City: Birmingham, AL

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (205) 934-3328

Description: Samuel Ullman, best known for writing the poem “Youth,” was a German immigrant whose family came to the United States in the 1850s. Ullman lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi, before finally settling in Birmingham where he lived for the last 40 years of his life. He achieved literary fame in Japan, of all places, before he was well-known in the United States, and it was through the efforts of the Japan-America Society of Alabama that his home was restored and made into a museum. Ullman’s “Youth” has been quoted by countless speakers such as Robert F. Kennedy and General Douglas MacArthur, who was so fond of the poem that he had it framed and hung prominently in his office. It was because of MacArthur, in post-war Japan, that the poem grew in popularity. The University of Alabama at Birmingham currently operates the museum. Admission is free, and the museum is open weekdays.