| PY-263758-19 | Preservation and Access: Common Heritage | University of Mississippi Medical Center | Finding Community: Documenting Descendants of Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum Patients in History and Cultural Memory | 1/1/2019 - 6/30/2020 | $11,993.00 | Amy | Wiese | Forbes | | | | University of Mississippi Medical Center | Jackson | MS | 39216-4505 | USA | 2018 | Cultural History | Common Heritage | Preservation and Access | 11993 | 0 | 7781.77 | 0 | Two community collection days to digitize
materials and collect oral histories related to the Mississippi State Insane
Asylum, which was located on the site of the University of Mississippi Medical
College (UMMC) from 1855 to 1935. After
a University construction crew discovered coffins from the Asylum’s cemetery in
2012, many descendants contacted news sites and the university to request
details and offer information. The
proposed events would seek to reach and unite the interested members of the
descendant community and provide information about collective identity and
history through family stories, historical context, and analysis. History students from Jackson State
University and Millsaps College would assist in collecting contextual
information, and, with donor permission, digitized items would be made
available via the UMMC library’s digital archive.
This project explores family and cultural memory of the Mississippi State Insane Asylum (1855 to 1935) descendant community by gathering, documenting and providing access to untold histories of family involvement with the Asylum and what that involvement has meant to descendants. It is significant to community members because it will preserve previously undocumented historical materials related to the Asylum, bring the Asylum descendant community together as co-authors of the Asylum’s history, collect evidence of the Asylum’s place in the community’s cultural memory, share information with the community about the Asylum’s history that is currently known, and educate the descendant community about the importance of preserving its past and how to do it. It includes 2 days of digitization, oral history, public exhibition of donated materials, preservation seminars, discussions of Asylum history, cultural memory and ethics, and descendant community input for future programs. |