Pennsylvania native and former UAB faculty member Marjorie White may not have been born in Birmingham, but few people know its history as thoroughly.
“I was not trained as a historian,” she says. “I did not come into this field with a perception about what we’re supposed to find.” What she does bring has carried her much farther. “I’m driven by curiosity,” White explains. “I love to go out and explore. If you have an open mind about what you’re looking for, you find all kinds of interesting things.”
That curiosity has shaped more than 50 years of work with the Birmingham Historical Society, which recruited her at age 31 as the organization was being revitalized. “With the audacity of a 31-year-old, I set out to write a guidebook to Birmingham,” she recalls. That early ambition grew into decades of research and publication — nearly a book a year — culminating most recently in Birmingham by the Book: A Guide to the Magic City, which began as a goal half a century ago.
“We always call the latest research project a ‘history mystery’ until we figure out all the pieces,” she says. “One of the most fun discoveries was ‘the bridge,’ which is not a bridge at all.” Ross Bridge, she explains, turned out to be a Civil War–era railroad culvert built before the railroad even reached Birmingham, a structure that raised an irresistible question: why was it “out there in the middle of nowhere?” Solving puzzles like that remains among the most defining works of her career.
Equally memorable was her decade documenting civil rights sites alongside leaders, including the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. “The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on was helping these civil rights leaders tell their story,” she says.
White understood something early: if a city is going to value its past, it must first capture the imagination of its children. For 35 years, she led the Downtown Discovery Tours for school groups, placing young Birmingham residents in front of the buildings that shaped their story. Standing downtown, she would point to architectural details and say, “Look at that. Look at this.” The children leaned in. “Then even their parents started looking and buying and renovating the dilapidated old buildings.”
Today, Birmingham by the Book — featuring more than 360 photographs and 60 maps — stands as our city and region’s most comprehensive guide. “There is more in our backyard than you can imagine that might be worth your attention,” White says.
After five decades of following every clue, walking every block, and asking every question, White has given Birmingham a gift: a way to see itself more clearly. Birmingham by the Book invites readers to look again at the place they know — and to discover, as she has, that the city still has plenty of stories to tell.
Discover the book and learn more about Birmingham’s storied past and present at birminghamhistoricalsociety.com.