Southern
FEATURE STORY
Hackney Chapel built in 1899 by the African American community of Unitia.
Collaboration between the Center for Historic Preservation and James E. Walker Library makes Southern History available to the public Written by Gina K. Logue Photos by Carroll Van West, courtesy of the Center for Historic Preservation.
W
inston Churchill once said, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” But people who never intended to make or write history are also a part of history, and the Southern Places digital collection in James E. Walker Library makes that clear. The ever-growing project, truly a work in progress, contains approximately 2,500 photos, audio clips, texts, and other artifacts that are accessible online. (See digital.mtsu.edu, and click on Southern Places.)
Places Dr. Carroll Van West, director of the Center for Historic Preservation (CHP) at MTSU (and Tennessee’s state historian), said he wanted the collection to be public. “It [pulls from] 30 years of historical materials gained by the Center for Historic Preservation from its intense, direct involvement with Southerners and their communities,” said West. “Then, by way of the Internet and the Library’s digital humanities program, this invaluable material becomes available to everyone, scholars and communities alike, for further dialogue about the meaning and significance of Southern history and culture.” The collection includes multimedia on churches, cemeteries, farms, houses, railroad stations, schools, and even the old analog equipment at WSM’s radio transmitter in Nashville. Yet, because these structures are part of routine existence, they sometimes don’t carry historical weight with the people who are closest to them. (continued on page 8)
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