For 11 years, World War II scrapbooks and photos featuring Lowndes County veterans have largely remained tucked away in the Billups-Garth Archives at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.
Taking the documents out of storage was a tall task without risking damage to them, said Mona Vance-Ali, CLPLS archivist.
But now they can be accessed digitally any time and anywhere.
“We’ve tried to have patrons use them before, and it’s been a challenge,” Vance-Ali told The Dispatch on Thursday. “… Scrapbooks are particularly susceptible to deterioration. … And despite what people like to try to think, those do not last forever. … By digitizing them, it makes it more accessible to people.”
The collection of scrapbooks, newsclippings and photographs was officially archived earlier this month as the latest in an ongoing effort by library archivists to digitally record historical documents, photos and other items within the Billups-Garth Archives.
Since 2011, the library has submitted 3,301 items for publication on the Mississippi Digital Library (bit.ly/4eHYfod), a website that partners with institutions across the state to provide free online access to Mississippi’s historic records. Vance-Ali said the hope is to eventually send more, including thousands of court cases and documents from the 1830s to the 1920s.
The Lowndes County World War II Collection was donated to the library by Raymond Mason and Brittany Mason Bigham on April 7, 2014, the Mississippi Digital Library website said.
Since that time, the collection has received regular interest from patrons and WWII researchers, so Vance-Ali said she decided in April it was finally time to photograph, index and upload those documents to the internet.
“It (did) us no good to have them sitting here and have no one looking at them,” Vance-Ali said. “… The goal is to have people learn from them. Find information in them. These are the people’s documents (and) these belong to our community.”
Rufus Ward, a Columbus-based historian, said the library’s efforts, alongside the ongoing construction of the Alva Temple museum at the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport, are aiding in preserving the stories of that timeframe while that generation is still here.
“A lot of people don’t know the involvement that so many people all over the country had in World War II,” Ward said. “You have people here who were involved in all different aspects of the war. You have … Col. Alva Temple, who was a Tuskegee Airman and fought in World War II. … And most people don’t know that you have other people who played major roles in that time period (from here). A lot of people don’t realize the library has those records or how you access them. And so by digitizing them, it makes it easy for the public to actually read and learn about what people here did.”
Expanding the digital footprint
Vance-Ali said the next collection she’d like to see digitized is thousands of court cases and documents from the 1830s to the 1920s in Lowndes County. Those cases are state cases, which include violent crimes like murders and physical assaults from that time frame.
“These are super interesting, and I think more and more researchers are getting really interested in court cases because (they) explore a whole other side of history that we haven’t really talked about,” Vance-Ali said.
Staff with the Local History Department have already been working to index the documents and hope to have the work done within the next 12 to 18 months, Vance-Ali said.
After that, Vance-Ali said she hopes to seek grant funding to better preserve the documents and prepare them for digitization.
“For such a long time, what was considered historically important was really just politics and war,” Vance-Ali said. “And that left out so much and understanding more about our ancestors’ day-to-day lives, (and) understanding more about local individuals at the county level that helps us to understand more about our own history, our community’s history and the larger nation’s history.”
In the future, Vance-Ali hopes that either a private donor or local governments will consider funding an expansion for a new archive wing at the back of the library because the current archives are nearing capacity.
“Money is not just flowing from rivers at the moment,” Vance-Ali said. “So it’s a conversation where we would really need for people to realize that this is hugely important (and) it’s a cultural resource.”
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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.
