The Eudora Welty Collection: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Abstract

The Eudora Welty CollectionMississippi Department of Archives and History Forrest Galey, Special Projects Officer The materials transferred to the Archives and Records Services Division (A&RS) from the Museum Division since March 2011, along with those transferred to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) upon the settlement of Eudora Welty’s estate, continue to be incorporated into the Eudora Welty Collection. Currently, no series are closed for reprocessing but some series are undergoing substantial revisions. There are also new series being added. We suggest researchers contact MDAH, refdesk@mdah.state.ms.us, to verify the [End Page 149] availability of series that are of particular interest to them prior to visiting the archives. Readers are invited to visit the MDAH website where the home page mdah.state.ms.us/new/ features Welty information with some regularity and provides a portal to the online catalog where new series and series revisions may be posted. The A&RS division continues to use Koha, an open source system, for its online catalog. An instruction sheet, The Eudora Welty Collection: Collection Research and Access via the Online Catalog, has been prepared to aid researchers in readily locating catalog records for the Eudora Welty Collection and other Welty-related materials in the division’s holdings. The document concludes with a current series list. Researchers interested in obtaining publication rights for, and/or reproductions of, material in the Eudora Welty Collection may benefit from information provided in The Eudora Welty Collection: Contacts for Use Permission and Reprographic Services. The 2016 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship, co-sponsored by the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, has been awarded to Boosung Kim, a PhD candidate in English at Texas A&M University. On-site research at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building, supported by the $2,000 stipend, will be conducted during the summer. The Eudora Welty Collection Mississippi Department of Archives and History Archives and Records Services Division Reviewing the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) website, www.mdah.state.ms.us/new/, and links within the Research menu may help you learn about our operations and become accustomed to the online catalog before you visit the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson, Mississippi. When you are visiting the archives or at home using our online catalog you may go directly to the Eudora Welty Collection, Manuscript Number Z/0301.000/S. This is our principal collection of Welty papers, photographs, manuscripts, etc. donated or bequeathed to MDAH by Eudora Welty. [End Page 150] Off-site review of the Eudora Welty Collection catalog record and finding aid • From http://mdah.state.ms.us/new/ select “Online Catalog” • Method 1: On the Online Catalog opening page screen, under “Search”: select “Call number as phrase” in the drop down menu; type “Z/0301” in the adjacent blank box; and click the “Go” button. This method will take you to the catalog records for the Welty (Eudora) Collection directly. • Method 2: On the Online Catalog opening page screen select the tab marked “Advanced Search.” On the “Advanced Search” screen, under “Search for”: select “Keyword” and select “Title” in the drop down menu; type “Eudora Welty” in the adjacent blank box; scroll down the screen to “Limit to any of the following:” and check the box for “Manuscript Collection”; and click the “Search” button. This method may be used to search for the Welty (Eudora) Collection as well as *other resources. • On the “Catalog Record” screen for the Eudora Welty Collection there is a link to “Online Resources: Collection description”: click this link to see the Series list. (If clicking the “Search” button in the previous step yielded a list of multiple titles instead of going directly to the Eudora Welty Collection catalog record, then look for “Welty (Eudora) Collection” on the results page and click the title to open the “Catalog Record.”) • On the Series list: click any of the Series’ titles to see the respective Series descriptions. (Box and folder numbers appear in Series descriptions. Make a note of the box and folder number(s) for reference...