Title
Historical Indian Mounds in Tuskaloosa County, Ala., circa 1914
Subject
Moundville (Ala.)
North American Indians
Native Americans
Description
A postcard of the Indian mounds in Tuscaloosa County published by Lustig's Book Store. The postmark on the card is August 5, 1914.
Little attention was paid to the Moundville site until 1869, when Nathaniel T. Lupton, fifth president of the University of Alabama, mapped the site. Early in the twentieth century, private collector Clarence B. Moore conducted several excavations into the mounds and unearthed dozens of attractive pottery vessels, stone pipes, axes, and palettes (disk-shaped objects covered with paint pigments), and copper and shell ornaments. Moore, a wealthy Philadelphian, traveled the South in his steamboat The Gopher, collecting ancient artifacts and publishing picture books of his finds. Alarmed at the extent of Moore's digging and the fact that he sent the artifacts back to Philadelphia, the state of Alabama passed an antiquities law in 1915 to protect archaeological sites from looting. In the 1920s, several local citizens and state geologist Dr. Walter B. Jones led efforts to turn the site into a park. Jones mortgaged his house to fund the purchase of the site, and Mound State Park (later renamed Mound State Monument) was established in 1933.
Little attention was paid to the Moundville site until 1869, when Nathaniel T. Lupton, fifth president of the University of Alabama, mapped the site. Early in the twentieth century, private collector Clarence B. Moore conducted several excavations into the mounds and unearthed dozens of attractive pottery vessels, stone pipes, axes, and palettes (disk-shaped objects covered with paint pigments), and copper and shell ornaments. Moore, a wealthy Philadelphian, traveled the South in his steamboat The Gopher, collecting ancient artifacts and publishing picture books of his finds. Alarmed at the extent of Moore's digging and the fact that he sent the artifacts back to Philadelphia, the state of Alabama passed an antiquities law in 1915 to protect archaeological sites from looting. In the 1920s, several local citizens and state geologist Dr. Walter B. Jones led efforts to turn the site into a park. Jones mortgaged his house to fund the purchase of the site, and Mound State Park (later renamed Mound State Monument) was established in 1933.
Publisher
Lustig's Book Store
Date
Circa 1914
Contributor
Elizabeth Bradt (Description)
Type
Postcard
Identifier
1043
Coverage
Tuscaloosa County (AL)