FACULTY PROFILE
carey
HEATHERLY
Carey Heatherly serves UM’s Carmichael Library as assistant professor, reference librarian and archivist, working with students and faculty across academic disciplines while simultaneously engaging in his own research endeavors. Heatherly has a B.A. in history from Samford University and a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from the University of Alabama. He is the first person to be solely responsible for the archives at UM. “As the archivist I often find myself working closely with students on projects highlighting some aspect of UM’s history. Collaboration is at the center of what I do as an archivist,” Heatherly said. He described a recent project with Professor Ruth Truss’s introduction to public history course: “Working with her students was great, but I also got to work with Dr. Truss on designing a couple of the aspects of the class.” Along with library faculty Patsy Sears and Amanda Melcher, Heatherly coordinated an event to honor professor emeritus Eugene B. Sledge, author of With the Old Breed: at Peleliu and Okinawa to coincide with HBO’s miniseries, “The Pacific,” based in part on Sledge’s book. With more than 200 attendees, the event promoted interaction among a wide variety of UM community members. Heatherly authored a proposal for a preservation assistance grant and was awarded $6,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities. “The grant allowed the library to hire a consultant to investigate and report on both
the short-term and long-range problems and solutions of our archive materials and our archive room. This report has allowed me to tackle many of our issues in a prioritized structure,” Heatherly said. He keeps his own notes about problems that arise in the archival process and how he ultimately solves them. “I hope to turn these notes into a best practices article because they offer unique insight into the creation process of an archive collection.” Heatherly’s personal research interest is in Captain Henry Clay Reynolds, the first president of the Alabama Girls’ Industrial School (now the University of Montevallo). “I’ve traveled to the Alabama Department of Archives and History on several occasions to research Captain Reynolds. I’ve read his personal letters to his wife (written while serving in Fighting Joe Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry) and was able to copy some items that gave me a perspective of Reynolds as a citizen of Montevallo. In addition to being a businessman and the driving force behind Montevallo’s efforts to obtain the Girls’ Industrial School, Reynolds is linked to Booker T. Washington, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford,” Heatherly said. He also continuously explores the history of the UM campus, with particular interest in its involvement in World Wars I and II. “In the coming months,” Heatherly said, “Dr. Clark Hultquist (UM professor of history) and I plan to work collaboratively on a photographic history book of Montevallo.” MONTEVALLO RESEARCH
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