Julia Tutwiler

Julia Strudwick Tutwiler (August 15, 1841 – March 24, 1916) was an advocate for education and prison reform in Alabama. She served as co-principal of the Livingston Female Academy, and then the first (and only) woman president of Livingston Normal College (now the University of West Alabama). She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971.

Early life and education

Julia Tutwiler was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Julia (Ashe) Tutwiler and educator Henry Tutwiler on August 15, 1841. Henry had been one of the first professors at the University of Alabama in the early 1830s, but at the time of his daughter's birth he was teaching at La Grange College in Colbert County, Alabama. Julia was born in Tuscaloosa, because her mother was visiting family there. She grew up in the nearby community of Havana, Alabama where her father established Greene Springs School, a college-preparatory school, when she was almost six. Henry Tutwiler was an early advocate of education for girls and so his daughters and some neighboring girls attended classes with boys at Greene Springs School. Julia then went on to study at a boarding school in Philadelphia for two years before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 necessitated she return to Alabama. (Henry Tutwiler's progressive views did not extend to enslaved persons and at the start of the War he was reported to own more than 40 slaves.)

Julia Tutwiler began attending Vassar College, in January 1866, during its inaugural year, but did not return in the fall. She furthered her education in Germany, France and at Washington and Lee University.

Career

After her semester at Vassar, Tutwiler accepted a faculty position at Greensboro Female Academy, Greensboro, Alabama, in the autumn of 1866. The following year, she was chosen to be the Academy's principala position she held for two years.

Tutwiler served with her uncle as co-president of Livingston State Normal School. She was the first (and only) female president of the college. After decades of expansion, it became the University of West Alabama. With her support, in 1892 ten Livingston-educated students became the first women admitted to the University of Alabama. She was called the "mother of co-education in Alabama".

She was a key figure in the creation of the Alabama Girls' Industrial School, in October 1896. This institution eventually evolved into the University of Montevallo.

Prison reform

Known as the "angel of the prisons," Tutwiler pushed for many reforms of the Alabama penal system. Most significantly, she fought to separate female prisoners from male ones and to separate juveniles from hardened adult criminals—resulting in the first Boys' Industrial School. In addition, she demanded better prison sanitation and helped institute educational and religious opportunities for prisoners. As a consequence of her advocacy, the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama was named in her honor.Tutwiler Prison for Women
" Alabama Department of Corrections. Retrieved on September 5, 2010. For a period the Wetumpka State Penitentiary had been renamed after Tutwiler, prior to the opening of the current Tutwiler prison.ADOC History
." Alabama Department of Corrections. Retrieved on September 6, 2010.

Alabama state song

Tutwiler was known as a poet and wrote the lyrics for "Alabama", the state song, which was officially adopted in 1931. According to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, "The inspiration for writing the poem 'Alabama' came to Julia Tutwiler after she returned to her native state from Germany where she had been studying new educational methods for girls and women".Official Alabama State Song
at www.archives.state.al.us

The song begins:

Alabama, Alabama,

We will aye be true to thee,

From thy Southern shore where groweth,

By the sea thine orange tree.

To thy Northern vale where floweth

Deep and blue thy Tennessee.

Alabama, Alabama

We will aye be true to thee!

Honors

The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama is named after her. In addition, a large women's dormitory at the University of Alabama and a library at University of West Alabama bore her name, though it was demolished in 2022. A new dormitory and parking structure, on the Alabama campus and still bearing her name, were built shortly thereafter.

When Judson College in Marion, Alabama, established the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1970, Tutwiler was among the first group of inductees.

Notes

References

*Pannell, Anne Gary, and Dorothea E. Wyatt. ''Julia S. Tutwiler and Social Progress in Alabama''. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1961.

Further reading

* Hargrove, Henry Lee. ''Julia S. Tutwiler of Alabama''. N.p.: n.p., 1916.
* Kunkel, Robert Raymond. "A Rhetorical Analysis of Julia Strudwick Tutwiler's Reform Speeches: 1880-1900." Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1978.
* Lyon, Ralph M. ''Julia Tutwiler''. Livingston, Ala.: Alabama-Tombigbee Rivers Regional Planning and Development Commission, 1976.
* Moore, Eoline Wallace. ''Julia Tutwiler, Teacher''. Birmingham: Birmingham-Southern College, 1934.
* Pannell, Anne Gary, and Dorothea E. Wyatt. ''Julia S. Tutwiler and Social Progress in Alabama''. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.

External links

*
Julia Strudwick Tutwiler (1841-1916)
- Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.

- Alabama Department of Archives and History.

- Alabama Department of Archives and History
Julia Tutwiler article, Encyclopedia of Alabama

Martha Young Papers, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tutwiler, Julia
1841 births
1916 deaths
People from Hale County, Alabama
University of Alabama people
Vassar College alumni
Washington and Lee University alumni
University of West Alabama
University of Montevallo
American women poets
Writers from Alabama
American educators
19th-century American poets
19th-century American women writers
Suffragists from Alabama