Eudora Welty is best known as one of Mississippi’s most celebrated writers, but long before her stories found their way into classrooms and anthologies, Welty was traveling the state with a camera, quietly documenting everyday life.
That lesser-known side of Welty is now on view at the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum through Jan. 29 in The Photography of Eudora Welty, a traveling exhibit on loan from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The exhibit features 12 photographs taken during the 1930s and 1940s, many of them created while Welty worked for the Works Progress Administration and traveled through all 82 Mississippi counties.
To help visitors better understand the connection between Welty’s photographs and her later writing, the museum will host a lecture at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday by Nancy Hargrove, professor emerita of English at Mississippi State University and a longtime Welty scholar.
“People tend to think of Welty as a shy, retiring person who stayed at home and wrote,” Hargrove said. “But that’s really not true at all. She was traveling all over Mississippi, often alone, observing closely and taking risks. That experience shaped the way she saw the world.”
According to Hargrove, photography taught Welty two lessons that later became central to her fiction: the importance of concrete detail and the ability to capture revealing moments.
“When you’re taking a photograph, you have to be ready in an instant,” Hargrove said. “That carried over into her writing. She learned how to recognize what was meaningful, what was telling… and to preserve it.”
The images in the exhibit reflect that attentiveness. Visitors will see children at play, buildings weathered by time, and portraits of ordinary Mississippians going about their lives. Hargrove notes that Welty’s photographs are particularly striking for their inclusiveness.
“In the 1930s, she photographed African Americans as well as white Mississippians at a time when that was far from guaranteed,” Hargrove said. “She was interested in all humanity, not just people from her own social class.”
Stephen Cunetto, president of Friends of the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum, said that aspect of Welty’s work makes the exhibit especially meaningful for local audiences.
“It shows the history of Mississippi, the people and the places,” Cunetto said. “Most people know her for her writing, but they’re often surprised to learn how exceptional her photography was as well.”
The exhibit was curated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which houses most of Welty’s photographs and papers. Friends of the Museum requested the exhibit as part of its mission to support programming that connects local history to broader Mississippi stories.
“Our mission is to tell the story of Oktibbeha County and Starkville, and that naturally extends to Mississippi as a whole,” Cunetto said. “Welty’s work fits perfectly into that.”
Cunetto hopes the visual format will resonate especially with students and young visitors.
“Seeing Mississippi through her lens makes history feel more immediate,” he said. “From a photography standpoint, the way she frames scenes and uses light really captures your attention.”
Hargrove’s lecture will explore how Welty’s early photography informed her fiction, drawing connections between specific images and later stories. Hargrove said she hopes visitors leave inspired to revisit Welty’s writing – or discover it for the first time.
“These photographs remind us that history isn’t just dates and events,” she said. “It’s people, places and moments that might otherwise be overlooked.”
The Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum welcomes visitors of all ages to view the exhibit while it is on display. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. Admission is free, though donations are appreciated. The museum is located at 206 Fellowship St. in Starkville, near downtown and the Cotton District. Tours are encouraged and available by special arrangement by calling 662-323-0211.
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