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.
Map showing the Pascagoula River system and the surrounding Choctaw villages. Call number: MA/98.0177(a) MDAH
The Singing River: Rhythms of Nature
Call no.: Disk 0064
Format: DVD
Running time: 58 minutes
This 2006 documentary, co-produced by The Nature Conservancy and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, showcases the natural beauty and ecological importance of the Pascagoula River system, the largest and last significant unimpeded river system in the continental United States (by volume). The documentary details the system’s importance as a habitat for year-round and migratory fauna, its use as a living laboratory for biological research, and how the system came to be owned and protected by the state of Mississippi. The 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 0064. 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:
“Mississippi: Pascagoula River Watershed.” Accessed October 6, 2014, http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/mississippi/placesweprotect/pascagoula-river-watershed.xml
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 east from US Highway 90 at the ruins of a three story building. Call number: PI/2005.0024, item 84, Hurricane Katrina photographs (MDAH)
Surviving Katrina: Lost and Found in Mississippi
Call no.: Disk 0009
Format: Audio CD
This CD contains oral history interviews with thirty-four Gulf Coast residents concerning their experience before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. The CD was released by the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Oral History Cultural and Heritage, and the content was taken from more than four hundred interviews conducted by the center in the days, months, and even years after the hurricane. The interviews are grouped around the themes of heroism and survival; the altered Gulf Coast landscape; response, recovery, and resilience; obstacles and issues; coping; and reflections.
MORE INFORMATION:
To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0009. 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, a ten minute video containing selections from this CD is available on YouTube.
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.
Laurence C. Jones. Call Number: PI/ED/J65.7 (MDAH)
When Cotton Blossoms: The Inspiring Life and Legacy of Dr. Laurence C. Jones
Call no.: Disk 0010
Format: DVD
Run time: 30 minutes
This documentary about the life and achievements of Dr. Laurence C. Jones, founder of the Piney Woods Country Life School in Rankin County, was a cherished project for director Scott A. Magie. Although Magie had actively sought to tell Dr. Jones’s story since 2006, the film was not made until 2009. Piney Woods commissioned When Cotton Blossoms to commemorate its one hundredth anniversary in 2009. With a script written by Magie and inspired by Beth Day’s book The Little Professor of Piney Woods, the film was shot in one short week in May on location at the Piney Woods School and the Jackson area. Many of the actors are Piney Woods students and faculty, and the soundtrack features the school’s Cotton Blossom Singers. When Cotton Blossoms won awards at several independent film festivals, including “Best in Show” at the 2012 Imago Film Festival in Chicago, Illinois, and “Best Documentary” at the 2010 Tupelo Film Festival in Tupelo, Mississippi, and 2010 Lake Michigan Film Competition in East Lansing, Michigan.
Piney Woods Country Life School fan. Accession number: 1996.3.4 (Museum Division Collection)
MORE INFORMATION:
To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0010. 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, a trailer for this film is available to view online at http://youtube.com.
References:
When Cotton Blossoms. http://pineywoodsmovie.blogspot.com/
“When Cotton Blossoms: The Inspiring Life and Legacy of Dr. Laurence C. Jones.” Accessed October 3, 2014, http://pineywoodsmovie.com/index.html
Chloe Edwards, MDAH Electronic Records archivist, brings us the first post in a new series celebrating Electronic Records Day and Archives Month.
At left, Freedom Rider Helen Singleton is interviewed by host Bill Stoudt. (Credit: http://www.singletonfreedomriders.com/category/coverage/)
The City at Night
Call number: Disk 0007
Format: DVD
Run time: 48 minutes
In honor of Electronic Records Day, first celebrated on 10/10/10 (can you guess why?), a new blog series will highlight some of the newly available digital content from Electronic Archives: the disk collection. These disks have made their way to Electronic Archives from other sections of the department as well as from outside donors. It runs the gamut, from audio CDs of Mississippi recording artists like Dorothy Moore and Ora Reed, to documentaries on Mississippi history, to CDs containing genealogical resources.
Today we feature one disk in particular: Disk 0007, “The City at Night” is a reformatted copy of an episode of this weekly news program that aired on KTLA in Los Angeles from 1950 to 1960. What made “The City at Night” unique was its premise: the show was filmed live and its topic kept a secret from the host and camera crew until just hours before filming (although the topic was often leaked to audiences prior to broadcast). The show was predicated on the idea that viewers could experience aspects of their city to which they might not otherwise have been exposed. “The City at Night” featured a mix of programming that included university homecomings, Hollywood’s Fire Station 27, the Los Angeles Braille Institute, and in the late summer of 1961, the show covered a Freedom Riders training session. Men and women who participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides tested a recent Supreme Court ruling declaring segregated facilities in interstate transportation unconstitutional. Groups traveled by bus, plane, or train—integrating terminals, restaurants, and restrooms along the way.
MDAH is fortunate to hold a copy of this broadcast, which was donated to the department by Winston Fuller in 2011. The program can be divided into three sections. The first shows experienced Freedom Riders addressing an auditorium of potential volunteers, describing to them in detail what will happen when they are arrested and how they will be treated in the Hinds County Jail and the state penitentiary at Parchman. Then the training moves to a simulated sit-in, showing the kind of treatment volunteers could expect when they demonstrated at a segregated lunch counter. Finally, there are interviews, first with the Freedom Riders who participate in the skit (shown in image above/below), and then with volunteer (and future donor) Winston Fuller, who would go on to participate in his first Freedom Ride to Jackson shortly after the filming. Also included in the broadcast is footage showing the arrest of several Freedom Riders in the Jackson bus station on July 26, 1961.
The training captured by this broadcast is a powerful first-hand account of preparations for the Freedom Rides, as well as their treatment in the city. Perhaps most importantly, it shows the Freedom Riders as individuals: as kids who could see the humor and horror in Parchman, and as men and women who were determined to act to change the segregated status quo.
MORE INFORMATION:
To find out more about this disk, search our online catalogue for disk 0007. 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 in the Media Room; patrons should request disks from media staff using the four digit call number.
VIEWING NOTES:
If you wish to view this disk, please be aware that there is no fast-forward or reverse capability on the DVD: it can only be watched from beginning to end, although playback can be stopped at any point.
References:
Chambers, Stan. KTLA’s News at 10: Sixty Years with Stan Chambers. Behler Publications, 2008. Accessed on 10/03/2014 through Google Books.
Connor, Michan Andrew. “Creating Cities and Citizens: Municipal Boundaries, Place, Entrepreneurs, and the Production of Race in Los Angeles Count, 1926–1978.” Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, 2008. Accessed 10/03/2014 at http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll127/id/141194
Image: screenshot at 00:02:11 from http://www.singletonfreedomriders.com/category/coverage/
Each October the nation celebrates our country’s rich historical collections. The Mississippi Historical Records Advisory Board and the Society of Mississippi Archivists are co-sponsoring a poster entitled Mississippi: Freedom Summer 50th Anniversary to promote Mississippi Archives Month 2014. The poster features archival items related to the events of 1964 and encourages all Mississippians to learn more about the civil rights movement in Mississippi by visiting local archives, libraries, museums, and historical societies. Several Mississippi institutions will present eventscommemorating Archives Month.
For information about events during Archives Month throughout Mississippi, please visit www.msarchivists.org. For information about celebrations nationwide, visit www.statearchivists.org.
