New collection highlights monthlong celebration

Todd A. Herring

October is National Archives Month, and, in celebration, Mississippi State University Libraries will feature one of its newest collections throughout the month.

The Todd A. Herring Collection officially will be welcomed and honored with an open house and exhibit, "A Historian Collects: Selections from the Todd A. Herring Collection," in MSU Libraries' Special Collections Department Friday, Oct. 9, beginning at 1 p.m.

Former Starkville resident and Lincoln University professor of history,Dr. Todd A. Herring, who earned both master's and doctoral degrees from MSU, collected his first document in 1977 at the age of 11. After that, Herring was hooked. For the next 30 years he purchased and added to his collection a variety of historical materials from stoneware jugs used to hold liquor to thousands of documents and rare books, publications and artifacts.

In 2008, Herring began donating materials to his alma mater and, to date, MSU Libraries' Manuscripts Division of Special Collections has received some 18 cubic feet of travelers' accounts; estate, military and business records; religious materials; photographs, letters and pamphlets; rare books; newspaper articles and journals; artifacts from 1683-1993; and more.

Herring's strong interest in the Natchez and Lower Mississippi Valley area is reflected in the of his collection's in-depth focus on those areas. That interest led to his 2000 doctoral dissertation, "Natchez, 1795-1830: Life and Death on the Slavery Frontier." Herring's collection also features documents and artifacts from other areas of Mississippi, the South and other regions of the country, and from his extensive travels to 26 countries.

For more information on MSU Libraries and the Todd A. Herring Collection and open house, visit library.msstate.edu/spcoll or contact Mattie Sink at 662-325-3848.