Dedication of the UDC Tiffany Memorial Window Coverage
Established in 1894, the United Daughters of the Confederacy were instrumental in the spread of the Lost Cause memory of the Civil War. Determined to assert women's cultural authority over such matters, the UDC women engaged in an assortment of activities. They lobbied for state archives and museums, national historic sites, and historic highways. They compiled genealogies and interviewed former soldiers. They wrote history textbooks and defined curriculum of white and black children attending segregated schools. More importantly, they erected monuments in town centers and on college campuses, including the University of Alabama [1].
In the early 1920s, the University community accepted and dedicated a commissioned Tiffany Memorial stained glass window for the first Gorgas Library (now Carmichael Hall) [2]. Currently in its third location, the window stands as reminder to the ways in which the University remembered the Civil War before desegregation. Below is a transcript of The Crimson White coverage of the dedication ceremony.
In the early 1920s, the University community accepted and dedicated a commissioned Tiffany Memorial stained glass window for the first Gorgas Library (now Carmichael Hall) [2]. Currently in its third location, the window stands as reminder to the ways in which the University remembered the Civil War before desegregation. Below is a transcript of The Crimson White coverage of the dedication ceremony.
Transcription
Memorial Window Dedicated to All Old Bama Cadets
Dr. Denny Accepts Window in Name of University, From Mrs. McDowell in Impressive Ceremony.
At a beautiful and impressive ceremony held in front of the Gorgas Library on the afternoon of Thursday, October 22, the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy presented the University a beautiful stained glass window, as a memorial to the gallant University cadets who defended Tuscaloosa during the Civil War.
Before the ceremony started, several selections were rendered by the Alabama Boys’ Industrial School Band. Their rendition was wonderful and received great applause.
Mrs. McDowell, of Eufaula, wife of Lieutenant-Governor McDowell and Past President of the Alabama Division of the U.D.C., gave a short introductory address and the assemblage was led in invocation by Dr. Crumpton, Chaplain of the Alabama Division of the U.C.V.
After the singing of “We’re Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground” by the University Glee Club, Mr. Armstrong Cory, of Birmingham, (speaking for the veterans of the recent war in Europe) made a simple, sincere speech in which he pointed out that he and his companions fought on foreign land, knowing their homes and families were safe, while the men in grey fought haunted by the bitter knowledge that their homes were ruined and their families starving – fought gloriously when there was nothing left to fight for but a Cause.
At the conclusion of this tribute, Mrs. McDowell asked all the veterans who attended the University during the Civil War to stand. Eight white haired veterans leaped proudly to their tottering feet. One of these was Ex-Governor B. B. Comer, of Centerville, related his experience at the University and told how he came here in ’64 with Tom Hendricks, now of Greenville, by stagecoach, water and rail. “We brought our meat with us,” he said. “When you entered the University in those days, you had to bring 150 pounds of ‘side meat’ with you. Provisions were mighty scarce.” He told of the righteous discipline imposed on the cadets, and he told, graphically and with dramatic effect, of the defense of Tuscaloosa by the cadet regiment. He was constantly interrupted by other veterans offering their own reminiscences. The Glee Club then sang “The Bonny Blue Flag,” the old war song of the Confederacy.
Mrs. Chappell Cory, of Birmingham, outlined the origin and history of the University Memorial Association. The movement was started in 1912, she said, and in 1914 the Association presented to the University “The Boulder,” a handsome stone monument flanked by two cannon in the main driveway. The movement was halted by the World War and it was not until now that the Association could realize its dream of establishing a fitting memorial.
Mrs. McDowell made the speech of presentation for the Memorial Window and Dr. Denny accepted the gift in the name of the University. Following is his speech in part:
“We are glad to welcome here to Confederate Veterans. We are proud of their record, their achievements here – that gallant band of men who collected glory not merely on themselves, but on thousands of Alabamians. I accept, my dear friends, on behalf of the University of Alabama, this beautiful window presented by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of these gallant boys.
“Standing on this spot, this sacred spot in Alabama, I want to say that, whatever of sacred meaning this day and this hour may have for others, it has for us who live here, for the University and its sons and daughters, an inexpressibly beautiful and profound significance.
“’He that loseth his life shall find it.’ That, my friends, is the philosophy underlying a ceremony like this. That is the philosophy, God willing, that shall be the first article of belief of our Southern people.
“We turn our faces to the front and we welcome those hundreds and thousands of young men and young women who shall come and go through these corridors until the bright light of heaven shall shed its lustrous rays through this window.
“We shall go onward and upward when these frail forms of these men who sixty years ago laid down their swords shall have passed on, but their memory shall still guide the destiny of Alabama and her great University!”
Then came the thing that the old soldiers had waited for patiently, hopefully – the Glee Club sang Dixie! The old, wild Rebel Yell rose lustily, defiantly, from a hundred age-worn throats. There was something about that brave pathetic challenge to Time that made the students, but lately come from their classes know that here was something real – something more than vaunting bravado and vain show. Here was the old unconquerable spirit of the South!
The cords unveiling the window were drawn by Miss Sara Huey, of Bessemer, daughter of Mrs. E. L. Huey, Past President of the Alabama Division, U.D.C., and Miss Madge Clarkson, of Tuscaloosa, a great niece of Mrs. Ellen Peter Bryce. All of the spectators went into the Library to view the window which is set at the end main hall on the second floor of the building.
The window was made by Tiffany, of New York, and portrays a knight in armor, symbolic of the spirit of the University cadets.
Source: “Memorial Window Dedicated to All Old ‘Bama Cadets,” Crimson White, October 29, 1925, 1.
Dr. Denny Accepts Window in Name of University, From Mrs. McDowell in Impressive Ceremony.
At a beautiful and impressive ceremony held in front of the Gorgas Library on the afternoon of Thursday, October 22, the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy presented the University a beautiful stained glass window, as a memorial to the gallant University cadets who defended Tuscaloosa during the Civil War.
Before the ceremony started, several selections were rendered by the Alabama Boys’ Industrial School Band. Their rendition was wonderful and received great applause.
Mrs. McDowell, of Eufaula, wife of Lieutenant-Governor McDowell and Past President of the Alabama Division of the U.D.C., gave a short introductory address and the assemblage was led in invocation by Dr. Crumpton, Chaplain of the Alabama Division of the U.C.V.
After the singing of “We’re Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground” by the University Glee Club, Mr. Armstrong Cory, of Birmingham, (speaking for the veterans of the recent war in Europe) made a simple, sincere speech in which he pointed out that he and his companions fought on foreign land, knowing their homes and families were safe, while the men in grey fought haunted by the bitter knowledge that their homes were ruined and their families starving – fought gloriously when there was nothing left to fight for but a Cause.
At the conclusion of this tribute, Mrs. McDowell asked all the veterans who attended the University during the Civil War to stand. Eight white haired veterans leaped proudly to their tottering feet. One of these was Ex-Governor B. B. Comer, of Centerville, related his experience at the University and told how he came here in ’64 with Tom Hendricks, now of Greenville, by stagecoach, water and rail. “We brought our meat with us,” he said. “When you entered the University in those days, you had to bring 150 pounds of ‘side meat’ with you. Provisions were mighty scarce.” He told of the righteous discipline imposed on the cadets, and he told, graphically and with dramatic effect, of the defense of Tuscaloosa by the cadet regiment. He was constantly interrupted by other veterans offering their own reminiscences. The Glee Club then sang “The Bonny Blue Flag,” the old war song of the Confederacy.
Mrs. Chappell Cory, of Birmingham, outlined the origin and history of the University Memorial Association. The movement was started in 1912, she said, and in 1914 the Association presented to the University “The Boulder,” a handsome stone monument flanked by two cannon in the main driveway. The movement was halted by the World War and it was not until now that the Association could realize its dream of establishing a fitting memorial.
Mrs. McDowell made the speech of presentation for the Memorial Window and Dr. Denny accepted the gift in the name of the University. Following is his speech in part:
“We are glad to welcome here to Confederate Veterans. We are proud of their record, their achievements here – that gallant band of men who collected glory not merely on themselves, but on thousands of Alabamians. I accept, my dear friends, on behalf of the University of Alabama, this beautiful window presented by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of these gallant boys.
“Standing on this spot, this sacred spot in Alabama, I want to say that, whatever of sacred meaning this day and this hour may have for others, it has for us who live here, for the University and its sons and daughters, an inexpressibly beautiful and profound significance.
“’He that loseth his life shall find it.’ That, my friends, is the philosophy underlying a ceremony like this. That is the philosophy, God willing, that shall be the first article of belief of our Southern people.
“We turn our faces to the front and we welcome those hundreds and thousands of young men and young women who shall come and go through these corridors until the bright light of heaven shall shed its lustrous rays through this window.
“We shall go onward and upward when these frail forms of these men who sixty years ago laid down their swords shall have passed on, but their memory shall still guide the destiny of Alabama and her great University!”
Then came the thing that the old soldiers had waited for patiently, hopefully – the Glee Club sang Dixie! The old, wild Rebel Yell rose lustily, defiantly, from a hundred age-worn throats. There was something about that brave pathetic challenge to Time that made the students, but lately come from their classes know that here was something real – something more than vaunting bravado and vain show. Here was the old unconquerable spirit of the South!
The cords unveiling the window were drawn by Miss Sara Huey, of Bessemer, daughter of Mrs. E. L. Huey, Past President of the Alabama Division, U.D.C., and Miss Madge Clarkson, of Tuscaloosa, a great niece of Mrs. Ellen Peter Bryce. All of the spectators went into the Library to view the window which is set at the end main hall on the second floor of the building.
The window was made by Tiffany, of New York, and portrays a knight in armor, symbolic of the spirit of the University cadets.
Source: “Memorial Window Dedicated to All Old ‘Bama Cadets,” Crimson White, October 29, 1925, 1.
Notes
[1] See Karen Cox. Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. With a New Preface (2003; Gainesville: University of Floriday Press, 2019) and W. Fitzhugh Brundage, The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and History (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), 12-54.
[2]. Robert Oliver Melown, The University of Alabama: A Guide to the Campus and Its Architecture (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2013), 41-42.
[2]. Robert Oliver Melown, The University of Alabama: A Guide to the Campus and Its Architecture (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2013), 41-42.
