Birmingham native Hugh Martin was an acclaimed composer, lyricist, and playwright whose career spanned the golden age of musical theatre and film. He is best known for his contributions to [more]

Ruby Pickens Tartt was one of the foremost chroniclers of folklore, folk music, and narratives of African Americans in rural Alabama.  She helped to fill the manuscript and music collections [more]

Birmingham native Erskine Hawkins was a prominent African American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer during the Big Band era of the 1930s and 40s. His Erskine Hawkins Orchestra was a popular [more]

Popularly known as the Coon Dog Cemetery, the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard in Colbert County was established in 1937. The cemetery is the final resting place for more [more]

The Carver Theatre was erected in 1935 on the corner of Fourth Avenue North and 17th Street North in Birmingham. The Carver was one of several theatres in the Fourth [more]

Born Herman Blount in Birmingham in 1914, Sun Ra was a prodigious and renowned musician who reinvented jazz throughout his life with his Sun Ra Arkestra. He also pioneered a [more]

Brothers, Alton and Rabon Delmore, from Elkmont, Alabama, were early country music pioneers that had a profound impact on the history of country music. I’m Debby Delmore, Alton’s youngest child. [more]

Quilt making has a long history in Alabama, and there are no finer examples of this art form than the motifs and craftsmanship of the quilts of Gee’s Bend. Since [more]

Harper Lee is best known as the author of one of the most affecting and widely read books of American literature, To Kill a Mockingbird. The native Alabamian drew deeply [more]