November / December 2017 Far left: The new Mississippi Museum of History houses artifacts, interactive exhibits and audiovisuals presenting 15,000 years of Mississippi history. Museum director Rachel Myers, far left below, says she hopes visitors will gain a better understanding of the state through a variety of perspectives. Left, the coming of rural electrification is depicted in this low-relief carving in the gallery “Bridging the Hardships –1928-1945.” (Photo courtesy of Mississippi Department of Archives and History) As exhibit construction nears completion, a technician, below, tests the pinball-like action of an interactive exhibit on Civil War cannonball trajectories. Below left, Michael Morris, of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, sits at a table in the museum’s spacious cafe, where food service will be available to visitors.
greeted by a 500-year-old Native American canoe. Found in 1989 buried in a muddy bank of Swan Lake, in Washington County, the 25-foot dugout was made by chipping, scraping and burning a bald cypress log. The Natchez Trace/Mt. Locust Inn exhibit comes to life with a leafy canopy overhead, deep shadows and the sound of footsteps treading the worn path. “We have full immersive experiences in here, so you will feel like you’re walking through the woods,” Myers said. A recreation of a cotton barge, lighted by lanterns, provides a place to view films featuring Mississippians and scholars reflecting on the history being interpreted in the museum. The design of another theater reflects the sanctuary of Mount Helm Baptist Church, founded in 1835 and the first historically black church in Jackson. Visitors sit in wooden pews to watch, by flickering (electric) candlelight, a film about the period from Reconstruction
through the 1927 Mississippi River flood. “How We Live” exhibits take visitors inside homes typical of the period represented in each gallery. One compares a room and furnishings of an 1833 Natchez planter’s mansion, a poor white yeoman farmer’s cabin and an enslaved family’s cabin. Another recreates a 1980s living room with a cabinet TV, video games and plush carpet. Other exhibits center on transportation, the logging industry, military conflicts (through Operation Iraqi Freedom), New Deal projects in the state, public health contributions, Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi artists and authors, politicians, science and more. Before leaving the exhibits area, visitors can stop at a video booth to record their own stories relating to their museum experience. These one-minute segments will be played in the Reflections touchscreen exhibits in four galleries in the museum. Visitors can stop for lunch in the cafe and shop the museum store for Mississippimade crafts and books, including “Telling Our Stories,” a companion book to the two museums.
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“Students will grow up knowing Mississippi in a way that their parents and grandparents did not.” – Rachel Myers
Myers hopes people leave the museum with a better understanding of Mississippi, having seen the state from perspectives other than their own. Annual visitation is estimated to reach 180,000, including school field trips. “Our goal is to have every student in Mississippi come here,” said Michael Morris, of MDAH. Students will be able to see actual artifacts from the time periods they are studying. “Students will grow up knowing Mississippi in a way that their parents and grandparents did not,” Myers said. “To be able to have [access to] this type of facility is such an opportunity for them.” The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, located at 222 North St. in downtown Jackson, will be open Tuesday through Sunday beginning Dec. 9. Find admission prices and other details at museumofmshistory.com. Information on opening day activities is available at twomuseumsopening.com.