News Releases

At its April 19 quarterly meeting, the Mississippi Department of Archives History (MDAH) Board of Trustees approved a demolition permit for the Eudora Welty Library building in Jackson. The permit approval followed a period of public comment during which two comments were received supporting the demolition and three against.  This building was built in 1946 as a Sears department store. In the late 1980s, it became the downtown public library and was named for Mississippi author Eudora Welty. By 2023, the building was in serious disrepair, the City declared that it would no longer maintain it, and the Jackson/Hinds Library Board voted to move the library to a different location.  

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has awarded grants totaling more than $97,000 to eight preservation projects in seven Certified Local Government (CLG) communities across the state.   The scope of work for awarded projects ranges from professional assessments, as with the evaluation of three National Register-listed buildings for future use by the City of New Albany, to more advanced phases of rehabilitation, as with the Lundy House project in Lexington.   

The Eudora Welty: Other Places photography exhibit is now open at the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG) Visitor Center. The special exhibit is free to visit and will be on display for two years. Focusing on Welty’s photography, the exhibit explores the way travel forms connections with people from beyond their homes. It also interprets twenty photographs Welty took in New York and New Orleans throughout the 1930s. Artifacts related to Welty's photography, including three of Welty’s cameras, a selection of archived letters, and souvenirs related to her travels will also be on display.

Summer King, a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, has been selected as the inaugural fellow for the Religion in Mississippi History Research Fellowship. King will use archival holdings at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) to research the spread of Pentecostalism to interracial congregations during Jim Crow segregation.

Keon Burns, a dual doctoral candidate in history and Africana studies at Pennsylvania State University, has been named the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellow for 2024.

The Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWH&G) will hold a free, celebratory weekend honoring the late author and photographer Eudora Welty’s 115th birthday with free tours and activities on Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13.

At its March meeting, the Foundation for Mississippi History board elected Jonathan Lee as chair and Pat Biglane as vice-chair.  

Registration is open for the summer 2024 History Exploration and Freedom School camps held at the Two Mississippi Museums. Enroll your child now for educational summer fun!

Former director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), Elbert R. Hilliard, died on March 17.  He became the fifth director of MDAH in 1973, after starting with the agency in 1965. He retired in 2004 after thirty-nine years of public service. Hilliard was named director emeritus of MDAH and continued to support the work of the department.