April 3, 2022
MUSEUM OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
222 North St #1206, Jackson, MS 39201
“Located in the heart of downtown Jackson, the museum explores over 15,000 years of state history. Visitors will enjoy innovative exhibits, educational programs, and hundreds of artifacts.” – Tripadvisor.com
As far as state history museums go, the Museum of Mississippi History, is one of the best I’ve seen. The visit started with a multi-media presentation covering 15,000 years of the state’s history titled, “One Mississippi, Many Stories”. The theme was carried throughout the museum with stories of individuals who played important roles, both big and small, in the state’s history. I even found a couple things with ties to Iowa.
The museum is divided into three time periods. The first was 13,000 BC to AD 1798, telling the story of the indigenous people of the area and then how the Europeans came to settle bringing enslaved Africans with them. The second area was 1799-1865, the time when Mississippi became a state and prospered because of cotton. The museum does a fair job of talking about slavery and its implications for the state, including stressing the fear of losing slavery as the reason Mississippi seceded from the Union after the election of President Lincoln. That led to an exhibit of the role of Mississippians in wars from the Civil War up through Desert Storm. The final area, 1866-Present, took us through Reconstruction, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement.
The museum uses videos, multi-media, and a variety of exhibits to keep visitors interested. I spent 2.5 hours in the museum, but it went by very quickly. I highly recommend seeing the Museum of Mississippi History.
**Note: The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum are in the same building. Both are well done and need to be seen. While a discount is applied if you visit both museums in the same day, I don’t recommend doing that. I found trying to take in both museums in one afternoon caused sensory overload and I didn’t fully experience the second.
The visit started with a multi-media show titled, "One Mississippi, Many Stories." Entering the area you sat around a campfire.
Replica of an inn along the Natchez Trace Trail, a major thoroughfare in the 1700s and 1800s, stretching from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS.
Choctaw Indian baskets
Carriage. The display pointed out that most Mississippians would not have been able to afford any carriage, let alone one this nice.
The theater for the second video, telling of the cotton business in Mississippi.
A copy of a Bowie Knife, which came to fame after an 1827 duel on a sandbar above Natchez, MS. Jim Bowie pulled his knife and managed to kill his sword-wielding opponent.
The emergence of the cotton gin greatly enhanced a plantations ability to clean cotton, they were therefore able to harvest and sell more of the cash crop.
Iowa Connection: "This necklace was stolen from a Jackson home during the Civil War by Union soldier Daniel Jones of Company I, 17th Iowa Infantry. Jones wrote about the "plundering of Jackson" in a letter to his sister. His descendants returned the necklace, as well as the letter, to Mississippi in 2010."
Some Mississippians signed oaths of allegiance to the Union. I was told at another site that people who did not sign the oath were not considered citizens of the United States, and therefore could not own property.
I remember having a pair of roller skates like these when I was a child...metal wheels and all.
"In the 1890s, stores produced Coca-Cola by running syrup through a fountain that added carbonated soda. These fountains were limited in number and rarely served rural areas. Sensing an opportunity, (Joseph) Biedenharn purchased a bottling machine and began selling Coca-Coal bottles filled with the drink." The Biedenharns became the first bottlers of Coca-Cola.
As an educator, I found this plaque very interesting.
I took this picture for a couple friends who would love the quote.
The third theater which featured a video about some of the struggles Mississippians have faced, like the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927.
A display showcasing several Mississippians who have made it big in the music industry, including Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Charley Pride, and Ike Turner.