It’s been 167 years since Alabama’s first historian released his findings related to the state’s start. Now, another historian has taken that first even further.

“The Annotated Pickett’s History of Alabama: And Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period” was released last September. To date, it is the only annotation of Albert James Pickett’s famous book, and the first version to come with a full index or edit.

Dr. James Pate, an author and retired professor who spent nearly 20 years on the project, called the two-volume Pickett’s History “one of the most relevant histories of Alabama.”

“He was very close to the Native American population of Alabama and had firsthand knowledge of them, growing up as a youth in early statehood, and then he conducted all kinds of interviews and received extensive accounts and memoirs from the folks who shaped Alabama,” Pate said.

Pickett took care to gather papers and letters from the families of Alabama’s founders, and Pate in turn has taken care to verify sources and elaborate on the persons and events featured in Pickett’s work.

“Pickett’s original text and his own footnotes occupy the main part of the page, with annotations in boldface given in the margins,” according to a release about the annotated version. “The result pays homage to a book that was described when it appeared nine years before the Civil War as ‘one of the prettiest specimens of book making ever done in America.'”

In fact, when the book was first released in September 1851 for $3 per copy, it became so popular across the nation that second and third editions were issued by the end of the year. In “Romance and High Adventure,” written more than a century later, Alabama author Harper Lee would call Pickett’s History a “unique treasure” that “should be in every school library in the state.”

Pate said it was a great boost to see people he really respected in the field of history give similar praise to Pate’s annotated version.

“For decades, libraries shelved their copies in their rare books collections, behind locked doors,” said Leah Rawls Atkins, historian and co-author of “Alabama: The History of a Deep South State.” “With its republication … the book is given magnificent second life. Everyone should have a copy of this important work, and now (everyone) can.”

Pate said the original version alone has had a great impact on scholars interested in the beginnings of Alabama as a state and the Native Americans who lived here then. Through the annotated version, he said, experts and students alike can get a “much clearer view of the early history of America and particularly the foundations of Alabama.”

On Jan. 15, Pate will return to Limestone County to share his work and findings related to Pickett’s personal history with those at the Limestone County Historical Society meeting. The visit is part of a tour through Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia and will be his second stop in Athens.