The Mississippi Historical Society (MHS) is a historical society located in the U.S. state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

. The society was established in 1858 but was terminated soon after because of the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

. It remained in hiatus until 1890, after which it published extensively over the next 35 years and helped establish the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1902. After a second protracted hiatus from 1925 until 1952, the society re-emerged and has remained in continuous operation ever since. The society publishes the ''Journal of Mississippi History'' and the online publication ''Mississippi History Now,'' which contains more than 150 essays about topics in Mississippi history.

History

Establishment

The Mississippi Historical Society (MHS) was founded in Jackson on November 9, 1858.Mississippi Historical Society official website
, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, www.mdah.state.ms.us/ The initial incarnation of the society was short-lived, expiring after only two years owing to the outbreak of the

Second incarnation

After a thirty-year hiatus, it was restarted in 1890 on the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

campus in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

. On the campus, the society had closed meetings and it suffered from lack of resources and interest until history professor

Franklin Lafayette Riley Jr. Franklin Lafayette Riley Jr. (August 24, 1868 – November 10, 1929) was an American historian. The title of his dissertation was ''Colonial Origins of New England Senates''. After receiving his doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University he was app ...

sought counsel from his academic mentor, Herbert Baxter Adams, other state educators, and Civil War veterans like Confederate general Stephen D. Lee. Beginning in 1898, the rejuvenated MHS began a series of 14 annual volumes entitled ''Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society,'' containing significant scholarship on the history of the state. This was continued in 1916 with the publication of a new series of five additional volumes under the editorship of historian Dunbar Rowland. The society was instrumental in establishing the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1902, and the two organizations worked in close cooperation until the MHS expired once again in 1925.

Society today

The Mississippi Historical Society was relaunched for a third time in 1952 and has maintained itself in continuous operation ever since. The society publishes the quarterly ''Journal of Mississippi History,'' the monthly ''Mississippi History Newsletter,'' and the online journal ''History Now.'' In 2007, Mississippi State University history professor emeritus John F. Marszalek served as president of the Mississippi Historical Society. He is renowned for his original and creative work on the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction. His ascendancy to the presidency of the society is notable considering that he is one of the few northern-born members to serve in that position. During the early 2000s, the MHS repeatedly honored historians for their work on Mississippi history, notably Charles C. Bolton—Department Chair at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and author of the highly critical 2005 book '' The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980''. In addition, in 2007 the MHS invited Bolton and James W. Loewen, author of '' The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White'', to speak at the annual meeting. Loewen is notable for filing a federal lawsuit against the state of Mississippi in 1975 over the state's rejection of his textbook, ''Mississippi: Conflict & Change, ''co-authored by historian Charles Sallis, from use in the state's public schools.

Footnotes

External links