Eudora Welty Collection Mississippi Department of Archives and History

The materials transferred to the Archives and Records Services Division (ARS) from the Museum Division since March 2011, along with those transferred to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) upon the settlement of Eudora Welty's estate, continue to be incorporated into the Eudora Welty Collection. Any newly acquired collections of Welty-related material not donated to MDAH by Eudora Welty or her heirs are established as collections unto themselves, in accordance with archival rules of provenance, and not added to the Eudora Welty Collection proper.

In 2019, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded an implementation grant to MDAH to support the preservation, digitization, and enhancement of access to the papers and photographs of Eudora Welty. The Eudora Welty Foundation is matching MDAH's contribution to the grant. Although scheduled to be completed in April 2021, project revisions related to Covid-19 have delayed progress and MDAH will request a grant extension from NEH. The project aims to professionally conserve and scan selected items in the Eudora Welty Collection. The preparation and digitization of items will necessitate the closure of selected series during scanning and quality control review.

We suggest researchers contact MDAH, refdesk@mdah.ms.gov, to verify the availability of series that are of particular interest to them prior to visiting the archives. Researchers are invited to visit the MDAH website where the home page features Welty information with some regularity and provides a portal to the online catalog where new series and series revisions may be posted.

The A&RS division continues to use Koha, an open-source system, for its online catalog. An instruction sheet, The Eudora Welty Collection: Collection Research and Access via the Online Catalog, has been prepared to aid researchers in readily locating catalog records for the Eudora Welty Collection and other Welty-related materials in the division's holdings. The document concludes with a current series list.

Researchers interested in obtaining publication rights for, and/or reproductions of, material in the Eudora Welty Collection may benefit from information provided in The Eudora Welty Collection: Contacts for Use Permission and Reprographic Services.

The 2021 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship co-sponsored by the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History will be awarded in April. On-site research at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building, supported by the increased stipend of $5,000, will be conducted during the summer. The 2020 Fellow was Margaret Pless Zee, a PhD candidate in English at the University of Mississippi.

The Eudora Welty Collection Collection Research and Access via the Online Catalog WWW.MDAH.MS.GOV

Mississippi Department of Archives and History Archives and Records Services Division

Reviewing the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) website, https://www.mdah.ms.gov/, and links within the Research menu and the Collections menu may help you learn about our operations and become accustomed to the online catalog before you visit the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson, Mississippi.

Please Note:

Our open-source cataloging system is subject to periodic upgrades and there may be occasions when only one box per collection may be requested at a time or when it may be necessary to request a box by completing a call slip by hand. For assistance with this, or with any other matter, please speak with the Reference Services staff.

(Rev. 1/2021)

The Eudora Welty Collection List of Series as They Appear on the MDAH Online Catalog as of January 1, 2021

Mississippi Department of Archives and History Archives and Records Services Division Welty (Eudora) Collection (Z/0301.000/S)

* Series indicated by an asterisk have either been extensively revised since the publication of The Welty Collection: A Guide to the Eudora Welty Manuscripts and Documents at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History by Suzanne Marrs...