This project will create a searchable research database, virtual exhibits, and essays about the contested commemorative history of the Civil War in Corinth, Mississippi. It seeks to answer this question: How and why have Corinthians, Mississippians, and Americans remembered and commemorated the Civil War in Corinth?
I envision first creating a searchable research database of all primary source materials gathered for this project since its beginnings in Fall 2020. These materials include newspapers, manuscript letters, government and legal documents, tourism and promotional brochures, newsletters, military records, postcards, photographs, and illustrations. I’m planning on using these next two weeks to teach myself the ins and outs of subject tagging, metadata, and other tools I’ve read are essential to creating a useable database. Whether I will use Omeka or a separate plugin is as yet undecided, but I lean toward the latter and am currently reviewing products to see which best fits the project’s needs.
Once the research database is created, I will create two virtual exhibits (each with an accompanying short essay) that provide a focused look at two eras of commemoration in Corinth – likely the Jim Crow era (1890-1940) and the Civil Rights era (1941-1965). Other possibilities include Reconstruction (1865-1877) and the Modern Era (1990-Present). The goal of each exhibit and short essay will be to contextualize Civil War memory and commemoration in Corinth in that particular era. I seek to show how memory and commemoration are reflections of their time, place, and political milieu.
Having done my site review on on the Colored Conventions Project, I envision the exhibits looking similar (and being as user-friendly) as those on the CCP website:
These exhibits will showcase many of the documents located in the searchable research database.