Contact: Maridith Geuder
Homemade animal tonic recipes, memorabilia from Lowndes County's historic--and now tornado-destroyed--Bethel Presbyterian Church and other diverse reflections of the state's rural history are on display at Mississippi State University.
An exhibition titled "Revolution in the Land: Sources in Southern Agricultural History" is being featured through Dec. 19 in the second- and third-floor atriums of Mitchell Memorial Library.
The presentation commemorates the centennial of the founding of Mississippi State's agriculture college, while recalling a recent symposium by the university's history department that focused on the revolutionary changes taking place in the region over the past two centuries.
Gathered from archives and the library's special collections department, the collection includes:
--Photographs, books, brochures, letters, agricultural journals;
--19th and 20th century bills-of-sale for cotton to the Confederate States of America;
--A glass photographic negative from the United States Department of Agriculture's boll weevil eradication program;
--The first agricultural textbook used at the 19th century Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College that now is MSU; and
--Materials from the collections of Col. W.B. Montgomery, an A&M trustee and great-grandfather of retired Mississippi congressman and MSU alumnus G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery.
Also featured in a separate special collections exhibit gallery on the library's third floor are selected items from the Drennan C. Love family of Columbus and Lowndes County. Representing three generations of family members, the materials include cotton boards and baskets, and a variety of historical documents, including those from the Bethel Church that was devastated during last week's severe weather.
The Love exhibition may be viewed 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday. Items displayed in the library atriums may be viewed during the library's normal hours of operation.
For more information on the Mitchell Memorial Library exhibits, telephone (662) 325-9347.