The Mississippi Civil War Sesquicentennial continues and in the coming months we will be highlighting Museum Division collections related to 1864 and the Civil War. Special thanks to Nan Prince, assistant director of collections, for writing this series.
Flag of the Forty-Fourth Mississippi Infantry. Accession number: 1968.51.1 (MDAH Museum Division collection)
The Battle of Nashville was fought on December 15–16, 1864, between Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee and the federal force under Major General George H. Thomas. Hood began the Franklin-Nashville campaign in the fall of 1864, in an attempt to disrupt General Sherman’s supply line and draw him out of Georgia. A series of engagements led up to the Battle of Nashville, including the Battle of Franklin on November 30, which resulted in a devastating loss of over six thousand Confederate casualties. Thomas’s army soundly defeated Hood’s battered troops during the Battle of Nashville, forcing the Confederates to retreat to Tupelo, where Hood resigned his post.
This 2nd National Pattern flag of the Second Mississippi Infantry was captured at the Battle of Brentwood Hills near Nashville on December 16, 1864. Writing to Major J. Hough of the Army of the Tennessee, Lt. Col. J. H. Stibbs of the Twelfth Iowa Infantry described the capture of the flag: “The large one belonged to a Mississippi regiment, I think the Forty-fourth, and was captured by Corpl. Luther Kaltenbach, F Company, Twelfth Iowa Infantry. The color-bearer had been shot down, and as my regiment advanced Corporal Kaltenbach ran forward and picked up the flag.” The flag was returned to the state of Mississippi by the War Department in 1905.
Chloe Edwards, MDAH Electronic Records archivist, brings us this post in an ongoing series celebrating Electronic Records Day and Archives Month. The series features items from the MDAH disk collection.
Looking north toward Hancock Bank building and what was Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis. Call Number: PI/2005.0024, item 50, Hurricane Katrina photographs (MDAH)
Pieces of Paradise: Rebuilding Bay St. Louis
Call no.: Disk 0003
Format: DVD
Run time: 40 minutes
This documentary about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the city of Bay St. Louis was created by a group of students in a video production class at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio. The film features Bay St. Louis residents and students at Bay High School and focuses on the devastation caused by the hurricane. In making the documentary, the Ohio students sought to bring the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina home to North Canton by telling the stories of area residents, especially their Bay High School peers. Their approach worked: Hoover High School successfully raised over $14,000 for the Bay-Waveland School District, with part of the proceeds coming from documentary sales. The DVD was donated by former Mississippi Historical Society board member Jack Rogers.
MORE INFORMATION:
To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0003. 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.
VIEWING NOTES:
As of October 2014, this documentary is available to view online at http://vimeo.com.
Showers, Al. “Ohio Students Premier their Documentary on Katrina in Bay St. Louis.” WLOX-13, n.d. Accessed on October 3, 2014, http://www.wlox.com/story/5062763/ohio-students-premier-their-documentary-on-katrina-in-bay-st-louis
Chloe Edwards, MDAH Electronic Records archivist, brings us this post in an ongoing series celebrating Electronic Records Day and Archives Month.The series features items from the MDAH disk collection.
Glass fragment from window of Beth Israel synagogue, which was bombed in 1967. Accession Number: 1984.55.11 (Museum Division Collection)
A Frightening Time: The Jackson Jewish Community, Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, and the Civil Rights Movement
Call no.: Disk 0041
Format: DVD
Run time: 13 minutes
Although Rabbi Perry Nussbaum retired as the leader of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation in 1973, he remains very much present in the memory of the community for his outspoken role in the Civil Rights Movement. Despite the active involvement of many Northern Jews on civil rights issues, the Jackson Jewish community was far more reticent, largely because its members were fearful of drawing the attention of the local Ku Klux Klan. Rabbi Nussbaum, however, harbored no such concerns, although he restrained his activism to sermonizing on segregation until 1961, when the Freedom Riders, many of whom were Jewish, arrived in Jackson.
After the Freedom Riders were sent to the state penitentiary, Rabbi Nussbaum attempted to organize Mississippi’s rabbis to visit the inmates. When they refused, Rabbi Nussbaum began making weekly visits to Parchman alone, at his own expense, and without the knowledge of his congregation. He led a brief service and took down riders’ names and addresses so that he could write to their parents, both Jewish and non-Jewish, assuring them that their children were incarcerated, but alive and well.
As the movement grew more heated, the rabbi became more outspoken. In 1964, Nussbaum helped organize an interracial group of ministers that raised funds to rebuild churches bombed by white supremacist groups. He also presided over an interracial dedication ceremony for the synagogue’s new building in the late fall of 1967, which proved to be the final straw for the local Klan—the synagogue was bombed on September 18, 1967. Three days after the bombing of the temple, the Greater Jackson Clergy Alliance held an interracial, interreligious Walk of Penance as an expression of sorrow and solidarity with the Jackson Jewish community. Two months later, Rabbi Nussbaum’s home was bombed, although both he and his wife escaped injury (shown above). Nussbaum felt strongly that anti-Semitism, not his outspoken activism, was the reason for both attacks and sought to leave Jackson. He was unable to find another post, however, and remained at Beth Israel until his retirement in 1973. In the course of nineteen years at the synagogue, he also reintroduced elements of traditional Jewish worship and established an adult education program. Nussbaum died of cancer in San Diego, California, in 1987.
The documentary A Frightening Time, produced by Jackson’s Institute for Southern Jewish Life, discusses the bombing of Beth Israel through interviews with older congregants, and also includes archival footage of the Walk of Penance and Rabbi Nussbaum. The documentary was produced as part of the fortieth anniversary commemoration of the bombings and was shown as part of the program.
MORE INFORMATION:
To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0041. 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.
VIEWING NOTES:
Although the documentary appears to have a running time of twenty minutes, the film ends at approximately 00:13:00.
“Rabbi Perry Nussbaum Dies; Activist in South during 1960s Racial Unrest.” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1987.Accessed October 6, 2014, http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-13/news/mn-496_1_rabbi-perry-nussbaum
Chloe Edwards, MDAH Electronic Records archivist, brings us this post in an ongoing series celebrating Electronic Records Day and Archives Month.The series features items from the MDAH disk collection.
General plan for the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi drawn up by the US Department of the Interior in 1937. Call number: MA/2002.0115(b) MDAH
Tracing Our Trace
Call no.: Disk 0081
Format: DVD
Running time: 24 minutes
What makes this documentary unique is less its topic than its genesis: the video was created by an eighth grade gifted class at Madison Middle School in 2006 as part of the Tracing our Trace project, which was funded by The National Geographic Society and the Mississippi Department of Education. Aimed at students, the documentary tells the history of the Natchez Trace with a sense of delight. The story is presented as a series of short acts addressing different aspects of the trace and concludes with a twenty-question multiple choice quiz (answers are provided in the video). This documentary 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 0081. 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.
Chloe Edwards, MDAH Electronic Records archivist, brings us this post in an ongoing series celebrating Electronic Records Day and Archives Month.The series features items from the MDAH disk collection.
Sister and Miss Lexie: Adapted from the Collected Works of Eudora Welty
Call no.: Disk 0018
Format: Audio CD
This disk is a professional audio recording of the David Kaplan fantasia on the works of Eudora Welty, as performed by longtime collaborator Brenda Currin. First performed Off-Broadway in 1980, the show presents one complete short story, “Why I Live at the P.O.,” and adapted excerpts from The Golden Apples and Losing Battles. The show concludes with a long performance comprising pieces of several novels and characters from many of Welty’s short stories accompanied by a live piano performance of an adapted Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto.
MORE INFORMATION:
To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0018. 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:
Stasio, Marilyn. “Review: Sister and Miss Lexie.” Published on 11/14/2005. Accessed October 3, 2014, http://variety.com/2005/legit/reviews/sister-and-miss-lexie-1200520311/
