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SST 401: Oral History and Southern Food Narratives: Home

This course guide supports Annemarie Anderson's SST401: Oral History and Southern Food Narratives class during the Fall Semester 2025.

Contact Information

Archives and Special Collections
J.D. Williams Library
P.O. Box 1848
University MS, 38655


Phone: (662) 915-1595
Email: archivesdept@olemiss.edu

 

For This Class, Your Archivist Contact Is

Dr. Leigh McWhite (Political Papers Archivist & Associate Professor)

Email:  slmcwhit@olemiss.edu 

Researcher Registration

Prior to your arrival in Special Collections, complete and submit online the Researcher Registration Form.  This form also explains our rules and protocols.

Foodways Material

The most relevant resource for this class is the Foodways Subject Guide.  Pages in the guide will contain lists of food related manuscript collections, cataloged publications including a large assortment of southern and Mississippi cookbooks, and even Blues songs about food!

Locating Material in Special Collections

If you are looking for primary sources, consider conducting the following searches to locate potentially useful material among the collections of the Archives & Special Collections:

  • Go to the Subject Guides page for a list of all subject guides.  Focusing on a specific theme, subject guides provide brief descriptions and links to related collections and other material. 
  • Go to Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids and enter your keyword terms in the search box in the left side bar.  This method will search across all the finding aids available online.
  • Conduct a library catalog advanced keyword search.  Limit the "Location" to "Special Collections."  Consider using the "Within" box to refine your search by years.  Archives often have primary source (as well as secondary source) published material cataloged separate from manuscript collections.
  • Check out the Archives & Special Collections:  Digital Collections page on eGROVE.    Use the search bar on the left side of the page to search keywords across all the digital collections, or browse through collections by clicking on their links.
  • Ask an archivist for assistance!!

Citing Collection Sources

If citing a cataloged publication (anything that has a library call number), use standard formatting as outlined in your professor's preferred style manual.

Citing collection material requires you to gather a different set of information about your source.  While researching, keep track of the location of material that you intend to reference in your research paper.  Remember that you are providing bread crumbs for readers (or your professor) to retrace your steps and find that specific item.  The following information is essential:

  • Title or brief description of item
  • Name of collection
  • Box number and folder number/name (or unique identifier if consulting a digital collection)
  • Name of archival repository
  • Name of institution

Sample:

Letter dated 3 September 1918 from Lt. Gerald Smith to Anne Smith.  Smith Family Collection (Box 7, Folder 2).  Archives & Special Collections, University of Mississippi.