Quincy Eugene Daily was born in Blount County, Alabama in 1895. He worked as a laborer alongside his father at a farm before he registered for service in the U.S. army in early 1917. Daily served in the 129th Field Artillery, 60th F.A. Brigade, 35th Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, where he saw combat mainly in France. His unit participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the largest in which American forces were involved during World War I. The 129th, which also included future president, Harry Truman, played a major role in the campaign. Daily seemingly finished his tour of duty in late 1919, but unfortunately, there is no correspondence that gives insight into his life after the war. At some point, however, Daily moved to Florida. He died there in Panama City on April 5, 1990 at the age of 95. This collection contains letters, photos, and memorabilia from the Daily family but mainly from Quincy Eugene Daily detailing his experiences training for and fighting in World War I.

During the 1965 voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama, the sheriff’s department recorded one or more of the civil rights mass meetings held at Selma churches. The recording device was discovered by movement participants but was not removed. This collection contains nine audio recordings made by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department of one or more mass meetings, a press conference with Malcolm X and a reporter describing a protest march and mass arrest. In 1988, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department loaned the original tapes to the Birmingham Public Library for copying. The original tapes were returned to the sheriff’s department after copies were made.

These scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, programs and photographs.

This scrapbook contains newspaper clippings.

This collection contains primarily convention programs and some newspaper clippings.

These records include membership certificates for the year 1925, minutes of meetings for 1913 to 1949, a chapter history written in 1954 and yearbooks.

Lorenzo “Piper” Davis was born in the coal mining community of Piper, near Birmingham, in 1917. Davis played baseball in Birmingham’s industrial leagues and joined the Birmingham Black Barons in 1942. He became manager of the Black Barons in 1948 and later played for various minor league teams. He worked as a scout for the Detroit Tigers and other teams until his retirement in 1986. In 1993, “Piper” Davis was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. This collection contains photographs collected by Davis of himself and other athletes, including Willie Mays, Leroy “Satchel” Paige and Charlie Pride.

Dan Dowe, a reporter for the Birmingham News, gathered this collection of court records, guidelines and other material relating to the desegregation of public schools in Macon County, Alabama.

Mary Gordon Duffee's father, Matthew Duffee was born in Ireland and immigrated to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1823. In Tuscaloosa he operated a popular tavern, and he later bought a resort hotel at Blount Springs. Mary Duffee was born in Alabama in 1840 and spent many summers with her family at the resort. It was the journey to and from Blount Springs that inspired Duffee's best-known work, Sketches of Alabama, which originally appeared as fifty-nine articles in the Birmingham Weekly Iron Age in 1886 and 1887. She also contributed articles to several out-of-state newspapers, wrote guide books, advertising copy, and poetry. She died in 1920. This collection contains typescripts of some of Mary Gordon Duffee's Iron Age columns "Sketches of Alabama," manuscripts of seven of Duffee's poems, a typed biographical sketch of Duffee, undated, and Duffee's obituary from the Birmingham Age-Herald.

Dunn served in Company D, First Virginia Infantry Regiment. This collection contains a diary and log book, a letter from Dunn to his sister and other material.