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b a r b a r a l e e b l a c k
I discovered Ma'Cille's Museum
of Miscellanea while in college at the University of Alabama in 1989.
Established in the early 1960s, Ma'Cille's Museum was created by Lucille
Hollingsworth House (Ma'Cille) as a free, educational, natural and local history museum for the children of her county. Ma'Cille's Museum was a modern day cabinet of curiosity, consisting of collections upon collections of
unusual artifacts, junk, antiques, taxidermy, dolls, bottles, buildings from the 1800s, and
'miscellanea'. Ma'Cille is quoted as saying, "I want one of everything for my museum". As Ma'Cille's Museum grew and grew and grew, it became a Mecca, not
only for locals, but also for artists and travelers from all around the world in
search of the surreal.
Upon my first visit to Ma'Cille's Museum, I immediately felt drawn to this
place. The following fall I met her eldest son, Glenn House, Sr., a
University of Alabama professor who was auditing the same advanced fine art photography
class I was taking in the
evenings. I approached Glenn about the possibility of using some of his mother's objects
in my work and setting up a studio on site. He said, "I'll ask." From then until its
official closing and auctioning in 1998, I located my studio in this bizarre environment in the backwoods of Alabama.
In 1992, I received a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts for my photographic work incorporating objects from Ma'Cille's Museum and entitled, "The Passing of a Dream."
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