The Catholic Diocese of Jackson has been selected as the winner for the 2016 Cultural Heritage Digitization Award given by the Mississippi Digital Library. A team from the Mississippi Digital Library will come to the chancery later this year to digitize the Bishop Richard Oliver Gerow photograph collection.
The collection, part of the archives for the diocese, represents an incredibly diverse range of subjects and covers a broad timeline, from the 1860s to the 1950s. It reflects the history and development of the State of Mississippi through the unique lens of a Catholic bishop.
The collection includes images of important events; structures such as churches, schools, orphanages and people, including Native Americans, African Americans, immigrant communities, priests, religious men and women and bishops. Bishop Gerow was an avid photographer and historian and kept meticulous records of his collection.
The Mississippi Digital Library is the collaborative digital library program for the state. The aim of the organization is to provide online access to primary source materials held by repositories in the state of Mississippi.
The Mississippi Digital Library began in December 2003 as a partnership between Delta State University, Jackson State University, The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Tougaloo College, The University of Mississippi and The University of Southern Mississippi.
Initially, the project focused exclusively on primary sources associated with the civil rights era, but has since expanded to include materials covering a wide range of subject areas, with contributions from museums, public libraries, historical societies and other cultural institutions throughout the entire state.