Cotton Scales

Selma's Old Depot Museum features numerous exhibits of Black Belt culture

 including old cotton scales. Here, the weight (485 pounds) of a bale of cotton

 is noted at the top of the scale. 

Linking to Signs, Signs and City Daily Photo Blogs

Smitherman Historic Building

When you visit Selma, don't miss the Vaughan-Smitherman Museum

 that is housed in the Joseph T. Smitherman Historic Building. 

Located at the end of Alabama Avenue a few blocks off Broad Street,

 the 1847 structure built by Masons has housed schools, hospitals,

 a courthouse and now a museum.  Each of the three floors is dedicated

 to different exhibits with the first housing civil war, slavery and Wilby Theatre 

artifacts. The second floor has a replica of longtime Mayor Smitherman's office

 and other civic rooms, and the third is set up for hospital memorabilia. 

  Columns from the old Hotel Albert are preserved in an outdoor courtyard, 

and there are walkways and a fountain. The building is often used 

for weddings, receptions and other events. 

Linking to Shadow Shot Sunday, Weekly Top Shot and City Daily Photo Blogs 

Sturdivant Hall at Christmas

Evergreens decorate the entrance to Selma's famed Sturdivant Hall,

an antebellum Greek Revival mansion that is now a house museum.

In the Rose Garden

The rose garden at Sturdivant Hall was especially pretty on a showery day in Selma.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy has greatly increased in the U.S. since babies were born circa 1960. The CDC just announced that expectancy now stands at 78. In 1960, it was 70.

Just from 2006 to 2007, babies have the expectation of living three additional months.

This nursery is a replica of one where numerous Selma newborns were cared for in the old Vaughan Memorial Hospital back in the 1950s and 1960s. The building is now a museum with medical exhibits on its third floor. Notice the window behind the incubator. Older siblings of newborns were allowed to climb the outside spiral staircase to get a first look through the window at their new brother or sister.

Old-Fashioned Dolls

If you like dolls, then you'll love the playroom at Sturdivant Hall. Collections of old-fashioned dolls fill the cabinets, and they come in all sizes and outfits!

Confederate Currency

Three-dollar bills and other denominations of Confederate currency occupy glass cases at the Old Depot Museum.

Much of the currency issued from 1861 to 1865 was backed by cotton. The Confederate States of America expected to sell millions of bales to Europe, but a global cotton surplus in the early 1860s meant those bales sat in warehouses along the docks, and the notes became worthless. Some state currency was backed instead by bond sales or pledges and could be exchanged for Confederate notes or goods and services. But, by the end of the Civil War, they too were worthless. Another problem was that in addition to the Confederate government, some states, cities, banks and even businesses issued paper money, causing the currency to be easily counterfeited.

Paths and Passages 2

Continuing the February 1 theme, here's my second choice for paths and passages...a narrow, curving path behind Sturdivant Hall Museum. It leads us through lush gardens and to a goldfish pond guarded by the statue of an angel.

I took this photo last summer, and if we look up, you can see a nice surprise, an unripened lemon in a tree.

Click photo to see a larger image.