Whirlwind Project Records, 1975-1977, circa 1984, undated

This series documents the commission, fabrication, and dedication of Whirlwind, a welded bronze fountain sculpture by Alabama-born sculptor Jean Woodham, presented to the City of Opelika by the Azalea Garden Club on September 20, 1977, and installed on the terrace of the Lewis Cooper, Jr. Memorial Library and Arts Center. Most of the material was created or gathered by Aileen Maxwell Samford, who chaired the club's Whirlwind Project. The records follow the project from Woodham's delayed sketches in 1975, through the club's approval of her design and its down payment in May 1977, to the dedication and the correspondence that followed. Included are letters among Samford, Woodham, project architect Earl D. Peacock of Lancaster and Lancaster, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Humanities; drafts and copies of Samford's publicity letter; guest lists, committee assignments, a club membership roster, and Samford's handwritten speaking notes for the presentation and luncheon; the coffee invitation and program; the invocation delivered at the presentation; a résumé of Woodham's career; and black-and-white photographs of the sculpture and of Woodham at work in her studio. Several letters identify Geneva, Alabama, as Woodham's hometown. The series also contains a circa 1984 Opelika Chamber of Commerce brochure with the sculpture on its cover, and an unattributed price list that may have been filed here because it includes a work of the same title by another artist.