WORDS Brent Rosen PHOTOS Harvi Sahota
My favorite scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark is the end, when Indiana Jones is assured that “top men” are looking into the Ark of the Covenant, but in reality, the artifact joins thousands of other generic crates in a massive secret warehouse. What other treasures, the viewer is left to wonder, are similarly warehoused and what would it look like if all were displayed for public consumption? While that question is impossible to answer because Indiana Jones is a work of fiction, the Alabama Department of History and Archives has done its best to provide one answer with its new Alabama Voices exhibit. Over 800 artifacts have been emptied from the Archive’s warehouses, providing an unbelievably immersive tour of Alabama from the 1700s to the present.
The exhibit begins with the Native Americans, demonstrating small-town life in Alabama before European colonization. After the Native American exhibits comes the Cotton Economy, followed by a most necessary gallery of 19th-century-weapons porn from the Civil War. The complicated period of Reconstruction leads directly to Jim Crow -- just like in history -- before the entire exhibit wraps up with the “Space Race” and the transition of Alabama’s economy from largely agrarian to manufacturing.
The Archives hired the same people who designed the 9-11 Memorial, the George Bush Library, and many Smithsonian exhibits for Alabama Voices, and it shows. There are mini-movie theaters, interactive computer exhibits, ambient sounds from the various eras, and a wealth of photographs and other ephemera from the archives that bring the exhibition to life. Kids will love the many life-sized dioramas of life in the past, while adults can get a sense of how the major social and cultural events of the past 300 years played out across North, Central, and South Alabama.
Most Alabamians haven’t been in the Alabama Department of History and Archives building since their last school field trip in the Fourth Grade. You probably remember nothing but the many steps and the millions of pounds of marble. If that sounds familiar, it’s time for you to go back to the Archives. Alabama Voices is that good.
Grand Opening Schedule: February 15, 2014
9-9:30am - Music
9:30am - Ribbon Cutting Ceremony (Ribbon will be cut by Governor and Mrs. Robert J. Bentley)
9:50-11am - Bay City Brass Band
11-12pm - Poarch Creek Indian Dancers
12-1pm - Mariachi Garibaldi
1-2pm - The Recreators
2-3pm - Flying Jenny
3-4pm - Birmingham Sunlights
For more information about The Alabama Department of Archives & History visit www.archives.state.al.us or call 334.242.4435