小蝌蚪APP

Donation Doubles McCall Photo Archives

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Posted on June 8, 2021

Thomas Becnel

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The Thigpen Photography Collection, which moved into the Marx Library in May, features everything from black-and-white history to colorful Mardi Gras scenes, along with aerial images from Mobile Bay and the Gulf Coast.

More than a million photographic images from the collection are now part of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the 小蝌蚪APP.

Roy Thigpen, a photographer and pilot, founded a Mobile studio after serving in the Navy during World War II. His son Alec, also a photographer and pilot, later took over the family business. Their collection is a legacy that dates from 1947 to 2017.

鈥淪eventy years,鈥� said Alec Thigpen, who鈥檚 now semi-retired. 鈥淎 lot of my dad鈥檚 best stuff was in black and white. He had photographs of Bayou La Batre when it was just live oaks and shrimp boats. He was more artistic, while I鈥檇 try to be more dramatic, with color and a little more pop to it. I did aerial photos of so many things that happened in Mobile, from the building of the interstate to the Wallace Tunnel and the RSA Tower.鈥�

The McCall library also owns the photo collection of Erik Overbey, a Norwegian immigrant who became a Mobile commercial photographer from 1903 to 1958. The Thigpen Collection covers the second half of the 20th century, with aerial and architectural photography to go along with business and advertising images.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really a wide range,鈥� said Deborah Gurt, interim director of the library. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 wonderfully rich. It shows the development of Mobile, the landscape and history of Mobile, and some of the images are really beautiful.鈥�

The negatives for the Thigpen Collection were donated to South in custom mahogany cabinets built by Robert Reid, a Mobile furniture maker. Black binders with handwritten notes cross-reference photographs by name, date and category.

鈥淭hey did a fantastic job of cataloging the images,鈥� said Gurt. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such a great thing when you get a collection that鈥檚 well organized. It makes it so much easier for people to find what they鈥檙e looking for.鈥�

The McCall library is still planning access to the enormous new photo collection. For now, visitors must ask archive staff to pull images of certain subjects at certain times. Several of the photos are posted to the University's page.

There are many academic uses for images in the Thigpen Collection. For instance, researchers of Africatown, the historic black community just north of Mobile, might consult aerial photos of the huge paper mills that surrounded the area during the 1960s. There are also aerial maps of logging in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.

Other photos show the changing skyline of downtown Mobile and chart the dramatic growth of West Mobile, including the South campus, and the Eastern Shore.

鈥淲e鈥檇 love to get more students in here,鈥� Gurt said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 happen enough.鈥�

Father-and-son Fliers

Roy Thigpen was born in Georgia and grew up in Virginia. He joined the Navy during World War II and was trained as an aerial photographer. He did aerial mapping in Greenland and South America.

Later, became a pilot.

After the war, he worked briefly as a photographer in San Francisco and decided to open his own shop. He traveled the Gulf Coast and finally settled in Mobile.

Alec Thigpen grew up in Spring Hill and studied music at the 小蝌蚪APP during the 1970s. At the time, he recalls, the music department was in the basement of the Whiddon Administrative Building.

Now he and his wife Karen, who earned a master鈥檚 degree in communications from South, live in Spanish Fort. He flies his Cessna 182 out of a small airport in Bay Minette.

Through decades of flying, often several times a week, Thigpen said he never had to make an emergency landing. His wife Karen can think of at least one flight that left her flustered.

鈥淲ell,鈥� she said, 鈥淚 was in the plane with you when we lost all electrical. So we could hear the radio, but we could not talk, so how will we land, how will we tell the tower we want to land? But he just knows, you know, that you go to a certain corner of the airport and fly in circles. All he said was that the landing might be a little rough, because we might not have flaps. He has the perfect mind to be a pilot, because he doesn鈥檛 get shook.鈥�

Thigpen grew up flying with his father, which was sometimes a queasy experience.

鈥淗e鈥檇 take me up on a hot summer day, smoking a cigar, and doing tight turns around a site,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e鈥檇 be hanging out the window taking photos. I鈥檇 be in the back seat shooting verticals through a hole in the floor, while the plane bumped from the thermals. I hated it.鈥�

Thigpen enjoyed flying much more when he became the pilot.

鈥淥nce I took the controls,鈥� he said, 鈥淚 told him, 鈥業f you want to smoke, you have to step outside.鈥欌��

Scenes from the Jubilee

Thigpen has won awards for his color photographs. Most of his work is commercial. It often appears on the cover of annual reports for businesses and corporations.

His clients include the Port of Mobile and Austal USA shipbuilders.

For years, Thigpen photographed everything from Mardi Gras balls to football stars visiting town for the Senior Bowl. Also new roads, new buildings and new development in Mobile.

His father鈥檚 old black-and-white photos include everything from historic homes to iconic railroad bridges and humble fishing scenes. Some appeared in the Mobile Register newspaper. Others found a larger audience.

Roy Thigpen鈥檚 persona was captured in a May 7, 1972, feature in The New York Times: 鈥淚f You Blink, You May Miss the Alabama Jubilee.鈥�

The rollicking story begins with Thigpen getting a 1 a.m. phone call to grab his camera and rush to the Eastern Shore. Conditions seem right for the rare hour when wind and tide deplete oxygen in the water. This forces fish and crab into the shallows, where savvy locals scoop them up with buckets.

While he and buddies wait for the perfect place and time, Thigpen enjoys a Scotch and soda at Manci鈥檚 Antique Club tavern in Daphne.

After a good bit of bar talk about the Jubilee, and when, where and how it happens, the tavern gets a tip and everyone rushes to the Grand Hotel in Point Clear. The Times story describes all sorts of people pulling up all sorts of seafood:

鈥淭higpen鈥檚 first shot is of a middle-aged woman in curlers and a nightgown scooping up a panful of addled shrimp. She wheels around. 鈥淵ou didn鈥檛 take my picture looking like this, did you?鈥�

鈥淣o, ma鈥檃m. Just the shrimp.鈥�

Thigpen and others move down to a cluster of cypress stumps. Live crabs are perched on branches, some dangling by their claws.

The woman in the curlers and nightgown shudders. 鈥淟ook at those beady little eyes, will you.鈥�

鈥淐rabs climbing trees. I鈥檝e seen it all now.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a scene out of perdition, that鈥檚 what it is. A scene out of perdition.鈥�

Gurt, the McCall library director, hopes to record oral histories with Alec and Karen Thigpen to go along with photographs from the Thigpen Collection. Local stories would help frame these scenes from Mobile history.

 鈥淭hese are among our most beautiful and most requested images,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople love these photographs.鈥�

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