New MSU effort seeks to preserve history of Mississippi rural life

Contact: Maridith Geuder

From documenting long-vanished activities such as local canning clubs to developing oral histories focusing on the state's farm economy, a new Mississippi State University effort is preserving an important part of Mississippi's past.

The newly formed Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi, housed in MSU's Mitchell Memorial Library, is collecting historical materials related to Mississippi agriculture, forestry and rural life.

Initial CHARM partners are the MSU Libraries, the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, the MSU Extension Service, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"Agriculture and forestry have played significant roles in the development and history of this state," said Vance H. Watson, interim vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine.

Noting that MSU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is celebrating its centennial in 2003, he said the new collaboration is a way to highlight the continuing economic, social and cultural contributions of agriculture and forestry to the state.

"Both our division and the library have had a longtime interest in developing this kind of collection to provide resources for scholars, teachers and students," Watson added.

Collaboration among the four CHARM partners will bring visibility to the project as it seeks additional materials to document Mississippi's agricultural heritage, the organizers said.

"This project has a tremendous potential and will be of great benefit not only to those at Mississippi State University but to citizens throughout the state," said Frances N. Coleman, dean of libraries.

"Because of this institution's land-grant heritage, we're uniquely qualified to collect, preserve and provide access to important historical materials," she said.

Already, she said, the collection includes more than 300 handwritten scripts and nearly 17,000 negative photographs from the 1954-61 television feature, "Farm Family of the Week," broadcast by WLBT-TV in Jackson. The materials were donated by the late Howard Langfitt, longtime host of the program.

"Our manuscript materials document everything from small farms and family-run sawmill operations to corporate agricultural and forestry enterprises," said Mattie L. Sink, manuscripts librarian for Special Collections.

Photographs, diaries, account ledgers, and a host of other textual materials provide glimpses into day-to-day concerns about the weather, the economy and the changing face of agriculture. Among the collection are photographs of the first mechanized cotton picker, introduced in the state during the 1930s.

The collection also includes a wide range of materials from the university archives, with photographs, reports and other MSU Extension materials represented. A continuing part of the project will be to collect oral histories from those at Mississippi State who played leadership roles in the agricultural development of the state.

To expand its accessibility, the consortium will begin to digitize materials in the collection, making them available on the World Wide Web.

The face of agriculture and forestry in Mississippi is constantly changing, and Mississippi State historically has led in introducing new techniques and more productive approaches, Watson emphasized.

"The shift to technology is one of the most significant transformations in the agricultural life of our state," he noted.

"We're not that far removed from a time when we used primarily animal power in farming," he said. "Today, we're making use of advanced technologies such as remote sensing. It's more important than ever to preserve the historical artifacts for future generations."

For more information about the Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi, telephone Coleman at (662) 325-7661.