Historic postcard display at Gadsden Public Library looks at Alabama tourism

Greg Bailey, The Gadsden Times
Updated ·2 min read

Another traveling exhibit from Troy University featuring representations of historic postcards is on display into August at the Gadsden Public Library’s main branch.

“Tourism of Alabama” has double-sided panels spotlighting more of the 26,000 postcards donated to the university by the late Wade Hall (1934-2015), a Troy graduate who taught English at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky.

This postcard showing Ave Maria Grotto near Cullman is among the items in the traveling exhibit “Tourism of Alabama” on display at the Gadsden Public Library.
This postcard showing Ave Maria Grotto near Cullman is among the items in the traveling exhibit “Tourism of Alabama” on display at the Gadsden Public Library.

An author, collector and historian, Hall accumulated postcards from all 50 of the United States, as well as 82 foreign countries.

“Military Service: A History in Postcards,” which featured military bases, camps and forts throughout the country, was on display last December at the library.

The tourism exhibit is Alabama-centric and looks at Attractions, City Parks and Events; Greetings; Museums and Monuments; Historical Homes; Lodgings; Natural Attractions; and Transportation and Restaurants.

This postcard showing Pulpit Rock at Cheaha State Park is among the items in the traveling exhibit “Tourism of Alabama” on display at the Gadsden Public Library.
This postcard showing Pulpit Rock at Cheaha State Park is among the items in the traveling exhibit “Tourism of Alabama” on display at the Gadsden Public Library.

Such familiar attractions as Gadsden’s Noccalula Falls, Birmingham’s Vulcan statue and Mobile’s Mardi Gras are included. So are places of the past like Bessemer’s Wigwam Village (a Native American-themed motel where lodgers stayed in cabins fashioned after actual tipis); Montgomery’s Pickett Springs (a popular tourist spot in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that had one of Alabama’s first roller coasters); and the Mentone Springs Hotel.

The historic homes include the residence of former U.S. Speaker of the House William B. Bankhead (and his daughter, actress Tallulah Bankhead) in Jasper, and a more modern postcard spotlights the Irondale Cafe, which spawned Birmingham native Fannie Flagg’s novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” that later was turned into the film “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

Visit https://www.troy.edu/libraries/wade-hall-postcards/traveling-exhibit/tourism for an in-depth look at the tourism collection.

More of Hall’s postcards that have been digitized can be viewed at https://resources.troy.edu/wadehall or http://alabamamosaic.org.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Traveling postcard exhibit at Gadsden library looks at tourism