After donating a lifetime’s worth of historical treasures to Mississippi State University eight years ago, 85-year-old Frank Williams is still collecting and sharing his passion for Abraham Lincoln, something that began in the sixth grade.
“I began collecting using my lunch money, 25 cents a day … to buy paperback editions, and that started the collecting,” Williams told Rotarians Tuesday during the Rotary Club of Columbus meeting at Lion Hills. “But it wasn’t just the collecting. It was studying the man himself. The man who I think helped to unify our country, and was known for his civility and compassion and leadership. That’s what became evident to me.”
Williams, former chief justice for the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, donated more than 30,000 Lincoln-related and Civil War-era artifacts to MSU in 2017 at the grand opening of the Grant Presidential Library and Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolnania in Mitchell Memorial Library. The collection included historic memorabilia, artifacts, signed documents, artwork, photographs, manuscripts and statues.
Williams said he donated the artifacts to MSU for several reasons. It was a southern institution lacking both Civil War and Abraham Lincoln collections; he had already played a hand in contributing pieces to the Ulysses S. Grant library as President of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, and above all, he wanted to help heal the state’s historic divisiveness.
“I work as a mediator … to bring peace among parties and among institutions that are figuratively at war,” he said. “… And the healing is so important. The healing of any state, but this state, particularly Mississippi, was the second to secede … or try to secede.”
Williams told The Dispatch in 2017 that he hoped collections such as his could help heal the “divisive groups that now possess our country.”
He still regularly collects and donates artifacts to the library and has grown the collection to now more than 40,000 pieces.
He showed Rotarians two of his newest collections Tuesday: a sum book from 1824, which is the earliest record of Lincoln’s handwriting, and an 1864 doll from Lincoln’s re-election campaign, both of which will be added to the rotation of artifacts in the library.
Williams said 160 years after Lincoln’s death, artifacts have become a little harder to find and much more expensive, pointing to the nearly $1 million he spent on five items at the last auction he attended.
“I often advised my former clients when I was practicing law … to invest in historical documents because they rise so quickly and by such high percentages than even real estate,” Williams said, laughing.
Williams said he believes people who see the collection will have a better understanding of the complexity of America’s history.
“I think they will get an appreciation of how difficult it is to be a democracy and a republic for 250 years and that there’s more substance to Lincoln and Grant than the media would have us believe,” he said. “… I think they will know that war is not the answer. I’ve been to one, and I know that war is not the answer.”
Susannah Ural, the Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies at MSU, said the donation has been a tremendous addition to the library.
“It’s not just scholars who come in and use it,” Ural said. “Everybody can learn from this, and with it in partnership with the Grant library, you have two of the most powerful men in the nation that helped save the Union in one of the most powerful states in the nation. At the time, Mississippi was one of the wealthiest states in the country, and so it helps to tell that story.”
Upcoming lecture series
Williams and his wife also fund an annual lecture series called The Frank and Virginia Williams Lecture on Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies. This year’s lecture, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday on the third floor of Mitchell Memorial Library, will be a discussion of the abolishment of slavery through the 13th amendment.
This event coincides with the 160th anniversary of the passing and ramification of the 13th Amendment. The event is free to the public.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
