The first painting is of Arlington Historic Home and Garden, the only surviving and oldest antebellum mansion in Birmingham dating back to the pre-Civil War and pre-Birmingham 1840s. The Greek Revival style home was ordered built by Judge William Mudd and carried out by enslaved black American laborers and craftsmen.
Arlington escaped the scorched earth destruction wrought by the Union Army during the Civil War in the 1860s when Judge Mudd convinced the Union Army’s General Wilson and his 13,000 cavalrymen to use the home as their headquarters. This would be the starting point for “Wilson’s Raid” which would burn down the University of Alabama, where Miriam would attend school almost 100 years later.
The home would later be owned by coal magnate Henry DeBardeleben and eventually a citizen’s organization and the city of Birmingham. Miriam’s paintings of Arlington are of the back side of the home which includes the gardens.
