr. Palmer on June 10, 1920 inquiring about…
Red Bricks
The University of Montevallo's red brick streets are not as new as some people might think. The impetus for this change came from the Olmsted Brothers, a landscape architect firm, that recommended brick streets in 1930 as a way to unify the entire…
Reprint of the 1995 Fritsch official Delores White Baseball Card.
This item is a reprint of the 1995 Fritsch Delores “Dolly” White Official Baseball Card. The front of this card shows a picture of Delores “Dolly” White swinging a bat in her playing days with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The…
Resolution to Change
This is one of the first records of the transition from Alabama Girls' Technical Institute and College for Women, that still taught high school courses, into Alabama College, State College for Women that offered four-year courses such as home…
Reynolds Hall
Reynolds Hall is the second oldest structure on campus. It was built in 1851 using locally fired bricks and slave labor. The town agreed to give the building to the Alabama Girls’ Industrial School so long as the state located the school in the city…