When Welty was ready to turn ideas to prose, she sat herself before the typewriter.  Welty preferred using a manual typewriter, like the ones she played with as a child in her father’s office.  However, as she aged, arthritis forced her to go electric.  Welty used this Smith-Corona Coronomatic 8000 to write The Optimist’s Daughter, though often begrudgingly. Its constant humming made her feel it was “waiting on you to do something.”  Welty never used a computer to compose her stories.

Welty used this electric typewriter to compose The Optimist’s Daughter, a Pulitzer Prize winner.

To edit a day’s work, Welty retreated downstairs and marked pages in blue pen, as seen here. She often used this gray metal copyholder, a common companion to typewriters, when she needed to retype her edited pages.  By lifting the top latch, Welty placed a page into the holder and replaced the latch, which held the paper in place and freed up her hands.

Welty used this metal copyholder to more easily edit drafts.

When it came time to edit whole chapters, Welty had a unique technique: she physically cut the pages of her manuscripts apart by paragraphs or sentences, rearranged them in a desired order, and pinned the pieces back together.  By using pins instead of staples, she could move the pieces around as much as she liked.  In the dining room, visitors can touch reproductions of these unusual pages.

Example of Welty’s unique editing technique, the “cut-and-pin.”

These artifacts provide a glimpse into Welty’s writing process.  The craft of writing is a much larger and nuanced process, but without these tools of the trade, Leota would never sit in her beauty parlor; Daniel Ponder would never give away his fortune; Tom Harris would never buy dinner for hobos; nor would we know the other rich characters created by Eudora Welty.

Every painter has their palette; every sculptor has their clay.  Eudora Welty had a typewriter, and a number of other tools to help her stories take shape.  How did Welty remember her ideas, create a space to develop them, and edit them down to the most effective expressions of her soul?  To find the answer, we must enter her bedroom at the Welty House.

Just off the second floor landing, the bedroom features a small wooden desk, set in a corner by white cotton curtains.  Welty wrote nearly all of her major works in this room, including the Pulitzer Prize winner The Optimist’s Daughter in the 1970s.  Working as history detectives, we can use the objects on this desk to piece together her writing process.

Welty understood that ideas strike us at inconvenient times: in the supermarket, on the freeway, or in countless other places where fleshing out an idea proves impossible.  She often scribbled down character, plot or setting notes on whatever she had handy—receipts, checkbooks, or small notebooks that fit in a purse.  Welty used the back of this checkbook to remember plot ideas, while she used this black datebook to record a series of names, some real (“Sondra and Wondra—twins”) and some fictional (“Booster” “Celida”, “Willette”).

Welty used checkbooks like this one to jot down story ideas when they came to her in public (reproduction).

With these ideas in mind, Welty needed the proper writing space to develop them.  Her desk sits before three large windows, where she could view the buildings of Belhaven University, framed between a pair of towering oak trees.  While Welty did not face the windows, she liked to sit sideways where she could see outside, “because I like to be aware of life going on…I couldn’t write with a blank wall in front of me.”  Pinehurst Street provided its fair share of sights, from cars to joggers to neighbors walking their dogs.  The quiet of suburban Belhaven allowed Welty to escape the hustle-and-bustle of city life, and focus on her craft.  In our next entry, we’ll explore how Welty turned words into prose.

View of Welty’s office. The Belhaven neighborhood is visible behind the desk.

Pete Seeger seated on stage, playing banjo. Item #: 9-37-0-2-48-1-1ph: Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission Records Online, 1994-2006.

A Place Called the South

Call no.: Disk 0180

Format: CD

Running Time: 58 minutes

This disk of twenty-seven songs was originally published as part of the music issue of the journal Southern Cultures (vol. 13, no. 3, Fall 2007). The songs were selected by Southern Cultures Music Editor Josh Guthman to highlight southern music genres and include selections from Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys, Sonny Boy Williams, the Spiritualaires, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The songs are stitched together with clips taken from a 1989 interview conducted with Pete Seeger. These excerpts illustrate Seeger’s love for the South and its music. A transcript of the full interview, conducted by William R. Ferris and Michael K. Honey, is featured in the print issue of the journal.

The CD came to MDAH as part of the Winter (William F.) and Family Papers, call no. Z/2285.000.

MORE INFORMATION:

To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for Disk 0180. To browse the disk collection, navigate to the advanced search page, check the “Electronic Records” box, and type “disk” into the keyword search bar.

All catalogued disks are available to view or listen to in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.

References:

Southern Cultures. Accessed on September 24, 2015 at http://southerncultures.org/

Staff favorite: Come to Me, Look at Me: Songs Most Loved in Russia

Disk no.: 0189

Format: CD

Running time:

Russian singer, actress, writer, and playwright Lisa Monde released this CD in 2007. A particular favorite of MDAH’s electronic records staff, this CD contains twelve Russian songs translated into English and French and provides an interesting glimpse of traditional Russian thought and culture.

The CD came to the archives as part of the Winter (William F.) and Family Papers, call no. Z/2285.000.

MORE INFORMATION:

To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for Disk 0189. To browse the disk collection, navigate to the advanced search page, check the “Electronic Records” box, and type “disk” into the keyword search bar.

All catalogued disks are available to view or listen to in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.

References:

“Lisa Monde.” Accessed September 23, 2015 http://lisa-monde.com/

Governor Cliff Finch eating lunch with schoolchildren in 1976, twenty years before the passage of the Mississippi Adequate Education Act. Charles C. Cliff Gov. of MS, PI/STA/F56.3 (MDAH).

Grey Ferris: A Lasting Legacy

Call no.: Disk 0169

Format: DVD

Running Time: 9 minutes, 33 seconds

This video honors two-term Mississippi Senator Grey Flowers Ferris of Vicksburg, posthumous recipient of the Winter-Reed Partnership Award. Ferris, a former chairman of the Senate Education Committee, was instrumental in the creation of the Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information Access (MAGNOLIA) and the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). MAGNOLIA is a state-funded consortium that provides free access to online research databases for publicly funded K-12 schools, public libraries, and community college and university libraries in Mississippi. The databases are an invaluable resource for students. The MAEP, created by the Mississippi Adequate Education Act, provides a formula that produces a base amount required to provide each student an adequate education in a Mississippi school, regardless of the school or community’s economic situation.

The DVD came to MDAH as part of the Winter (William F.) and Family Papers, call no. Z/2285.000.

MORE INFORMATION:

To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for Disk 0169. To browse the disk collection, navigate to the advanced search page, check the “Electronic Records” box, and type “disk” into the keyword search bar.

All catalogued disks are available to view or listen to in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.

References:

“About MAGNOLIA.” Accessed September 23, 2015 at http://magnolia.msstate.edu/about/about.asp

“Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP).” Accessed September 24, 1015 at

http://www.msparentscampaign.org/education-funding/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34

“In Memoriam: Grey Ferris.” Accessed on September 24, 2015 at http://winterinstitute.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/08/grey-ferris-memorial.pdf

Ole Miss at the Cotton Bowl, Dallas, January 2, 1962. Call Number: PI/COL/1981.0066(MDAH)

Ghosts of Ole Miss

­Call no.: Disk 0171

Format: DVD

Running Time: 56 minutes, 56 seconds

Written and narrated by ESPN.com senior writer and Clarksdale native Wright Thompson, the film explores the 1962 Ole Miss football team and its winning season, set against the backdrop of James Meredith’s admission into the university and the riot that followed. Using interviews with members of the team and former students; newsfilm and game footage; and excerpts of phone conversations between United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, United States President John F. Kennedy, and Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett; the film provides insight into a difficult time in the state’s history.

The CD came to MDAH as part of the Winter (William F.) and Family Papers, call no. Z/2285.000.

MORE INFORMATION:

To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for Disk 0171. To browse the disk collection, navigate to the advanced search page, check the “Electronic Records” box, and type “disk” into the keyword search bar.

All catalogued disks are available to view or listen to in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.

References:

“Ghosts of Mississippi.” Accessed on September 24, 2015 at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=mississippi62

This WWII broadside encourages Americans on the home front to contribute to the war effort. From the MDAH broadside collection.

Prisoner of war in Camp Como, Mississippi, 1944

Call no.: Disk 0105

Format: CD

This disk represents both a great addition and a great opportunity for our collections. Donated by Dr. Ernst Pannen of Troisdorf, Germany, the disk contains scans of letters written by his father in law Peter Wilrodt when he was a German prisoner of war being held in Camp Como in Panola County. Camp Como, which began receiving prisoners in the fall of 1943, was originally intended to hold both Italian and German prisoners, the latter from General Erwin Rommel’s famous Afrikakorps. Ultimately, however, racial and ethnic tensions between the two groups led to the camp being designated for German prisoners only. Although the Second World War ended in 1945, POWs remained on American and Mississippi soil until 1946.

The material on this disk consists of scanned letters (including envelopes) and a 28 page Word document containing text and images, all of which are in German.  The Word document appears to contain additional context for the letters; some letters are excerpted and images include photographs of European sites and men at Camp Como, drawings and camp menus. MDAH will seek volunteers to translate the material to English.

MORE INFORMATION:

To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0105. To browse the disk collection, navigate to the advanced search page, check the “Electronic Records” box, and type “disk” into the keyword search bar.

All catalogued disks are available to view or listen to in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.

References:

“Camp Como.” Accessed September 24, 2015 at <http://www.fortwiki.com/Camp_Como>.

John Ray Skates, Jr. “German Prisoners of War in Mississippi, 1943-1946.” Accessed September 24, 2015 at <http://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/233/german-prisoners-of-war-in-mississippi-1943-1946>.

Postcard from the Forrest Lamar Cooper collection showing four Greenville houses of worship. PI/1992.001.

Washington County, Mississippi, Cemeteries

Call no.: Disk 0145

Format: CD

This disk is an excellent genealogical resource for those with ancestors from Washington County. Containing photographs and research notes of several neglected cemeteries in the county, the disk also features headstone transcriptions, copies of selected obituaries from the Delta Democrat Times and a copy of the will of Solitaire plantation owner Ambrose Knox (d. January 14, 1873). Solitaire, Peru Hill planation, and National Register of Historic Places site Linden plantation are all documented on the disk. The Erwin family cemetery and Long Island, owned by the William Alexander Dromgole family, are also included. Two African American church cemeteries, Canaan Hill, located outside Hollandale, and Daniel Chapel A. M. E. in Glen Allen complete the disk.

The disk was donated by Dr. Nancy C. Coleman and is part of her project to document cemeteries in Washington County. Other titles are available.

MORE INFORMATION:

To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for Disk 0145. To browse the disk collection, navigate to the advanced search page, check the “Electronic Records” box, and type “disk” into the keyword search bar.

All catalogued disks are available to view or listen to in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.

References:

Woods, Woody. Delta Plantations: The Beginning. Accessed on September 24, 2015 at https://books.google.com

“Our History.” Accessed on September 24, 2015 at http://www.washingtoncountyms.us/

“National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Mississippi.” Accessed on September 24, 2015 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Washington_County,_Mississippi

One of the largest and most important projects undertaken by MDAH through the Hurricane Relief Grant Program for Historic Preservation was the restoration of the Charnley-Norwood House (also known as Bon Silene) in Ocean Springs.  Designed by two of America’s most important architects, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, it is one of the most significant and influential houses in American architectural history.

Seeking needed rest after completing his Chicago Auditorium Building in 1890, architect Louis Sullivan, “father of the skyscraper,” discovered and fell in love with Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Captivated by the Coast’s natural beauty, he designed adjacent gulf-side retreats for himself and his friend James Charnley, a wealthy Chicago lumber merchant. Constructed of local yellow pine, both houses were early design collaborations of Sullivan and his young draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Charnleys, satisfied with their Gulf retreat, soon commissioned Sullivan to design their Chicago home (Charnley-Persky House), which owes much of its modern design to Sullivan and Wright’s innovations in Ocean Springs. In 1896 Charnley sold his Gulf retreat to another Chicago lumberman, Fredrick Norwood. The Norwoods named the estate Bon Silene for the beautiful and fragrant French roses that dominated their extensive gardens.

What makes the Charnley-Norwood House (CNH) significant architecturally is its place at the forefront of Modern Architecture. Compared to its contemporaries, it exhibits a degree of functionality and austerity not witnessed before in residential architecture. In an era filled with eclectic houses, neoclassical mansions, and vernacular cottages, CNH offered a clear purpose, aesthetic, and functional layout that is not subsumed under a classicist or Victorian façade. Here, the verticality, complex floor plans and florid details of Victorian architecture are supplanted by horizontality, continuous spatial flow, simple natural materials, and expanses of glass that erase the barriers between inside and out — all building forms that would become hallmarks of modern architecture. The design of CNH embodies the nexus of ideas that would powerfully reshape not only American but international residential architecture in the 20th century. The house is quite likely the first Modernist house ever.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina destroyed Sullivan’s house and badly damaged the Charnley-Norwood House.  A 30-foot tidal surge moved CNH off its foundations, collapsing the east wing walls and roof.  MDAH staff and volunteers salvaged thousands of pieces of debris strewn across the site, carefully identifying and storing them for reuse in the restoration. The property’s elderly owners died soon after Katrina; their daughter intended to have the house demolished. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy, and the Mississippi Heritage Trust aided MDAH in a valiant effort to halt the demolition.

After emergency stabilization in 2009, MDAH staff and John G. Waite Associates Architects of Albany, New York, prepared a historic structure report and landscape history, while architectural conservator George Fore conducted detailed analysis of the historic finishes. These reports thoroughly document the house’s original design and construction. Although CNH was known as a Sullivan/Wright design prior to Katrina, this in-depth research revealed the house’s pivotal role in the evolution of Sullivan and Wright’s work. Moreover, despite many changes of ownership and damage by Katrina, the house was remarkably intact. In 2011 the property was acquired by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, and MDAH initiated restoration. Work was completed in 2014 to the highest standard of conservation practices, restoring the house to its c.1900 appearance, as documented by physical evidence and early photos.

Because of the heroic preservation struggle and painstaking restoration, this early residential design by Sullivan and Wright—perhaps the premiere physical testimony to their design ideas that transformed American residential architecture—can still be experienced and studied by architects, students, and historians. It survives as an invaluable asset to America’s architectural heritage and example of the power of preservation partnerships.

Contact Rhonda Price at the Department of Marine Resources (228-523-4150) for tour information.

Katrina’s destructive path was enormous. So many architectural “jewels” were lost and the homes of so many friends were destroyed that the mammoth task of recovery frequently seemed overwhelming for MDAH staff members and homeowners alike.

One of the true bright spots of the entire recovery effort, however, was the encouraging spirit of so many owners of historic buildings. Most were longtime Gulf Coast residents who loved their communities, their neighborhoods, and their ancestral homes and were determined not to surrender their history to a storm. However the challenges seemed insurmountable. Many homeowners felt that their “backs were to the wall.” Not only were their homes unoccupiable, but many had lost their jobs, and insurance companies were denying their claims. While they desperately wanted to save their historic homes, given the then-current financial uncertainties, they were not in a position to make a final decision. The only certain assistance that was being offered to them at that time was from FEMA— to demolish and remove their damaged buildings, even if the buildings could be repaired. If homeowners missed FEMA’s deadlines for submission of a right-of-entry for debris removal and if their insurance failed to pay, then the costs of clean-up would be on the owners’ shoulders—and that could amount to tens of thousands of dollars. Many people made heart-rending tearful appeals to us for help in securing more time to make a reasoned decision. Fortunately, in many instances, preservationists were able to help them secure that time.

In 2006, Congress appropriated moneys from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, which permitted the states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to establish programs to assist owners of historic buildings damaged by Katrina. The $27.5 million received by MDAH permitted creation of the Mississippi Hurricane Relief Grant Program for Historic Preservation that provided restoration assistance for approximately 300 historic buildings. Ranging from shotgun houses, to craftsman bungalows, to vernacular Creole and Victorian cottages, most of the grant projects were modest owner-occupied houses that constitute the majority of the Gulf Coast’s historic districts. Although not monumental or magnificent in scale, these historic houses speak poignantly to the Gulf Coast’s diverse ethnic and architectural history.

As difficult and trying as the recovery process often was, being able to help families get back into their historic homes and to save a part of their history was most rewarding. Hearing someone say (as they frequently did), “Thanks, we never could have saved our home without this grant assistance,” made all the work worthwhile.

Katrina created the nation’s largest natural and cultural disaster, damaging or destroying thousands of historic buildings in south Mississippi. As described in earlier posts, MDAH worked closely with our preservation partners from across the state and nation to assess the damage to hundreds of buildings, prepare building stabilization plans for owners, assist in property clean-up, inform citizens of demolition alternatives, and marshal financial resources to aid preservation.

This coalition (particularly the Mississippi Heritage Trust, Mississippi Main Street Association, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, and National Trust for Historic Preservation) also actively sought and secured grant funding to assist owners of National Register–listed buildings restore their properties, rather than demolish them. We secured state grants of $5.5 million from the Community Heritage Preservation Grant Program and federal grants of $27.5 million from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund. The latter program received strong support from Mississippi’s congressional delegation and represented the first time that Congress had authorized historic preservation funds for use in restoring privately owned historic properties damaged by a catastrophic storm.

The Mississippi Hurricane Relief Grant Program for Historic Preservation, which was created with these funds, assisted citizens, local governments, and non-profit organizations to preserve approximately 300 hurricane-damaged historic buildings significant in defining the unique architectural character and heritage of their communities. More than 4,000 construction jobs were generated in the process. While some of the grants assisted in restoring magnificent 19th- and early-20th-century mansions, such as the Schaeffer House in Pass Christian and the Swetman House in Biloxi, most of the grant funds were utilized to rehabilitate small cottages and modest owner-occupied houses listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, such as those in Gulfport’s Turkey Creek Historic District and in Bay St. Louis’s historic districts.

However, the program also assisted in preserving and restoring a number of public and institutional landmarks that are icons of the region’s rich history. The grant funds were often used to match or leverage moneys from FEMA, CDBG, and other private and public funding sources to restore important historic landmarks, such as:

• Beauvoir in Biloxi
• Bond-Grant House (Biloxi Main Street Program Headquarters)
• Old Biloxi Library
• Historic Carnegie Library in Gulfport
• Gulfport City Hall
• Gulf-Ship Island RR Depot in Gulfport
• Rectitude Masonic Lodge in Gulfport
• Soria City Masonic Lodge in Gulfport
• Randolph School in Pass Christian
• Hancock County Courthouse
• Bay St. Louis Little Theatre (the historic Scafide Building)
• 100 Men Association Building in Bay St. Louis
• Magnolia State Supply Co. Building in Bay St. Louis
• Waveland Civic Center (the Old Waveland School)
• Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center, Ocean Springs
• Walter Anderson Mural at the Ocean Springs Community Center
• Charnley-Norwood House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), Ocean Springs
• La Pointe-Krebs House (Old Spanish Fort), Pascagoula
• Forrest County Courthouse
• Old Hattiesburg High School
• Bay Springs Rosenwald School, Forrest County

Department assessment teams worked after the storm to help libraries, museums, local governments, and other institutions stabilize their records, books, and artifacts. In the midst of this work, another recovery project was being developed to help people recover their family treasures and assist cultural institutions in conserving and repairing damaged artifacts in their collections.

Art conservation specialist Debbie Hess Norris of the University of Delaware spearheaded the Recovering Collections & Artifacts workshops, which brought conservation experts to Mississippi for a series of free workshops across the state from May through November 2006.

Teams of conservators and conservation graduate students from the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation led the series. They demonstrated how to assess, stabilize, dry, and clean damaged items ranging from photographs to textiles to furniture.

The workshops were sponsored by the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, MDAH, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

MDAH staff was able to recover some record books and other materials for freezing.  Freezing records stops the growth of mold and mildew, and gives staff time to find the proper conservator.  A freezer truck was rented in Gulfport and arrangements made for a storage freezer in Jackson to hold records from Bay St. Louis City Hall, Waveland City Hall, Secretary of State’s Office, Pass Christian City Hall, Pass Christian Historical Society and the O’hr-Okeefe Museum.  Once the records were stabilized they were sent to a conservator for cleaning and preservation.

Above:  September 15, 2005 Archives and Records Services division assessment teams and other Department employees’ recovered approximately 52 volumes of Bay St. Louis Mayor’s Council Minute Books.

Above:  Ann Frellsen and Bill Hanna clean minute books with a 50/50 alcohol and water solution before placing them in the archives van for transport.