A MDAH Publication  |  Volume 43 No. 7  |  July 2001

Unfolding Our Past: Mississippi Quilts 1850-1946

A photographic exhibit of quilts from the Mississippi Quilt Association's Heritage Quilt Search, featuring enlarged photographs of thirty quilts, opens at the Old Capitol Museum of Mississippi History July 8 and hangs through August 12. The exhibit was developed to coincide with the publication of Mississippi Quilts, by Mary Elizabeth Johnson, which documents the quilt heritage of the state through color photographs by J. D. Schwalm of 140 representative quilts selected by the Quilt Association from over 1700 during its six-year quilt survey project. To celebrate the new book and accompanying exhibit, a book signing, program, and reception will be held at the Old Capitol on Sunday, July 15. The book signing will begin at 2 p.m. in the Rotunda. At 3 p.m., in the House chamber, the author and photographer will describe their work on the book, and Quilt Association officers will present the book to dignitaries. A reception and signing will follow. Mississippi Quilts is published by University Press of Mississippi for the Mississippi Quilts Association, with state funding provided through the Department of Archives and History. The event is co-sponsored by the Mississippi Quilt Association, MDAH, and the University Press of Mississippi in conjunction with Bookfriends. For more information on the event, call Steve Yates at University Press, 601/432-6459, or visit the UPM web site.

Discovery Week July 16-20

Children ages 8-11 will enjoy a week of hands-on instruction in Native American and pioneer skills during Discovery Week, July 16-20, at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, Natchez. Buckskinning, flint and steel fire-starting, and other primitive life-ways will be taught by Clark Burkett, Historic Jefferson College historian, and GrayHawk, a Houma/Choctaw from Lacombe, Louisiana, will tell stories of his Indian heritage. Fourteen-year-old Kathy Moody and Wilkie Collins will participate this year, Moody sharing her naturalist and conservation knowledge and Collins demonstrating his skills in flint-knapping and atlatl throwing. On Friday, Fun/Picnic Day, children bring their pets, and families can bring a picnic lunch and watch archery demonstrations and an authentic "morning pipe ceremony." Space is limited, and there is a registration fee of $25. For more information, call Jean Simonton at Grand Village, 601/446-6502.

Summer Workshops at Manship House

Summer Workshops for Children at the Manship House Museum, Jackson, will be held Mondays, July 9, 16, and 23, from 10 to 11 a.m. Children will make nineteenth-century toys and puppets and will learn how to play marbles-and make bags to keep them in. The workshops are free. Call 601/961-4724 for more information.

Rural Historic District Designated

An area of the Church Hill community of Adams County has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Rural Historic District, one of several such designations in Mississippi. The cluster of historic houses includes outstanding examples of Federal, Greek Revival, and Gothic Revival architecture. Central to the district are Wagner's Store and, across the road, Christ Episcopal Church. Church Hill residents have raised nearly $24,000 to begin restoration of Wagner's Store.

AASLH meets in Indianapolis September 12-15, 2001

More information available at the AASLH web site.

Richard Lackey Honored

The late Richard Lackey of Forest, Mississippi, has become the sixteenth distinguished genealogist of the past to be honored by election to the National Genealogy Hall of Fame. Lackey (1941-1983) wrote books on genealogy that are considered classics and set the standard for genealogists. He lectured extensively and served on the faculty of Samford University for many years, and he served as co-editor of the Mississippi Genealogical Exchange and served as president of the Mississippi Genealogical Society, 1975-77.

Gifts From Friends of MDAH

complete listing >>

Tougaloo College Arts Workshop July 27-August 3

Nationally known artists will gather at Tougaloo College, Jackson, July 27-August 3 to teach workshops in painting, drawing, tile making, bead-making, weaving, architectural preservation, poetry, and steel drumming. "An Evening with Ellie Mannette," a special free public event, will be held Thursday, August 2, when Elliott "Ellie" Manette will perform steel drumming at 7:30 p.m. at the George A. and Ruth Owens Health & Wellness Center on the Tougaloo campus. Among the artists for the workshops are, in addition to Manette, painter Fred Burton, artist Mary Ann Zotto, poet Sterling Plumpp, and Richard Cawthon, Deborah Oakley, Jennifer Baughn, and Todd Sanders from MDAH's Historic Preservation Division.

Connie Lester: JMH Book Review Editor

Connie Lester, professor of history at Mississippi State University, has agreed to serve as book review editor for the Journal of Mississippi History. She succeeds Robert Jenkins, also professor at Mississippi State, who has faithfully served in that position since 1992. As book review editor, Lester will solicit books appropriate for review in the Journal, invite reviews from colleagues and others, collect the reviews, and submit them-an average of ten per issue-for each quarterly issue. Quite a job it is, as Bob Jenkins and we know. We appreciate the years of work Dr. Jenkins has contributed and also the new energy promised by Dr. Lester.

Answers to Spanish Era Quiz

(May Newsletter)

1. Natchez
2. True. They include Kings' Tavern, Governor Holmes's House, Texada, Hope Farm, Airlie, Richmond, and the Griffin McComas House.
3. Deerskins
4. Fort Rosalie in Natchez, Nogales in present-day Vicksburg, San Fernando de las Barrancas in present-day Memphis, San Esteban (or Fort St. Stephens) and Confederation on the Tombigbee River.
5. The Treaty of San Lorenzo. The English name for it was Pinckney's Treaty.
6. False. Although not an official ally of the American colonies, Spain attacked British installations on the Gulf of Mexico, thereby diverting British forces from the main theater of the war.
7. False. Two others- Alonzo de Pineda (1519) and Cabeza de Vaca (1520s-1530s)-saw the Mississippi before DeSoto in the 1540s.
8. Carlos de Grand Pre; his efforts towards conversion failed.
9. Bernardo de Galvez
10. Andrew Ellicott, who placed the American flag at the site of the House on Ellicott's Hill, Natchez

Ammadelle Preservation Secure

The historic Oxford home Ammadelle has a new protected status after its owner, Mrs. John F. Tatum, conveyed to the Department of Archives and History a perpetual conservation and preservation easement for the property. Any proposed changes to the 142-year-old home, already a National Historic Landmark, or the seven-acre landscaped lot on which the home is located must now be approved by the Department of Archives and History.

Thomas E. B. Pegues in 1857 commissioned Calvert Vaux, a nationally known architect and landscape architect, to design the two-story red brick Italianate villa. Vaux would later join with Frederick Law Olmsted to design New York City’s Central Park.

Ammadelle was complete but for balconies across the rear and a winecellar when economic constraints of the Civil War halted its construction. Subsequent changes have been limited to a balcony across the north face, the replacement in the nineteenth century of a few mantels, and a recent modernization of the kitchen. Due in part to its fine state of preservation, Ammadelle was used as the home of the central character of the 1950s MGM movie Home from the Hill, filmed in Oxford.

“Ammadelle is one of the most beautiful and architecturally significant residences in the nation” said Elbert R. Hilliard, director of the Department of Archives and History. “Mrs. Tatum has set a splendid example of historical stewardship and is to be commended for her commitment to ensure this magnificent property is protected for posterity.”

For more information on historic property conservation programs, contact the MDAH Historic Preservation Division, 601/ 359-6940.

Published by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History • Elbert R. Hilliard, director • Chrissy Wilson, editor
Please send correspondence to: MHN, P.O. Box 571, Jackson, MS 39205 or email to pubinfo@mdah.state.ms.us