The H Grady Bradshaw Library is going on tour

Published 10:08 am Tuesday, January 30, 2024

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The latest installment of the “library travelers” program will be taking locals to Dothan. The trip will take place on Feb. 22 and registration costs $50, which covers all trip costs except lunch.

Participants will travel by coach to Dothan for a day experiencing all the South Alabama town has to offer. Included on the tour is a trip to Landmark Park, a sprawling farmstead dating back to 1890 that contains old farm buildings and animals. The grounds have a museum dedicated to Alabama’s Agriculture, a digital planetarium and a soda fountain. 

The next stop will be the GW Carver Interpretive Museum. The museum is named for Dr. George Washington Carver, who was a botanist, researcher, inventor and teacher to children of formerly enslaved individuals. His goal was to provide more practical farming methods to local farmers to move away from the soil-depleting cotton to more soil-enhancing crops, to teach farmers self-sufficiency and conversation, according to a Tuskegee University article. Carver is most famous for his bulletins on recipes and uses for peanuts.

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While the museum has an exhibit devoted to Carver, the broader purpose is to educate visitors on the “historical contributions of African-Americans,” according to the museum’s website. 

The last stop on the tour is the Wiregrass Museum of Art, where participants will tour exhibits and get to do a hands-on art project. One of the more unique exhibits the art museum offers currently is titled, “The Hodges Effect: Forever Impacted.” 

The exhibit features drawings, photographs, sculptures and other media related to the 1954 incident where Ann Hodges was struck by a meteorite in her Sylacauga home, as well as the Hodges Effect. The Hodges Effect, named for the woman, is a theory that when people encounter material from outer space, they have long-term physical and mental changes.