Mississippi Valley State University and the University of Southern Mississippi were on the agenda this week. I have a fairly established method of researching a new repository, starting with familiarizing myself with its history, departments, and possible locations for collections. Usually, this means going to the library website and looking for "archives and special collections" departments. USM presented a realization that institutional repositories provide a picture of the type of research students and faculty are doing, and could also point to primary source materials available. I looked back at JSU and the W to see if these universities had online institutional repositories, and I will start checking future schools.
Contacting Archives
I reached out to the archivist at Mississippi University for Women. After finding potential collections but limited details or subject headings pointing to LGBTQ related collections, I am hoping the archivist there can provide some resources. This project will be a great opportunity for me to practice my (limited) networking skills and get the perspectives of archivists working with various collections. After reviewing MVSU's website, it appears their finding aids are all paper, so I also reached out to the archivist there as well.
Interesting Finds
While doing a web search to cast a wide net for helpful information, I found a presentation to the Society of Mississippi Archivists (Derek Webb, 2019) regarding their LGBTQ oral history project, which provided perspectives of historians, interviewees, libraries, archivists, and the LGBTQ community regarding privacy concerns of online collections. I was excited to see this project described on the Mississippi University for Women's website. Getting an inside look at the considerations that went into such a project was revealing.
The University of Southern Mississippi's Oral History Program, accessed via the library catalog and LGBTQ subject headings, includes several relevant collections. The subjects were interviewed in the early 90s, and while the manuscripts are discoverable in the library catalog, I did not find online finding aids to provide further information. I was excited to see these resources in the Mississippiana collection at USM. Historian John Howard utilized interviews of gay men in Mississippi to write Men Like That: A Southern Queer History. Going from a resource identified from a catalog search to reading this history, I am reminded of the importance of bringing these lived experiences to life. Howard and historians like him creating published works that can give voice to lives often lived under the radar depend on archival resources. My experience searching on my own has been less fruitful than I hoped, so I can imagine the frustration of scholars of LGBTQ history.
Types of Archival Collections
Primary sources of LGBTQ material could take the form of personal papers, publications, business or corporate records (for LGBTQ-owned businesses, nonprofits, or student groups), ephemera, and oral histories (most that I have found are manuscripts of interview transcripts, but audio and video are also possible). In addition to the expected archival material and some online resources in their Digital Collections, an institutional repository of student thesis/dissertation and staff publications could itself provide primary information about the level and type of LGBTQ issues being studied at institutions of higher learning in Mississippi. I have found some thesis/dissertation resources preserved as paper manuscripts or microfiche. Digital resources to student and faculty research are a great find, and I hope to see more institutions with digital repositories.
Supplemental Reading
Howard, J. (2002). Men like that : a southern queer history (1st paperback ed.). University of
Chicago Press.