MISSISSIPPI HISTORY NEWSLETTER A PUBLICATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY Spring 2018 Volume 60, No. 1 Dozens of Quilts in Special Exhibit Allen. “As a result of her efforts, ries Unfolded include Martha $16 plus tax. Oldest Piece Crafted we hold more than two hundred Skelton, Tammy McGrew, and Stories Unfolded is free and Nearly Two Hundred quilts in the collection.” The oldest quilt on display Years Ago was made by Mary Stovall in Hinds County between 1830 and The first special exhibit in 1845. Stovall used factory-made the Two Mississippi Museums indigo-dyed cotton to hand explores life in the state through stitch the quilt, which features a quilts in the MDAH collection. Princess Feather and Eagles pat- Stories Unfolded: An Exhibit tern. Because her husband and of Mississippi Quilts features sons fought in early American thirty-eight quilts and two quilt wars, the eagles in the design are tops that were stitched over the thought to represent her family’s course of nearly two centuries military service. by a diverse array of quilters. Among the more recently The exhibit is on display in the made quilts is Geraldine Nash’s FedEx and Medgar and Myrlie “The Hands That Picked Cotton Evers exhibition halls on the Now Help Pick Presidents,” second floor of the museum made in 2008. Nash was in- complex until October 2018. spired by a similar phrase civil “When Patti Carr Black rights leader Charles Evers used was director of the Mississippi as he campaigned for mayor The circa-1830s Princess Feather and Eagles quilt made by Mary Stovall. History Museum, she made of Fayette, Mississippi, in the collecting folk art, including 1970s. Hystercine Rankin. An exhibi- open to the public from 9 a.m. quilts, a priority,” said MDAH Other renowned Mississippi tion catalog is available in the to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sat- Museum Division director Lucy quilt makers represented in Sto- Mississippi Museum Store for urday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. MSU President Keenum Joins MDAH Board Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi historic structures expanding the campus through multiple State University, is the newest member of on the campus of construction projects, and acquiring the the board of trustees of the Mississippi De- MSU. His experi- Frank and Virginia Williams Collection partment of Archives and History. Keenum ence as a univer- of Lincolniana—a vast collection of was elected to the board in February and sity president and documents relating to the life and times of confirmed by the state senate in March. longtime public President Abraham Lincoln. Keenum has “Keenum’s work to bring the Ulysses S. servant will serve also expanded the MSU Promise Program, Grant Presidential Library to Mississippi the department which provides need-based scholarship State University shows his commitment to well.” assistance to Mississippi students whose supporting and making accessible historic Keenum was named the nineteenth families have limited financial means. resources—a commitment particularly president of Mississippi State Univer- Keenum served on the staff of U.S. significant to MDAH,” said Kane Ditto, sity in 2009 after a long career in public Senator Thad Cochran in Washington, president of the MDAH board of trustees. service. His accomplishments at the D.C., from 1989 to 2006, first as a legisla- “He has been an outstanding steward of the university include increasing enrollment, CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 MDAH BOARD , continued from p. 1 tive assistant for agriculture and he was a founding member and natural resources and then of the board of directors of the as chief of staff. In 2006 Kee- Foundation for Mississippi num was named the Under History, serving as treasurer Secretary of Agriculture for from 2005 to 2017. Farm and Foreign Agricultural “The department relied Services for the United States heavily on Jack Garner’s lead- Department of Agriculture. ership in preservation projects Keenum succeeds Jack Gar- across the state,” said Ditto. ner, who retired after nineteen “He has provided stability on years on the board as the senior the board through the construc- member. During his tenure, tion of the William F. Winter Garner served as the vice- Archives and History Building, president of the board and the restoration of the Old Capi- as a member of the National tol Museum, and the opening Register Review Board. of the Museum of Mississippi A Grenada native, Garner History and Mississippi Civil is the former president of the Rights Museum—and has been Ramey Agency, an advertis- instrumental in the success of ing firm in Jackson. He spent each one of those.” twenty-five years in banking, Members serve six-year and led the effort to restore the terms. The other members First National Bank of Jackson of the board are Kane Ditto, building. When Garner was a president; Reuben V. Anderson, board member of the Margaret Jackson; Nancy Carpenter, Walker Center, he assisted Columbus; Valencia Hall, Nat- in having Ayer Hall restored chez; Betsey Hamilton, New to house the research center. Albany; Web Heidelberg, Hat- An accomplished artist, Gar- Jack Garner, left, walks a part of the Corinth battleground with a National tiesburg; Hilda Cope Povall, ner’s work is included in many Park Service ranger and MDAH board president Kane Ditto. Cleveland; and Roland Weeks, private and corporate collec- Museum of Art’s permanent Garner served on the Gov- Biloxi. tions as well as the Mississippi collection. ernor’s Mansion Committee, New Book Tells Story of History, Civil Rights Museums A new book highlights some of the lion necklace, a banner from the state’s Telling Our Stories is available for artifacts featured in the Two Mississipp first black Masonic lodge, a boll weevil $25 plus tax in the Mississippi Museum Museums and documents the history of trap used in Grenada County, a Store—which also sells pottery, the project. Telling Our Stories: Museum chess set molded from bread by jew- of Mississippi History and Mississippi a Freedom Rider at Parchman elry, and Civil Rights Museum was created by the penitentiary, and a clock that hand- Department of Archives and History stopped at the moment Hurricane m a d e and published by the University Press of Katrina flooded a Biloxi home. c r a f t s Mississippi. Never before have these objects by art- “Telling Our Stories shines a light been gathered together in one ists from on all the people who made this project place or publication. across the possible,” said MDAH director Katie “The construction of these state, along Blount. “This project was the centerpiece museums allows us to show- with classic of the state’s bicentennial celebration only case in new ways artifacts that and con- because of the community partners, move- we’ve been collecting since temporary ment veterans, scholars, state officials, and 1902,” said MDAH Museum books on all others who helped it succeed.” Division director Lucy Allen. aspects of Mississippi’s story comes to life through “Telling Our Stories shares Mississippi artifacts such as a circa-1840 cotton gin, how our stories are told through these history. Call a contemporary Choctaw beaded medal- artifacts.” 601-576-6921 to order a copy. Properties Added To National Register A historic African American president of the Utica Normal of school architecture, which properties through tax benefits, library, a Jewish synagogue, and Industrial Institute. The refers to concentrating the dif- grant assistance, and protection and two Jackson elementary Myrtle Hall Library was also ferent functions of the school from demolition or develop- schools have been listed on the the first home of the Delta in certain parts of the building. ment. National Register of Historic Blues Museum. The school is still in use. National Register listing Places. On the recommenda- Built in 1946, B’nai Israel Pearl Spann Elementary does not restrict a private own- tion of the Mississippi National Synagogue is located at the School was one of three white er’s use of the property, unless schools built with money from development of the property a 1956 bond referendum in involves federal funding, fed- response to Jackson’s growing eral rehabilitation tax credits, population following WWII. or participation in some other The one-story, cluster-designed federal program. There are no school was competed in 1958 at requirements for public acces- the start of the school year and sibility, and information about named after a longtime Jackson sensitive sites can be restricted educator, Susie Pearl Spann. from the public. Pearl Spann Elementary was The Department of Archives designed in the Modernist and History is the official State or International style by the Historic Preservation Office architecture firm Overstreet, in Mississippi and handles all Ware, and Ware, and still requests for National Register serves Jackson students. information and assistance. The National Register of Congress established the Na- Historic Places was established tional Register of Historic The circa-1946 Temple B’nai Israel in Hattiesburg. by Congress in 1966 to help Places in 1966 as a list of identify and protect historically federally recognized properties Register Review Board, the corner of Mamie Street and significant properties. National especially worthy of protection United States Department of 12th Avenue South in Hat- Register properties enrich and preservation. the Interior approved the ad- tiesburg. Jewish immigrants our understanding of local, Mississippi has more than dition of Myrtle Hall Branch first began arriving in Forrest state, and national history by 1,200 National Register prop- Library for Negroes, Coahoma County in the 1890s and first representing significant events erties, including archaeological County; Temple B’nai Israel, worshiped in the home of and developments, the contri- sites, battlefields, bridges, Forrest County; Hattie Casey early Jewish settler Maurice butions of notable people, and buildings, cemeteries, forts, Elementary School, Hinds Dreyfus.