Giving Shape and Substance to Our Society: William F. Winter, Leadership, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History*

William F. Winter’s association with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) stretches back across six decades. Perhaps no person has had a greater impact on MDAH than Winter. Certainly no person has been associated with the department as long. As a member of the Board of Trustees of MDAH from 1957 to 2008, including thirty-nine years as board president, Winter proved an able and dedicated leader. Today he remains an active, ardent supporter of the department and its work.

If leadership is influence, then a study of Winter reveals a measured, impassioned, and principled approach. As MDAH board president, he acted when the situation and circumstances warranted but never interfered with the day-to-day administration of the department. His extensive legislative experience and relationships helped MDAH grow and become one of the nation’s top historical agencies. Winter linked MDAH with legislators, state and federal officials, and Mississippians everywhere. His association with the department provides a long and distinguished record of outstanding servant leadership.

Winter has been acquainted with every director of the department, including the very first one. In 1935 Winter joined his father, state senator Aylmer Winter of Grenada County, on a trip to Jackson. The elder Winter had been friends for many years with Dunbar Rowland, department director from 1902 to 1937. Aylmer Winter took his twelve-year-old son to Rowland’s office on the first floor of the state capitol. More than seven decades later, Winter wrote, “Dr. Rowland greeted my father and me most graciously and spent a generous amount of time discussing his work.” Rowland signed a copy of Andrew Jackson’s Campaign against the British, written by his wife, Eron Rowland, and gave it to the young Winter. “That book has been a prized possession ever since,” Winter wrote. “The meeting with Dr. Rowland did much to inspire my life-long interest in history” (W. Winter, “Remembering”).

His father also prompted Winter’s next connection with MDAH. Aylmer Winter knew Charlotte Capers, longtime staff member and third MDAH director (1955–69), and encouraged his son to meet her after Winter joined the legislature in 1948. Winter said that he became part of the “circle of friends she had in history.” Capers (Figure 1) had many friends in the legislature, and Winter offered his support for her requests (W. Winter, Morrisey interview;W. Winter, Lyons interview).

In the early 1950s, Winter’s activities with the Mississippi State Historical Commission and Mississippi Historical Society strengthened his relationship with the department. In 1948 the legislature had established the commission, chaired by the MDAH director, to provide historical markers for sites around the state. In 1952 Winter was appointed to the commission by Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Walter Sillers. Commission members selected marker sites, edited text, and worked with the state highway department to erect markers (MSHC, 5 Mar. 1949, 6 Aug. 1949, 14 Jan. 1950, 3 May 1952). Winter said, “We began to see them sprouting up along the highway all over the state. And I think that helped raise the consciousness of a lot of people to the historical importance of these places and also to the role of the Department of Archives and History” (Morrisey interview).

Figure 1.

Charlotte Capers, third MDAH director, c. 1950s or 60s. Image courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (Public Information Division).

Founded in 1858 and reorganized in 1890, the Mississippi Historical Society became dormant in the late 1920s. In 1952 Winter joined the group that reactivated the society, and he drafted a new constitution as chair of the constitution committee. On March 13, 1953, the leaders of the reorganization convened a business meeting of the society. Members adopted the revised constitution and elected officers, naming Winter to the board of directors. In 1954 the board elected Winter president of the society. He went on to serve in countless other leadership roles, including his current service as chair of the Board of...