Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive

The Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive includes a selection of digitized photographs, letters, diaries and other documents. Mississippi was a focal point in the struggle for civil rights in America, and Hattiesburg, home of The University of Southern Mississippi, had the largest and most successful Freedom Summer project in 1964. It was a local history with true national significance. The Digital Achieves includes links to provide contextual information specific to the Civil Rights Movement in various Mississippi towns.

Free Speech Movement

Charles F. Heartman

A bookman for the South is what Charles F. Heartman was considered. He was seen as a man of books. He began collecting, editing, and writing early in life for a literary periodical called De Literat. He was a book dealer, collector, bibliographer, editor, and occasional author. He became known for his thorough descriptions. Born in Germany, Heartman relocated to London before moving on to New York. Heartman eventually moved his family south and attempted to establish a Utopian colony for intellectuals. He purchased land outside of Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1936 and named the site and publishing business “The Book Farm.” This exhibit showcases materials from the Charles F. Heartman Papers which illustrate Heartman’s personal life, career, and adventures in rural living on the “Book Farm.” It can viewed through December 2010 in the McCain Library and Achieves at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Charles F. Heartman

de Grummond Collection

The de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection is one of North America’s leading research centers in the field of Children’s literature. It is located in the McCain library and Archives on the campus of The University of Southern Mississippi. Its main focus is on American and British Children’s literature. It was founded in 1966 by Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond. Lena envisioned resources that went beyond the classroom textbook. She wanted to help students better appreciate and understand literature and to achieve this would be to study the creative processes of authors and illustrators by examining the manuscripts and illustrations first hand. The collection holds the original manuscripts and illustrations of more than 1,200 authors and illustrators, as well as 120,000+ published books dating from 1530 to the present. The resources of the de Grummond Collection are used by scholars, not only in the field of children’s literature, but also in a variety of disciplines.

Elizabeth Nesbitt Room

Reining horse picture

University of Southern Mississippi Centennial

I visited the Centennial Exhibit in the Cook Library and was really fascinated with everything in there. It was really neat to see all of the old uniforms and see where and when all of the schools traditions started and how the school has evolved over the years. I found everything so interesting and really enjoyed reading all of the school’s history. I did not realize how many names the college had before becoming The University of Southern Mississippi that it got in 1962. In 1912, it was called Mississippi Normal College and had 876 students in its first year has a college. It was Mississippi’s first state supported teacher training school. In 1924, it became State Teachers College. In 1940, it became Mississippi Southern College. A really interesting fact I discovered is that even though the school name has changed over time the school colors as remained the same since the beginning, Black and Gold. I truly enjoyed the exhibit and getting to read all of the school’s history and I really encourage if you haven’t seen it you need to see it. .