The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) has received a $217,982 implementation grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to preserve, digitize, and enhance access of the papers in the Eudora Welty Collection at the agency. The Welty Foundation is matching the MDAH required matching contribution for the grant.
The two-year project will conserve 60 items and compile metadata for more than 19,800 scans of items in the Welty Collection. Manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and sound recordings will be digitized. An on-line catalog will be created to facilitate research in these materials.
Beginning in 1957 and over more than 40 years, Welty donated materials to MDAH, mainly manuscripts and photographs. After her death in 2001, the remainder of her papers, including unpublished manuscripts and 14,000 items of correspondence were bequeathed to the agency. These materials are the premier collection of Welty materials in the world.
For more information, contact Forrest Galey at MDAH by email at fgaley@mdah.ms.gov.