Contact: Kevin Tate
STARKVILLE, Miss.—A gift of $10 million from Richard C. Adkerson and his family’s foundation will help fund the building of a new home for the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University. Adkerson, a longtime supporter of MSU for whom the Richard C. Adkerson School of Accountancy in the university’s College of Business is named, recently announced the gift to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library Fund.
“I was raised in Mississippi and witnessed firsthand social injustices,” Adkerson said. “Mississippi State’s being home of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library evidences the progress our nation has made. I congratulate MSU President Dr. Mark E. Keenum for leading the development of the Grant Library on our campus. It is an honor for me to provide support for this initiative. I could not be more proud of my alma mater.”
The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library currently occupies a dedicated wing on the fourth floor of Mitchell Memorial Library in the heart of campus. A planned new home near the intersection of Highway 12 and Russell Street in the developing Crossroads District will offer greater public access.
“Richard Adkerson’s transformative investment in the future of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library will help ensure this remarkable collection continues to educate, inspire and deepen our understanding of America’s story for generations to come,” Keenum said. “The Mississippi State family is deeply grateful for Richard’s longstanding support and the many meaningful ways he continues to make a difference across our university.”
Adkerson’s gift represents a significant step toward construction of a dedicated, more accessible home, projected to be a major cultural attraction drawing 60,000 to 70,000 visitors per year.
“Richard has long been a supporter of public history and has helped to fund a number of history and civic-relations projects,” said Anne Marshall, executive director of both the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and the Ulysses S. Grant Association. She is also a professor of history at MSU.
“We are so grateful that he is melding his devotion to MSU and dedication to the American story by supporting our efforts to expand the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library. His gift will fund and name a gallery which will showcase Ulysses S. Grant’s life and his military and presidential careers using state-of-the-art technology and design,” she said.
The presidential library is the largest single collection of Grant papers in the world. Established on the MSU campus in 2012, it houses a vast repository of correspondence, photography, scrapbooks and memorabilia, much of it in Grant’s own hand, along with more than 4,000 published works focused on Grant, his generalship and his presidency. Many pieces are primary historical source material preserved from his own time.
Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters.