Contact: Brad Moreland
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Two quite distinct themes are being showcased during February at Mississippi State’s Mitchell Memorial Library.
Free and open to all, each exhibit continues through the 28th at the university’s primary academic repository.
On the second floor, “‘We Have Been Believers’” is a special Black History Month documentation of Mississippi African American lives during the 19th and 20th centuries. Drawn from the special collections department, it includes photographs, correspondence, pamphlets and publications covering education, business, civil rights and specific individuals.
Of note, “Believers” contains political posters of prominent Delta activists Fannie Lou Hamer and Aaron Henry from the Clay County Civil Rights Collection, 1890 Alcorn A&M College sheet music from the Bettye Forbes Collection, and an early 1800s tavern license for Amy Johnson, a Natchez free woman of color, from the Todd A. Herring Collection.
In the third-floor John Grisham Room is “Out of this World,” a collection of astronomical and scientific illustrations and images by Edwin Faughn of French Camp, as well as prominent national astrophotographers Fred Howell, Bill Kennedy, Jon Talbot, David Teske and Stephen Winkler.
Faughn directs French Camp Academy’s popular Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium, one of the Southeast’s largest. His works regularly are featured in science publications and national and international exhibitions.
While “Believers” may be viewed at any time during normal library hours—see www.lib.msstate.edu/hours—“Out of this World” only is available 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and limited weekend periods. For details, visit www.lib.msstate.edu/news/2017/spaceart.php or contact Jessica Perkins Smith at jsmith@library.msstate.edu.
Weekend and group tours of the library exhibits may be arranged in advance by telephoning 662-325-6634. For complete information on the MSU Libraries, go to www.lib.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.