Library Exhibits

Mississippi Fossils: Dunn-Seiler Museum

This exhibit will take visitors on a journey through time to learn more about the geologic history and prehistoric life of North Mississippi demonstrated by specimens from the Dunn-Seiler Museum.

Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi

They were farmers, teachers, ministers, and blacksmiths. Some were born free in the North, while others were born enslaved in Mississippi. Some were highly educated, and others had been forbidden by law to be taught to read. Many came to Mississippi to help their Southern brothers and sisters build a more just government, and many were driven out by violence only a few years later. Learn about the first African American men to serve on Mississippi's state legislature during and just after Reconstruction. A few of these men, such as Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, are relatively well-known. The vast majority, however, faded into obscurity, just as the white supremacist power structure wanted.

Bully's Bards: Celebrating the Poets of Mississippi State University

This exhibit features the poetry of faculty members and alumni of Mississippi State University. These poems highlight the poets’ personal experiences, ruminations, and feelings and provide important cultural context to the world in which we live. We hope that these poems inspire you and encourage you to celebrate poetry in April and throughout the year.

Through the Lines: Letters from Home and the Front, 1917-1945

“Through the Lines: Letters from Home and the Front, 1917-1945” is a digital exhibit now available online at Mississippi State University Libraries’ Web site. This exhibit features 43 digital objects, including letters from World War I and World War II veterans and their families as well as photographs highlighting the servicepersons’ lived experiences through these terrible conflicts. The archival resources used in this exhibit were sourced from collections held by the Special Collections Department at MSU Mitchell Memorial Library.

This exhibit was created in honor of our nation’s veterans and active servicepersons and their families and in commemoration of Veteran’s Day, which will take place on November 11th. This exhibit was curated by Carrie P. Mastley, Manuscripts Librarian, who can be reached at cmastley@library.msstate.edu or 662.325.6658 for more information.

VOTES FOR WOMEN! A Centennial Celebration of the Women's Suffrage Movement in America

As organizations around the country prepare to celebrate the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment which takes place in August of this year, historians are looking back at the struggle for women’s suffrage and examining the people and events involved in the long fight to allow women to participate in the political process for the first time as true citizens.  For nearly 100 years, in the newspapers, in the pulpit, and in public meetings and conventions, men and women spent a considerable amount of energy debating whether participation in their nation’s political process was their God-given right. As a result, many suffragists were compelled to spend decades of their adult lives re-negotiating their long standing gender roles in society in order to secure a place for future generations of women to have a voice over matters that directed their everyday lives and those of their families.

This digital exhibit showcases that century-long fight for women's suffrage in America. Thank you for visiting!

A Centennial Celebration of Congressman G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery

Mississippi State University Libraries is proud to honor the 100th birthday of the late Congressman Montgomery in this digital exhibit.

Moody, Tearful Night

The Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana proudly places on display in the Mississippi State University Mitchell Memorial Library, Moody, Tearful Night, a painted bronze sculpture group, by Richard Masloski, ca. 2000. The sculpture depicts President Abraham Lincoln moments after John Wilkes Booth shot him in Ford's Theater. A doctor and four soldiers carry the President from Ford's Theater to the rooming house across the street where Lincoln would die, hours later. Two of the United States Army soldiers wear typical "Kepi" caps, while the officer (holding Lincoln's legs) wears a dress hat (known as a "Hardee" hat) and a dress sword. The doctor holds Lincoln's head and shoulders upright, as Lincoln's right arm hangs down, while another soldier carries Lincoln's left leg. This piece is one of seven cast by the artist. It measures 32 inches long, 36 inches high, and 26 inches wide.

The title of the work, Moody, Tearful Night, is taken from the second stanza of Walt Whitman's poem about Lincoln's death, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1865).

"O powerful western fallen star!
O shades of night — O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear'd — O the black murk that hides the star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless — O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul."

The Myrna Colley-Lee Exhibit

Selected costumes and notes from costume, art, and set designer Myrna Colley-Lee are on exhibit in the John Grisham Room.

The Stennis-Montgomery Room

The Stennis-Montgomery Room is located on the third floor of the Mitchell Memorial Library. The Stennis-Montgomery Room contains photographs, correspondence, and artifacts that document the lives and careers of Senator John C. Stennis and Congressman G. V. “Sonny” Montgomery, both Mississippi State alums. The Stennis-Montgomery Room is open Monday-Friday 7:30-5 and is used as a Library and MSU campus meeting space.