The Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is digitizing and placing online, a unique postcard collection. The Forrest Lamar Cooper Postcard Collection consists of nearly 4,600 color and black-and-white postcards. Most of the cards in the collection spans the years 1892 to 1927, predate World War I and are concentrated on a theme of Mississippiana. The cards feature scenes of small towns, mineral springs, agricultural and forestry activities and railroads. All of the cards in the collection are identified to some degree and can be accessed through a keyword (description, city, county, state) search on the agency’s website and by subject headings through the MDAH online catalog.

MDAH began scanning these postcards during April 2007, creating preservation-quality, negative TIFF images. These were then converted to web-friendly, positive JPEG images by the Electronic Archives section and made available online.

The MDAH reformatting staff is scanning the cards in the roughly geographical order into which Cooper had arranged them. New images of cards will be added to the site as they are completed, until the entire collection is available online. Images that have been scanned thus far may be searched by keywords or browsed by clicking on the "Browse Collection" link.

Forrest Lamar Cooper began collecting postcards in the early 1970s, when he purchased two old postcard albums in a local antiques store. Cooper used about fifty items that were related to Mississippi subjects as a foundation for this collection and traded or sold the unrelated cards. He has acquired postcards by purchase or trade throughout the state, during extensive out-of-state travel, through correspondence with other traders, and attendance at annual trade shows.
 

Alabama Maps: An Excellent Research Site That is Much More Than Just Alabama Maps Alone

One of the best map sites online for researchers is Alabama Maps. But there is much, much more there than just Alabama maps on the site. It is truly a world map collection. Alabama Maps is an ongoing project of the Cartographic Research Laboratory, which operates under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama. The site contains three sections: the Contemporary Map Index, the Historical Map Archive, and the Aerial Photography Index.

This site includes a digitized collection of selected map holdings from sources including the University of Alabama Map Library, the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the Rucker Agee Map Collection of the Birmingham Public Library, the Geological Survey of Alabama, Samford University Special Collections Library, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

More than 29,095 maps are included in this online project and in the historical map collection, just for Mississippi alone, there are 232 maps including 32 maps covering the years 1812 through 1859, 36 maps covering the years 1860 to 1900 and 43 maps covering the years 1901 through 1966. Also included in the Mississippi collection are 121 detailed historic 15-minute quadrangle maps from 1921 to 1966.

In the historical collection you can view state maps, regional maps and national maps. A clickable map of the United States takes you to the various state collections and special collections on the site include the American Revolution, the Civil War, coastal navigation charts, coastal topographic sheets, the Mississippi River, the Mexican-American War, national forests, Native Americans, railroads, USDA soil survey maps and World War I.

The site is easy to navigate and contains high quality map images. Take time to discover Alabama Maps, a most excellent research resource.
 

18th Annual Mississippi Coast History Week is February 10-16

The Mississippi Coast Historical and Genealogical Society will sponsor the 18th annual Mississippi Coast History Week, February 10th through the 16th. It will be cosponsored by the City of Biloxi.

February 13th will mark the 309th anniversary of the landing of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. To commemorate this occasion, the Most Reverend Thomas J. Rodi, Bishop of the Catholic Dioceses will celebrate Mass at the Biloxi Community Center on Tuesday, February 12th at 10 a.m.

History Week will feature three days of history with re-enactors dressed in 18th century reproduction French clothing. There will be a presentation on French Colonial soldiers and their contacts with Gulf Coast Indians; a portrayal of the life of an 18th century French lady; and a display of foods that were grown on the Mississippi Gulf coast when the French arrived.

The Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum will have demonstrations relating to the seafood industry. The George Ohr Museum will be doing pinch pots and handing out activity books to the children. The Local History & Genealogy Department of the Biloxi Library will explain the making of Family Tree charts.

This year, the society has invited historical and genealogical societies in our coast cities to join in. The public is invited to attend the presentations at the Biloxi Community Center, 591 Howard Avenue, from Tuesday until Thursday, February 12 - 14 from 9 a.m. -3 p.m. Admission to the events is free.
 

Fairview School Circa 1905

An outdoor school program at Fairview School, northeast of Fulton, circa 1905. The school principal was Cicero Graham.
 

Parched Peanuts on a Frosty Winter Evening: A Tasty Hill Country Comfort Food

Fresh raw peanuts slowly parched have been enjoyed by generations of hill country folks in Mississippi. Usually an autumn and winter treat, parched peanuts have been enjoyed at such events as the school fall carnival, football games and area livestock sales, being sold packed in little brown paper bags.

During my childhood, most every farm raised peanuts and most every barn had a burlap sack hanging from a rafter filled with tasty raw dried peanuts.

I suspect most of the farmers around here raised the Spanish group of peanuts including Dixie Spanish and the Runner group including Valencia and Virginia Bunch. Most folks feel these types of peanuts have a good flavor, better roasting characteristics, and higher crop yields.

The true Valencia peanuts that are popular in the Deep South have a unique sweet flavor that makes these the best tasting peanuts for parching.

The true Valencia peanut production today is primarily in eastern New Mexico now, but they are grown on a small scale elsewhere in the South.

Parching good peanuts is a simple art. Over-parching can be disastrous giving the nut a bitter taste. Personally, I simply preheat my oven to around 500 degrees, spread the peanuts on a baking sheet, place the peanuts in the oven and simply turn the oven off letting the oven temperature completely cool down (usually about an hour or so).

There are several methods online for parching peanuts. Simply do a search on “parched peanuts.” Find a recipe, parch some peanuts and enjoy a simple old-time Southern favorite snack that has been enjoyed for generations!
 

The Library of Congress Photographic Collection at Flickr

The Library of Congress has teamed up with Flickr, the popular photograph sharing site to present more than 3,100 photographs from the library’s collection.

To expand the reach of the library’s extensive photograph collections with a cost-effective method was one of the goals, and the popularity of this new project has exceeded all hopes. Besides providing better access to its collections, this project also allows the public to add tags to images in the collection, describing the photographs.

The initial 3,100 photographs were posted from two of the library’s most popular photographic collections and include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist. The library wants the public to comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo which will benefit the research community and the collections themselves.

Included in the photographic offering on Flickr are 1,600 color images from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information collection and approximately 1,500 images from the George Grantham Bain News Service collection, two of the more popular collections with visitors to the library. All the images displayed on Flickr have high resolution scans.

Visit the Library of Congress Photographic Collection at Flickr and enjoy the vast array of historic photographs. For more information about the collection visit the Flickr Pilot site at the Library of Congress.
 

Society's 2008 Membership Drive Begins

The Itawamba Historical Society has begun its 2008 Membership Drive. The society depends entirely upon membership dues and donations to fund the operation of The George Poteet History Center, The Gaither Spradling Library and Historic Bonds House Museum.

Each year all the society’s facilities are open free of charge to the researching public. Expenses, including such items as utilities, insurance, postage and publishing take up most all the society’s proceeds and membership is what keeps the society’s work in the field of historic preservation and Itawamba County genealogical and historical studies going.

In addition to providing its facilities in Itawamba County, the society also operates itawambahistory.org, where Itawamba County research material is offered free of charge to the researching public.

The society invites you to help this worthwhile organization by becoming a member. Membership dues are $25 per year and includes a year’s subscription to Itawamba Settlers, the society’s 56-page quarterly membership magazine.

Additional membership categories are available including Sustaining Membership, Benefactor, Grand Benefactor and Corporate Sponsor.

The society needs your help in carrying out the goals for its twenty-sixth year. For further information about membership in the society, visit the society membership area at itawambahistory.org.