Archives and History, Mississippi Department of

The annual report of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History summarizes its work collecting, preserving, and providing access to the archival resources of the state; administering museums and historic sites; and overseeing statewide programs for historic preservation, government records management, and publications for each fiscal year (July-June). The Department has electronic (PDF) copies of the report from 2009.

This video recording was produced by Mississippi Department of Archives and History staff in December 2005, after Hurricane Katrina temporarily closed the Old Capitol Museum, to reminisce about holiday decorations and the model train and town, Possum Ridge, displayed there in previous years. It features a reading of the children's book A Special Visitor Comes to Possum Ridge, written by Elizabeth Coleman and performed by Andrew "Lucky" Osborne.

The Civil Rights Museum plans, documents, and specifications related to its design, construction, and exhibits are accessible in the William F. Winter Archives and History Building. Final versions of the electronic records from this collection can be viewed online in the Digital Archives.

This series consists of five digital photographs of a portrait presumed to be of Cowles Mead, who served as secretary of the Mississippi Territory from January 21, 1806, to June 1, 1807, and who acted as governor of the Mississippi Territory from June 6, 1806, to January 28, 1807. The oil painting was probably donated to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History by Frederick Meade Pannell in March 1950 but was never accessioned into the collection. At its July 22, 2011, quarterly meeting, the MDAH Board of Trustees voted to discard the portrait due to its poor condition. MDAH Museums Division staff photographed the front and back of the painting with a digital camera in October 2022, prior to deaccessioning it. The original portrait was officially transferred to the Mississippi College Department of History in November 2022.

During World War II, the Royal Netherlands Air Force needed a training base after being driven first from the Netherlands by Germany and then from the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) by Japan. U.S. Army Air Force General Henry Arnold arranged for them to establish the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School at the Jackson Army Air Base at Hawkins Field in Jackson, Mississippi. The school trained Dutch and Indonesian pilots and air crew from 1942 through 1944, and many of the students and their families developed close ties to the state. In 2012, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History began a collaboration with Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the Mississippi Humanities Council to preserve some of the Dutch fliers' stories, which resulted in the 2013 MPB documentary, Dutch Wings Over Jackson.

This government records series consists of eleven audio files, six video recordings, and sixteen PDF transcripts of sixteen interviews conducted by MDAH staff members Amanda Lyons and Will Morgan and MPB producer Larry Uelmen during the making of the documentary. They include conversations with pilots Rudolf Idzerda, Willem "Wim" Bakhuys Roozeboom, and Charles "Dick" Schillmoller, as well as relatives and locals who had interactions with the "Flying Dutchmen" while they were in Mississippi. The audio interviews, which were produced as digital MP3 files by MDAH, are available online with their transcripts. The video interviews, which were recorded by MPB and shared on DVDs with MDAH, are accessible as MP4 files with their transcripts only in the William F. Winter Archives and History Building.

These five documents were prepared by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Committee on Legislation in 1914 for the Mississippi Legislature's consideration in determining the agency's appropriation. Members of the committee included W. B. Murrah, W. T. Ratliff, and Dunbar Rowland.

The series consists of a video recording made at the then-residence of Conrad Lex Mauffray and family on Union Street in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, during the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on the morning of August 29, 2005. The video, with a running time of fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds, was recorded by Katherine (Mrs. Conrad) Mauffray. A DVD containing the video was submitted to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s Historic Preservation Division as part of an application for grant funds to be used for repair of the home. MDAH received permission from Conrad Mauffrey to publish an MP4 access copy to the Digital Archives for educational/fair use.

The Museum of Mississippi History plans, documents, and specifications related to its design, construction, and exhibits, are accessible in the William F. Winter Archives and History Building. While the majority of these materials are available for in-person viewing at the Archives, final versions of the electronic records from this collection can be accessed online in the Digital Archives.

The electronic files of this series include: (1) 2009 Restoration of the Mississippi Old Capitol Building: The Issues Addressed and the Decisions Rendered, Part 2, Comprehensive Historical Report on the 2009 Restoration of the Old Mississippi State Capitol, by Robert Parker Adams, saved as a Microsoft Word document; (2) a Microsoft Word document containing images of the restoration process, with captions; and (3) a PDF file of a computer drawing of the infrastructure of the Old Capitol dome. The files were submitted to the Old Capitol staff by Robert Parker Adams upon completion of the restoration of the Old Capitol Building in 2009, and copies were transferred to the MDAH Electronic Archives for permanent retention. The two Word documents have been converted to PDF files for public access. Part 1 of the report consists of three binders of paper documentation compiled by MDAH Architectural Historian Richard Cawthon that are currently housed in the office of the Old Capitol Museum Director and were not included in this series.

This portion of Series 1395 consists of 115 digital photographs of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's (MDAH) removal from the Charlotte Capers building to the William F. Winter building. The actual transfer of equipment and collections took place September 12-25, 2003, following months of planning and preparatory work, which included placement of signage in the Winter building in August. The photographs were taken by Clay S. McGehee of Mississippi Van Lines (MVL), the company contracted to conduct the move. McGehee was in charge of the Winter building end of the proceedings and consequently the photographs are primarily of the unloading of the archival collection and books in the Winter building closed stack area with just a few images of collection loading for removal from Capers. The images document the activities of MVL workers wearing red company shirts, under the oversight of MDAH employees. These activities include the opening of sealed moving vans; removal of loaded carts; and placement of books, maps, graphic and audiovisual materials, and other archival collections on shelving in the two basement floors of archival stacks and the public reading rooms. There are also a few images of the furniture and equipment transfer for both the Administration and Archives and Library divisions, which preceded the collection move. The photograph collection includes several images of an upright manuscript box (half Hollinger), which was of particular interest to MVL as it still bore one of the original MVL labels from the 1971 MDAH move into the Capers building. The photographs were created as 24-bit RGB JPEG files with pixel dimensions ranging from 480x640 to 1200x1600 using a Sony CyberShot DSC-75 camera. They are made available here as Zoomify JPEG files. The smaller image files are already displayed at their maximum resolution and may not permit zooming.