After spending some time reviewing Jackson State University's Margaret Walker Center last week, I have a good idea of what I need to look for in library catalogs and online finding aids. I have been documenting information in an Excel spreadsheet with tabs for 1) Mississippi archival repositories, 2) collections, 3) compiled metadata used to describe identified collections, and 4) Mississippi LGBTQ literature.
Lit Review
A literature review seemed like a useful idea, since I was already searching library catalogs to get an idea of subject headings to search for, and archival material to cross-reference, in finding aids. I am not a Mississippi native, nor have I done much research on LGBTQ issues (at least since my undergraduate days). Identifying supplemental reading for myself and for potential researchers could help uncover those collections that are not explicitly described by archivists in LGBTQ terms.
What Isn't There
This past week I started reviewing the Beulah Culbertson Archives and Special Collections at the Mississippi University for Women. The first institution of higher education for women in Mississippi delivered immediate excitement, with its LGBT+ Alumni Oral History Project. During secondary research, I was able to find a reference to a "founding mother" living with her partner during her tenure at MUW in a Mississippi Encyclopedia entry. Unfortunately, there was limited detail in the online finding aids, so I will need to reach out for more information.
The lack of LGBTQ terms in archival descriptions is complicated. I mentioned last week learning that donor families and archivists may deliberately hide or leave out details relating to a creator's sexuality or gender identity. Indeed, a given time period may be so hostile to living openly that creators may themselves hide those details. Amy L. Stone and Jaime Cantrell write of these missing pieces of lived experience:
"What appears as silence and closeting may have been a proliferation of signs, symbols, and strategic display of queer identities. ...Multiple ways of belonging developed as geographies surrounding the regional and national, the public and private, and insider/outsider emerged and became central to living a public self. These differences in the visibility and disclosure of sexuality complicate the ways in which archives gather, group, and display materials relating to sexualities. But they also create a rather tricky paradox for scholars negotiating and interpreting LGBT presence or absence: that is, reading queer sexualities and identities in many places at once while simultaneously nowhere at all." (Stone and Cantrell, 2015, p. 4)
Without detailed descriptions of collections by archivists, I am left unable to even make guesses. I do not know enough queer or regional history to make inferences about practices or customs. Where locals might have rumors and gossip, I'm coming from outside Mississippi. I feel like an outsider in just about every way.
Moving On
After hitting a wall with MUW, I began to search the library catalog for the University of Southern Mississippi. I have spent a bit of time expanding on the data fields I am collecting. The idea is for my survey findings to be a resource moving forward for IHP to direct researchers to collections. Since beginning, in addition to repository information such as contacts, URLs, and correspondence history to track what I've requested, I am collecting a fair bit about the collections themselves. My collection fields include:
Repository
Collection Name
Collection Number
Creator(s)
Name Subjects
Topical Subjects
Dates
Format/Size
Member of LGBTQ community - if it is known or noted in the finding aid
Has Related Collections - also if noted in the finding aid and relevant to LGBTQ research
Content - titles, series, and box/folder locations of relevant materials
Additional workflow information, like prompts to indicate I've reviewed the finding aid, searched the library catalog, and done a thorough search of the website for scope descriptions, along with a place for notes about my findings, will *hopefully* keep me from having to retrace my steps or get stuck in a feedback loop of searching.
References and Supplemental Readings
Stone, A. L. and Cantrell, J. (2015). Introduction – Something Queer at the Archive In Amy L.
Stone and Jamie Cantrell (eds.), Out of the Closet, Into the Archives: Researching Sexual
Histories. Pp. 1-22. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Image citation:
Mississippi University for Women. (1912). Pauline Orr In Her Classroom. Mississippi Digital
Library. (electronic version), Mississippi University for Women Archives. (electronic version).