February 12, 1882

Mobile photographer Erik Overbey was born in Norway. Overbey opened his own studio on Dauphin Street in 1907 with almost no training and, by World War I, became the city’s premier photographer. Throughout a career of over 50 years, he captured everyday life in Mobile through images of ships and sailors, machines and industry, Mardi Gras and other festivities, church activities, weddings, natural and human-made disasters, and more. The collection, now publicly held at the University of South Alabama, provides an invaluable contribution to the city’s historic record and preservation, and Overbey remains the city’s best-known photographer to this day.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Members of the Buccaneer Yacht Club enjoy a leisurely trip into Mobile Bay near the Arlington Docks in 1935. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

During the Roaring Twenties, Dauphin Street was the retail center of Mobile. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

A 215-pound tarpon caught in the Gulf of Mexico off Coden, Alabama, in 1910. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Dauphin Street between Conception Street and Joachim Street lit up for the holidays, c. 1940. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

A 1927 Christmas parade in Mobile. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Although no information exists to tell us who these women were or exactly when the photograph was taken, this is certainly a beautiful image of two Mardi Gras revelers. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Masked for a Mardi Gras event during the 1930s. Who these people were is unknown, but they surely must have been some of Mobile’s more colorful citizens. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Mobilians readied themselves for United States involvement in World War I with a preparedness rally on July 4, 1916. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.