Raising the Dead at Indianola City Cemetery!

It’s that time again! My favorite project is about to come to fruition, Headstone Stories. If you haven’t heard about it, you must have been sleeping for the past 5 years! Below is an article I wrote for MLA’s publication, Mississippi Libraries in 2012. It succinctly explains what Headstone Stories is, why I wanted to create it and the benefits is has had to my community.  Read up and I hope to see many many folks at this year’s Headstone Stories, April 12^th from 10am to noon at the Indianola City Cemetery!

                                                                   

Headstone Stories

 

Cemeteries are a source of history and education for local communities.  Since 2010, the Sunflower County Library System has partnered with the Indianola Academy’s 6^th Grade class to present “Headstone Stories.”  Headstone Stories is an academic program that introduces students to archives, primary sources, and historical research, while educating the community about local history.

When I became Public History Coordinator for the Sunflower County Library System I wanted to find ways to engage the community, highlighting local history and primary sources.  I felt that creating a cemetery stroll, based on archival materials and research would achieve this.  To start this project, first I had to approach my library Director, the Sunflower County Library Board of Trustees, and finally the Indianola City Board of Aldermen.  I quickly learned that the concept of a cemetery stroll is not well known.  In fact, some seemed to think it was unusual.  “Why do I want to walk around in the cemetery on a perfectly good Saturday?”  Not everyone is a lover of history.  Just the idea seemed impertinent, disrespectful and plain weird.  I explained that a cemetery stroll is when a group of people research interred individuals, reconstructing their lifetime and the community around them, then creating a vignette to perform for spectators at the cemetery.  I cited two successful examples, the Mississippi Math and Science student’s program, Tales of the Crypt in Columbus, MS and The Storyteller’s program, Stones and Stories in Missoula, MT.  Notably, both of these programs utilize primary sources and archives for research.

Having to get permission from the factions of authority helped me refine my idea of what a cemetery stroll in Indianola, MS would consist of and why it was important to create.  I did not have a group of people to partner with for the cemetery stroll project, so my explanation was pretty broad.  I really wanted this to be an educational project, but received lukewarm interest from the local high school teachers so I approached the local theater group, historical society and Daughter of the American Revolution.  Again, the project was unenthusiastically received.  Then one day at a parent-teacher conference with my daughter’s 6^th grade teacher, Mrs. Poindexter, we began discussing new ways to engage the students in local history and I suggested a cemetery stroll.  She loved the idea and away we went!

I had the blessing of the library system and the city, and a partner, but now what?  I have never participated in a cemetery stroll, nor ever studied education.  I had no experience, but I did have determination and resources.  First, I contacted the city cemetery manager, Mr. McClatchy to help me determine individuals interred in the cemetery that would definitely have information about their lives or family members still living.  Then, Mrs. Poindexter and I brainstormed what the overall goal for the students would be.  We decided to have the students write a five part research paper documenting the political, economical, social, cultural and being a rural area, agricultural aspects of the interred individual’s time period.  I tell the student to think “global to local,” what was going on in the world, the United States, Mississippi, Sunflower County, Indianola and finally your person.  Then I determined what materials in the Sunflower County History Room and Archive can be used for research.  We scheduled two field trips to the library where the students drew on obituaries, scrapbooks, diaries, microfilm, secondary sources and old Life magazines to reconstruct the time of their person.  For two months the students researched their person and then on a Saturday afternoon for two hours performed their vignette as community members strolled through the Indianola City Cemetery.

The response to the 2010 Headstone Stories was encouraging.  For months after, members of the community spoke with me about how they thought the project was a great way for the younger generation to learn about their local history and community.  Many even gave me suggestions of interred individuals for the next year.  I realized that I needed to have a pre-archive visit meeting with the students.  In this meeting I would explain what a primary source is and how they were to use them in their research. The second year, the teachers incorporated a personal journal following the five aspects of the research paper and an oral history project before Headstone Stories to introduce the students to the concept of global to local and documenting history.  The 2011 year Headstone Stories was even bigger. There were twice as many students, many of whom did genealogical research, the publicity of the event was well received and the attendance of the stroll almost tripled.  From this event I learned that the students needed to come to the archives with the general research accomplished and more of a focus on what specific personal information the student needed to research.  In addition I discovered that the parents needed to become more involved and have a clearer understanding of what the project was about. 

This year both the 6^th grade students and the community know that Headstone Stories is coming up.  I have already had calls from around the state from people asking when the event takes place.  Teacher, student, and parent meetings are all set.  The local theater group has been invited to assist with costuming.  The cemetery stroll has become something not irreverent or strange, but a learning experience for students and the community.  As the 2012 Headstone Stories project approaches I am excited to receive a new group of students who, typically enough, are just happy to get out of class.

Mid-Delta Arts Association

For those who did not have a chance to see our local production of Fiddler on the Roof, you missed out. Sorry, but fortunately for you we have copies of almost every play performed at the Brindley Theater. The Mid-Delta Arts Association has been tantalizing the Delta with quality theater for over thirty-five years. As Mrs. Marie Hemphill states in her book Fevers, Floods and Faith, MDAA “grew out of a program, ‘A Salute to Broadway,’ staged at the American Legion Hut in Indianola by a group of musicians, led by John Brindley.”  The theater was later named after Mr. Brindley who is still active in the theater today. Since its inception on October 23, 1978, MDAA has highlighted local talent, while entertaining and educating the community through the arts.  The MDAA Collection at the Sunflower County History Room begins with the production of Man of La Mancha in 1981. In an effort to include all productions in the collection, the Sunflower County History Room requests that if anyone has copies of earlier plays they could share, I’d love to make copies.  Most of the older recordings are on VHS but starting in 2007, all copies are on DVD. Theater and artistic expression is what sets humans apart, tantalizing the mind and senses,  creating an enriching lifetime experience.  I thank those industrious individuals at MDAA for giving their time and energy with the arts, honestly, if I had to choose, theater or the movies, I’d go theater every time!

Great Characters!

 

Great sets!

 

Great theater!

So it begins…Headstone Stories.

The students have picked their dead person, or politely put, interred individual. But the kids like saying dead person and the research has begun. I’m feeling pretty positive about this year’s group. I have already had some parents call and students visit the History Room. It is a smaller group of students this year also. So everyone will definitely have enough time to listen to each student at the cemetery stroll. It’s hard to believe, but this is our fifth year for Headstone Stories! I am so grateful to Ruth Carmen Poindexter and Jessica Simpson for taking on this crazy project. It is one of those things where if we only really knew what we were getting into! Seriously, this has been a great project not just for me and the History Room, but the students and community at large. Last year we had visitors from over 5 states participate at the stroll. I am grateful to Ms. Davis and Ms. Jones for enthusiastically taking on the project and working with me to continue to create an engaging and educational program.

This year is going to be just as great and I hope everyone comes out to meet Indianola’s History!

April 12, 2014, 10am-noon

Indianola City Cemetery

 

 

 

 

The Way We Worked

 

 

 

After 6 months of preparation, the Smithsonian exhibit is finally here and totally worth all the blood, sweat and tears.  Literally, we were bruised, cut and as my best friend in high school used to say, sparkling after we put the exhibit together. The Way We Worked is a Washington D.C. Smithsonian exhibit hosted by 6 institutions in Mississippi. Ours is the only public library!  The exhibit presents 150 years of work in America. It's got all the bells and whistles of a quality museum exhibit with videos, music and interactive pieces. After having it outside my History Room for a week I can pretty much sing along and quote the narrative! The exhibit itself is sectioned into 5 modules; an introduction, why we worked, how we worked, who worked and where we worked. These modules are 7 feet tall and contain clear photos, catchy quotes and three dimensional memorabilia. On the first floor I have complemented this exhibit with photos of how, who and where we worked in Sunflower County. I’m asking the community to bring in their photos of Sunflower County work and workers.  (Other photos are accepted too, just not added to the display.) I will scan and return the photo then put the digital copy up with the rest of the photos displayed. We are also having speakers so check the online calendar! This is also a great opportunity for schools to plan field trips and begin a conversation about work. The exhibit is open to the public at the regular Henry M. Seymour Library hours and here until January 4^th.  

If you are interested in scheduling a tour or want to know more about the exhibit just contact me at the library!

887-2153 or jdrose@sunflower.lib.ms.us

 

 

Alas, Babylon

As anyone who knows me, knows that I consume books. Yes, consume. Voraciously, ravenously, obsessively, all of these describe the way I read. I’m like the feral foundling with a lollipop, I’ll snarl and snip if you get too close when I’m really involved in a story. On a good week, I’ll read at least 5 books. And for the most part I remember all that I read. My son has pointed out to me, I do judge a book by it’s cover. I guess that what threw me off about Alas, Babylon. As you can see,

 

the cover looks pretty dated, I assumed it was published in the last 70’s or early 80’s. It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand or the movie Red Dawn. It’s the story of the few good survivors left in a shattered world after nuclear disaster.  You know a predecessor to Walking Dead, but as I read the foreword and the first chapter, I realize the book was older than I thought. Come to find out it was published in 1959. So the author, Pat Frank, was writing about the space race, satellites and an apocalyptic world before the U.S. even landed on the moon. For some reason, the idea blew me away.  It was a fun and fast read. Even better that the story took place in central Florida, one of my favorite states, but the characters and situations were clear and believable.  The book demonstrated the allure of reading older science fiction and fantasy, which is the authors’ premonitions of the future. How an author can imagine a world years or decades before that world becomes reality.

 I’ll leave you with this quote by Admiral  Hazzard, “There are odd similarities between the end of the Pax Romana and the end of the Pax Americana…For instance, the prices paid for high office. When it became common to spend a million dollars to elect senators from moderately populous states, I think that should have been a warning to us. For instance, free pap for the masses. Bread and circuses. Roman spectacles and our spectaculars. Largesse from the conquering proconsuls and television giveaways from the successful lipstick king. To understand the present you must know the past…”

Payroll Progress in Mississippi: 1939-1959

It’s one of those things. You’re thinking about getting a new pair of pants and the ones you are wearing rip or you really hate that planter that someone gave you and a kid breaks it. You think about something and serendipitously the universe helps you along. As I gear up for our Smithsonian exhibit in November I am keeping my mind aware of any materials that I come across dealing with “Work.” Last week I came across Payroll Progress in Mississippi: 1939-1959. This document “presents employment and hours and earnings data of the non-agricultural industry for the State of Mississippi coving the period 1939-1959. It also includes for the same period, such related data as population, personal income, per capita income, the Consumer Price Index and the Wholesale Price Index.” Most of the book contains, graphs and charts plotting the rising employment or shaded areas of various concentrations, but to me the most intriguing information is not the hours or earnings, but the actually vocations. The document notes outmoded or declining industries such as knitting and textile mills, stone, clay and glass products, or printing and publishing. Today these industries may exist but at such a small level that it shouldn’t appear in a state publication about Mississippi industry and employment. Living here in the Delta I’m fascinated with the inventiveness of the farmers and to see the evolving avenues of agricultural industry, so it was interesting seeing how the non-agricultural sector of Mississippi has changed.

Digging Up History

All over the nation libraries are celebrating summer reading with a “Dig into Reading” theme. I think this theme is very appropriate for history. I mean, I’m lucky enough to have had the opportunity to literally dig into history. My last semester at Florida State was spent in a cow field as part of my Archaeology class. Our goal was to find an Apalachee encampment. We knew from Archeologist Calvin Jones’ previous research and excavations that Conquistador Hernando de Soto had travel through the area and my professor believed that under the grass and patties, there was the remains of a Native American town. So, we were literally digging up history. Here at the History Room, you too can “dig up history.” Most people use the History Room to dig up old newspaper articles, ancestors, or information about the county and it’s communities. But you can also dig up an old Parchman Prison music album or Chevy’s restaurant soda can koozie. There are so many aspects of historical materials in the History Room. I encourage you to stop by and see what you too can “dig up!”