Eudora Welty House & Garden

Eudora Welty: Other Places Exhibit Open to the Public

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.

“In her memoir One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora Welty wrote, ‘Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it,’” said Eudora Welty House & Garden director Jessica Russell. "Eudora Welty: Other Places showcases Welty's empathetic eye for the human condition and the curiosity she experienced as a young writer traveling away from her native state and discovering the rhythm and culture of other places.”

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.

Following the two-year showing at the EWHG, Eudora Welty: Other Places will be showcased in public spaces throughout Mississippi as a traveling exhibit.  Eudora Welty: Other Places was developed and curated through a partnership between MDAH and Eudora Welty, LLC. 

The EWHG Visitor Center is free and open to the public Tuesday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Parking can be found alongside 1109 Pinehurst Street.

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Eudora Welty House & Garden to Celebrate Welty Birthday with Free Weekend of Activities

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. 

On Friday, the party begins at 9 a.m. with free birthday cupcakes and lemonade available to guests on the side porch of Welty’s 1925 Tudor Revival house. Visitors are invited to create complimentary, wearable button-pins using historic photographs of Welty and other scrapbook materials. From 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., local DJ Tyler Tadlock will play records with music from Welty's era on the side porch. Free tours of the Welty house will be given at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. Reservations are recommended. 

On Saturday, the birthday celebration continues at 10 a.m. with a garden volunteering opportunity led by EWH&G garden assistant, Jess Stein, where visitors can honor Welty by tending to her garden. Registration is encouraged for garden volunteering, but not required. Free tours of Welty’s house will be available at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.  

Eudora Welty was born on April 13, 1909, in Jackson. For 76 years, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author lived, entertained, and wrote her stories in her Jackson home at 1109 Pinehurst Street. A National Historic Landmark since 2004, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History interprets the site to 1986, when Welty was still actively writing and traveling.  

Space is limited for tours. Reservations are recommended. Email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com to book a reservation or call 601-353-7762 for more information. 

The EWH&G Visitor Center is free and open to the public Tuesday–Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Parking can be found alongside 1109 Pinehurst Street.  

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Eudora Welty Birthday Bash

Join us to celebrate what would have been Eudora Welty's 115th birthday. 

9 A.M To 4 P.M.
Enjoy complementary lemonade, cupcakes, and crafts on the side porch. A make-and-take wearable button-pin craft station will be available for guests of all ages throughout the day.

At 2 P.M.
Music from Welty's era will again fill the air on the side porch as local DJ Tyler Tadlock spins records from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

9 A.M. & 11 A.M. and 1 & 3 P.M.
Free tours of Welty's home, while space lasts. Space is limited. Reservations recommended!

An Evening with Ron Rash

Join us for a reading with Ron Rash on Friday, September 29, at 5 p.m. at the Eudora Welty House & Garden. Rash will read from and sign copies of his new book, The Caretaker. Rash is also the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall.

Live Jazz in the Welty Garden

Join us for Live Jazz in the Welty Garden at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 19, at the Eudora Welty House & Garden. This event will feature free, live music from the Mississippi College Jazz Band in the beautiful garden that inspired many of Welty's Pulitzer Prize-winning stories. The grounds open at 5 p.m., and music starts at 5:30 p.m. Blankets and lawn chairs are encouraged. Games and a children’s station will be set up in the yard. Free lemonade and popcorn will be available. Additionally, guests can purchase food and drinks from Urban Foxes.

Exhibit Honoring Slain Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers to Open on Permanent View at the Eudora Welty House & Garden

On June 1, 2023, the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG) will unveil a new permanent exhibit honoring slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers in response to the sixtieth anniversary of his assassination on June 12, 1963, outside his Jackson, Mississippi, home.  

 Immediately after the news broke in Jackson, renowned Mississippi author Eudora Welty wrote “Where Is the Voice Coming From?”, a short story about the attack, which The New Yorker published on July 6, 1963—just 25 days after the crime. The new EWHG exhibit, titled Out of Outrage: Processing the Murder of Medgar Evers, follows the making of Welty’s piece. 

Through this work of fiction, written before the crime was solved, Welty painted a startlingly accurate picture of Evers’s assassin, his motives, and his movements. In fact, before The New Yorker would publish the story, Welty said, “The fiction’s outward details had to be changed where, by chance, they had resembled those of actuality, for the story must not be found prejudicial to the case of a person who might be on trial for his life.”  

This exhibit compares Welty’s original draft with the final version, highlighting changes. Story quotes pair with actual crime scene photographs, seemingly as captions, though Welty’s words predate the images. A photograph of Evers at work as Mississippi’s first field secretary for the NAACP opens the exhibit, along with an overview of his accomplishments.  

“In Jackson, Mississippi, the legacy of Medgar Evers is felt strongly to this day,” said Eudora Welty House & Garden director Jessica Russell. “This small but impactful exhibit shares his story with our visitors and illustrates how some of the most powerful tools we will ever have—whether processing personal grief or fighting publicly for justice—are imagination, creativity, and the written word.”  

The Eudora Welty Collection, housed in the William F. Winter building of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), consists principally of drafts (including “Where is the Voice Coming From?”), revised copies, and printer's versions of Welty's works, including stories, books, essays, reviews, lectures, speeches, and drama. The collection also contains incoming and outgoing correspondence of Welty, negatives and photographs taken by Welty and her father, and memorabilia.   

In addition to the exhibit at EWHG, MDAH holds in its collections the Medgar Wiley Evers and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers, including papers of Medgar Evers as Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and records relating to the case, State of Mississippi v. Byron de la Beckwith.  

About the Eudora Welty House & Garden 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty donated her manuscripts, letters, and home of 76 years at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson to MDAH. The National Historic Landmark is open to the public for tours. For more information, visit eudoraweltyhouse.com.  

Support programming for this exhibit begins in July, the month of Evers’ birthday, with a free #WeltyatHome Virtual Book Club discussion of the short story, led by Welty’s friend and biographer, Dr. Suzanne Marrs. To register for the Zoom link, email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com

Out of Outrage: Processing the Murder of Medgar Evers will be on permanent view at the Eudora Welty House & Garden Visitor Center, 1109 Pinehurst Street, Jackson, Mississippi. The Visitor Center is free and open to the public Tuesday–Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, from 12:30 to 4 p.m.   

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Storytime on the Side Porch

Join us for Storytime on the Side Porch at the Eudora Welty House & Garden. The Eudora Welty House & Garden will present free summer book readings and activities for children in partnership with the Mississippi Library Commission. This series will continue weekly on Thursdays June 8, 15, 22, and 29.

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