Let’s be real: you’ve never heard of Selma’s Old Depot Museum, have you? Hey, no worries. I hadn’t either. But Beth Spivey had. She knew all about the Old Depot Museum.
Yes, it was built on the ruins of the Confederate Naval Foundry, the 2nd biggest weapons factory in the Civil War South. Yes, it was one of the most impressive depots in the South. And yes, it was even Alabama’s state forensic lab at one point.
But mostly, Beth knew about the ghosts. The Battle of Selma, the God-knows-what during the forensic era: this place was packed with them. (It even has its own ghost hunter videos.)
“Any ghosts, any spirits, anyone who’s still here — whatever your unfinished business…I ain’t your gal.”
So on her first day as director, she walked in and announced herself to the quiet, cavernous building: “Alright, listen up. Any ghosts, any spirits, anyone who’s still here — whatever your unfinished business…I ain’t your gal. Tell it to someone else.”
For the most part, the ghosts have obliged her. They stay quiet, allowing Beth to freely curate one of the more underrated museums in Alabama.
And if all this ghost stuff sounds a bit silly to you, then…well, just prove it, tough guy. Skip ahead to #5 and show us how brave you are.
1. The Prison Shanks
…I’m sorry, did you just say a “shank collection”?
Yes. Yes I did.
“I asked the people at the jail for these,” Beth said. “Just in case you want to know what we’re trying to kill each other with. Me? I’d go for that one on the right. You could really twist that into some organs.”
2. A Massive Spiritualist Camera
And if all this talk of ghosts and shanking has you considering the afterlife, then the museum has you covered there too.
Seen above: the 1908 camera of the legendary spiritualist Edgar Cayce, “The Sleeping Prophet”. When he wasn’t communicating beyond the veil, healing illnesses telepathically, or predicting the rediscovery of Atlantis, Cayce ran a photography business for 11 years right here in Selma. Check out the size of that lens.
And while Cayce may have passed away 80 years ago, his legacy is alive and well. His followers have posted up in Virginia Beach (4.7 stars on Google!) and make an annual pilgrimage back to Selma to pay their respects at the museum.
3. World-Renowned Photos of Black Rural Life, Nearly Lost to History
In the early 1900s, a local White nurse named Mary Morgan Keipp spent decades documenting the lives of rural Black people in Jim Crow Alabama.
The longer one considers it, the more impressive it is: In a world where White people didn’t much care, why did she? Given the fierce social divide, how did she even get access to intimate moments in Black communities? And given the attitudes of the time, why did Keipp’s always portray Black people with dignity?
And perhaps most impressively: these photos, now internationally famous, were all but unknown during Keipp’s life. She had nowhere to show them in Selma, and they only exist now because her family brought them to the museum (in a paper bag, no less) after her death.
4. Murals by the Legendary “Dream Artist” and AL Black History Icon Felix Gaines
Never heard of Felix Gaines? Same here. So let’s get ourselves up to speed.
Born in Birmingham in 1908, surely a tough time here for a Black kid, Gaines’s childhood education was spotty, and by 21 he was working full-time in a mattress factory. However, he gradually gained renown as the “Dream Artist”, the guy who transformed his nighttime visions into impressive art. And from that point forward, his life offered anything but the expected.
A degree from Ohio State, pioneer of the Birmingham public schools’s arts program, traveling the state to place portraits of George Washington Carver in Black schools (man, that portrait is cool, check it out here) — Felix Gaines lived a life.
Since all of that wasn’t enough, he also worked with the WPA for years, at one point completing two beautiful, sizable murals now kept at…you guessed it, The Old Depot Museum.
5. The Elevator to the Basement…
Here we are: your moment of truth.
A Civil War battlefield, the evidence of a thousand of the state’s most heinous crimes, all those shanks, a curator who always leaves before dark — sure, that’s a lot, but all this ghost stuff is just hokey…right?
Well, since you don’t believe in ghosts, then you should have no trouble taking the elevator to the basement, right? And a real man would go down by himself, right?
I absolutely am not making this up. The elevator is open. Good luck.
Don’t blow it: check out the museum for yourself.
Make it to the basement? Let us know on Instagram.
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