Tucked away on the second floor of the History Museum of Mobile, in Room 260, the Jack Friend Research Library gives residents, students and historians a chance to dig deeply into the social, political and economic history of Mobile and south Alabama. The library is open to researchers interested in exploring primary source documents and reference material spanning more than two centuries of the region’s history.
The library carries the name of Jack Friend, a noted Mobile historian whose book “West Wind, Flood Tide” is widely considered the authoritative account of the Battle of Mobile Bay. Friend’s own research materials for the book form part of the library’s holdings, and the naming reflects the significant role his scholarship played in documenting one of the pivotal Civil War engagements fought along the Gulf Coast.
Planning a Visit
Because the library operates on an appointment basis, researchers are asked to contact the library ahead of time before visiting. That advance notice allows staff to confirm that the library will be open, that the specific collection a researcher wants to access is available, and that adequate staff will be on hand to assist. Appointments are scheduled through research historian Charles Torrey, who also maintains a broad selection of subject files compiled over the years covering topics of local interest.
Strengths of the Collection
The Jack Friend Research Library is particularly well-suited to researchers interested in biographies of prominent Mobilians, the history of Mardi Gras in Mobile, the city’s business history, crime and punishment records, and the immigrant experience in the region. Beyond those broad subject areas, the library houses several notable named collections that offer a deeper look into specific chapters of Mobile’s past.
Among them is the Creole Fire Company Records collection, which documents the activities of Mobile’s Creole volunteer firemen. Chartered in 1819, the Creole Fire Company was a supplement to the Creole Social Club and became a well-respected organization that did far more than fight fires — it made small loans to members, hosted parades that drew large crowds, and challenged discriminatory laws affecting Creoles. The collection includes manuscripts, photographs and artifacts. A related collection, the Creole Social Club Records, spans the 1850s through the 1880s and includes the club’s monthly minutes, committee minutes, correspondence, receipts and governing documents.
The library also holds the Caldwell Delaney Collection, a body of correspondence, articles, manuscripts, photographs and newspaper clippings gathered over roughly fifty years by historian Caldwell Delaney, who served as the first director of the History Museum of Mobile. The Mary McNeil Fenollosa Collection, meanwhile, spans the 1890s through the 1940s and contains the correspondence, books, pamphlets and diaries of the Mobile author, who published acclaimed works ranging from stories of the American South to post-Imperial Japan under the pen name Sidney McCall.
Civil War researchers will find substantial material in the Thomas M. McMillan Collection, which includes books, manuscripts and photographs connected to well-known figures such as Generals Robert E. Lee and P. G. T. Beauregard, Admiral David Farragut and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. The collection also documents everyday life in Mobile and south Alabama during the Civil War, including personal and business correspondence, material on slavery in the urban South, receipts and bills belonging to Confederate officers stationed near Mobile, and records related to the city’s wartime defenses and the Battle of Mobile Bay.
Also of note are the William T. Mumford Diaries, two journals kept by a Confederate artillery officer who traveled through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana during the war. Together, the diaries span from September 1862 to May 1865 and offer a firsthand account of troop life, including movements, illness, camp gossip, weather and pay. The Yuille Family Collection rounds out the library’s major holdings, documenting a family that immigrated to Mobile from Scotland in the early 1820s and went on to play an important role in the city’s banking history, through correspondence, photographs, clippings, ledgers and personal journals.
Growing Online Resources
The library also maintains online guides and resources for researchers who cannot visit in person, with new records added periodically. Among the material planned for that section are World War I and World War II casualty lists for Mobile and Baldwin Counties, giving families and historians another way to trace the region’s wartime history from home.