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. 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. As a consequence of her advocacy, the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama was named in her honor. For a period the Wetumpka State Penitentiary had been renamed after Tutwiler, prior to the opening of the current Tutwiler prison.

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".

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.