Cherie Brooks happened upon a surprising find when she helped clean out a shed located on property in Newton County that her uncle owned.
“We opened some Rubbermaid tubs and there were photos, medals, a helmet and letters,” said Brooks, a resident of Gluckstadt and an art instructor at Germantown High School.
“It was unreal the stuff we found, just some really neat stuff you don’t see every day.”
Stored in the plastic containers were military items documenting the career of Lt. Gen. Glenn D. Walker, (Jan. 21,1916—May 3, 2002), a graduate of Morton High School and Mississippi College who distinguished himself in numerous ways, including service as a staff member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as the commander of the 4th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. He retired in 1980 as adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard.
Discovered in 2020, the items remained in the corner of Brooks’ dining room for two years while she reached out to Walker’s family members but to no avail.
At the suggestion of history teachers and JROTC leaders at Germantown High School, Brooks contacted the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) to inquire if the items might be of interest.
“They ended up taking everything,” Brooks said, noting MDAH indicated it would try to reach the Walker family.
Military items from 1945 to the present are among artifacts and archival materials MDAH is seeking. Brooks donated everything she had found, except for a few duplicate photos from the Vietnam era she kept for use in a photography class she teaches.
Artifacts and archival materials related to Mississippi’s territorial period, early statehood, Civil War and Reconstruction, African American history, the civil rights era, immigration, LGBTQ+ history, Mississippi industries, natural disasters and woman’s suffrage are also of particular interest by MDAH.
“Mississippi has a very diverse history,” said Laura Anne Heller, acquisitions and collections coordinator in the Archives and Records Services Division at MDAH. “It’s very deep and we’re continuing to make it. It’s pretty emotional when we find things that fit an area we’re trying to document.”
Nancy Cooper Gilbert of Ridgeland recently donated letters that her father, the late Owen Cooper, wrote to her mother while he served in the military along with an unexpected item — a handmade quilted face mask, which serves as an example of what Mississippians created during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many papers that tell the story of her father’s life and work as a Mississippi business leader and humanitarian are in the archives of MDAH thanks to donations by Gilbert.
Archivists and collections staff at MDAH will explain the collection policy for donating artifacts, photos and documents and offer information about preserving items during Community Curation Day on March 11 at 10 a.m. at the William F. Winter Archives & History Building in downtown Jackson. The event is free, space is limited to 30 participants and registration is required. Participants are welcome to bring items for consideration. For more information, call 601-576-6850 or email info@mdah.ms.gov.
When it comes to making donations to MDAH, there are two aspects to keep in mind, Heller said.
The museum collections staff is responsible for three-dimensional artifacts and the archives and records services division handles paper-based collections such as letters, scrapbooks, photographs and business ledgers as well as audio-visual recordings, sound recordings, and even electronic files.
There’s no guarantee a donation will be put on display at the Two Mississippi Museums, composed of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, but that’s a possibility between the permanent galleries at both museums and a temporary gallery that features exhibits that change.
The records services division makes items available for researchers, students or any interested person to view in the Archival Reading Room of the William F. Winter Archives and History Building and available for the museum staff to display in future exhibits.
The website for MDAH (www.mdah.ms.gov) includes information about making a donation and that’s one way to initiate an inquiry.
“People contact us before they bring stuff in,” said Nan Prince, director of collections in the museum division at MDAH. “We try to make an appointment to view the items or they send photos of the items. Before we accept something into the collection, we have a collections committee that reviews potential acquisitions.”
Prince said it’s always interesting to see what people bring in, how carefully they’ve kept items and the delight they show when they don’t expect MDAH to have an interest in an item.
Every item cannot be accepted, but each is reviewed keeping in mind preservation for future research or exhibit value, Heller said.
“If there are things we have too much of in our collection, for example, war-related materials or objects, there are other museums in the state that showcase military items and we contact them,” she said. “We support and work with other institutions throughout the state.”
Brooks is happy to know that the items she unexpectedly ran across will be preserved because she values the military service of both her uncle, Walker and all who give of themselves to protect the country. The letters that Walker and his wife wrote to each other are part of MDAH archives, and perhaps the artifacts will one day be on exhibit.
‘I hope that one day they will call me and say, ‘You need to come look at this display,”’ Brooks said.
