Historic Natchez Conference

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NEVER PAST: History and Memory in the Old Natchez District

February 6 - 11, 2007, The Eola Hotel, Natchez, Mississippi

      Recognized scholars, archivists, students, and the general public will focus on the role of memory in shaping the history of Native American culture, the planter aristocracy, slavery, Reconstruction, Jewish culture, and Civil Rights.  The Seventh Biennial Historic Natchez Conference highlights the role of archival collections in researching and interpreting the history of the American South.  Included is a special pre-conference workshop on disaster preparedness sponsored by the National Park Service. Participants will visit historic sites, view exhibits, and attend parties  in historic  houses. 

     The conference fosters the study, preservation, and appreciation of the Natchez region by providing a forum for established scholars, graduate students, archivists, and the general public to share research, resources, and ideas. 

      The conference is an outgrowth of the Adams County Courthouse Records Project, a public records preservation and research program initiated in 1992 by California State University, Northridge, and the Historic Natchez Foundation, with major funding and assistance provided by the Natchez National Historical Park.  Graduate students serve as interns in a comprehensive summer program involving conservation, research, and interpretation of multiple  manuscript sources.  Most of the student papers presented at the conference are products of that program.

THE PROGRAM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6

Pre-conference Workshop:  Preserving the Past. A Disaster Preparedness Workshop sponsored by the National Park Service, Lower Mississippi Delta Region Initiative

11:00 a.m.   Registration, Eola Hotel lobby

1:00 p.m.   Welcome.  Eola Hotel Ballroom. Kathleen Jenkins, Natchez National Historical Park; Paul Hartwig, National Park Service, Southeast Region

Session 1.   Firm Foundations:  Architectural Readiness .    Moderator:  David Preziosi, Mississippi Heritage Trust

Documenting Historic Buildings.  Brian Robinson, Savannah College of Art and Design

Preparing Historic Buildings.  Kirk Cordell, National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, National Park Service

2:30 p.m.     Break

3:00 p.m.   Session 1 continues.

Fire Prevention/Building  Codes.  Marilyn Kaplan, Preservation Architecture, Albany,  New York

Case Studies and Lessons Learned from Disaster Response.  Steve Kelley,  WJE— Engineers, Architects, Materials Scientists, Chicago, Illinois

Panel Discussion:  Hindsight 20/20.  Ken P’Pool, Mississippi Department of Archives and History;  Larry Albert,  Albert and Associates, Architects, Hattiesburg, and speakers already listed

6:00 p.m.   Architectural Repast

 Cocktail Buffet at Elms Court (ticketed event - $20)

 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7

9:00 a.m.   Registration for Conference, Eola Hotel lobby

9:00 a.m.   Pre-Conference Continues: Session 2.  Material Memories:  Protecting the Collections.  Moderator:  Julia Young, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Preparing Emergency Plans  and Risk Assessment.  Carol Ash, Southeast Regional Office, National Park Service

10:30 a.m.  Break for Refreshments in the Eola Hotel lobby.

11:00 a.m. Panel Discussion:  Triumphs and TragediesKathy Lang, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, NPS; Michelle Fidler, Southeast Regional Office, NPS; Nan Prince, Mississippi Department of Archives and History;  Brenda Gunn, University of Texas at Austin

12:00 p.m. Pre-Conference Ends

HISTORIC NATCHEZ CONFERENCE BEGINS

All presentations will be in the ballroom of the Eola Hotel, except for the Thursday evening session to be held at St. Mary's Minor Basilica.  All morning sessions will break at 10:30 for refreshments in the Eola Hotel lobby.

2:00 p.m. Session # 1 (Student Session) Recalling Conflict and Contention in Early Natchez.  Moderator: Tara Laver, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, Louisiana State University

Battle for Hegemony at Forts San Gabriel and San Luis de Natchez, 1765-1770.  Todd Bourque, Louisiana State University       

Remembering the Trespassers:  Debtors and Creditors in Natchez, ca. 1820.  Elbra David, California State University, Northridge

Economic and Political Tensions in 1830s Mississippi: River Counties Versus Interior Counties.  Sam B. Todd, Louisiana State University

3:00 p.m.           Break for Refreshments

3:30 p.m.   Session #2   (Student Session)   Inherited and Constructed Memory.   Moderator:   Joyce Broussard, California State University,  Northridge

Prince Ibrahima and the Mississippi Colonization Society.  Dawn Dennis, Claremont Graduate University

All that a Family Ought to be:  The Dumas Family of Natchez.  Sharon Rosen, California State University, Northridge

From Rags to Riches:  The Krouse Family—The First Generation.  Sylvia Plotkins, California State University,  Northridge

5:30 p.m.   Cocktail Reception:  Eola Hotel.  Free event, sponsored by Alex Alston, Jr. , Jackson, and Sandra Kramer, New Orleans

7:00 p.m.   Welcome.  Natchez Mayor Phillip West; Historic Natchez Foundation President Darryl Grennell;  Natchez National Historical Park Superintendent Kathleen Jenkins; Mississippi Department of Archives and History Director H. T.  Holmes

7:15 p.m.   Session #3:   Contesting the Past.  Moderator:  Faye Phillips, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, Louisiana State University

Whose Past?  Whose Memory?  Contests Over the South's History.     Fitzhugh Brundage, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8

9:00 a.m.  Session #4:   Comparative and Selective Memories:  A Tale of Two Southern Cities.  Moderator:  Phyllis Jestice, University of Southern Mississippi

“Where the Old South Still Lives”:   The Natchez Pilgrimage as a Site of Southern Memory.   Steven Hoelscher, University of Texas, Austin

Memory Matters: Personal and Public Heritage in Charleston.  Stephanie Yuhl, College of the Holy Cross

10:30 a.m.  Break for refreshments in the Eola Hotel lobby.

11:00 a.m.  Session #5:    Antebellum Spectrum of Remembrance.  Moderator:  William K. Scarborough, University of Southern Mississippi

Myth and Reality:  Confronting the Historical Memory of Stephen Duncan.  Martha Jane Brazy, University of South Alabama

“Prince” Ibrahima and the Roots of African American Identity in Natchez.   Timothy Buckner, Troy University

2:30 p.m.  Session #6:    (Mini Session)  Biographical Inquiries:   Three Centuries of Natchez Remembered.   Charles Yarborough, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Columbus

Preserving Good Order:  John Girault of Natchez, Mississippi, 1783-1813.  Marika Pineda, University of Washington

George Winchester:  A Capitalist Among Natchez Planter Elites.  Michael Ward, Claremont Graduate University

A Most Remarkable Son of Natchez, Dr. J. N. Rucker (1892-1970).  W. Douglas Fisher, Bethesda, Maryland

6:00 p.m.   Session #7: Temple B:nai Israel.  Remembering and Memorializing Jewish Natchez.  Moderator:  Greg O’Brien, University of Southern Mississippi

“A rare unity of interest:”  the Jewish Community in Nineteenth-century Natchez.  Teri Tillman, Natchez

Preserving the History and Memory of Temple B’nai Israel and the Jewish South.    Stuart Rockoff, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

7:30 p.m.   Reception  at Temple B’Nai Israel. Free event.  Honoring the members of Temple B’Nai Israel and the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9

9:00 a.m.   Session #8:   Recovered Memory:   Archival  History in the  Natchez Trace Collection and Adams County Courthouse Records.   Moderator:  Anne Lipscomb Webster, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Patent Medicine in the Old Natchez District.  Brenda Gunn, University of Texas, Austin

Processing History Case by Case:  The Adams County Courthouse Records Project.  Edward C. Esau, University of California, Riverside and Historic Natchez Foundation

10:30 a.m.  Break for Refreshments in the Eola Hotel lobby.

11:00 a.m.   Session 9:   The Burden of History:  Repression and  Retrospection.  Moderator:  Ronald L. F. Davis, California State University, Northridge

"The Great White Revolution:"  The White Leagues of Mississippi and  Louisiana in the Late Reconstruction South.  Mitchell Snay,  Denison University

The Measure of our Days:  Racial Reconciliation in Mississippi.   Governor William Winter,  Mississippi Department of Archives and History

2:30 p.m.   Session #10:  (Mini Session)  Constructing Memory:  Collective and Ethnic Perspectives.   Moderator:  Jim Barnett, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

The Natchez Revolt:  An Ethnohistorical Perspective.  Jill Childress, University of Southern Mississippi

What’s in a Name?  Constructing Slave Cultural Identity in Natchez.  Jaime Boler, University of Southern Mississippi

Natchez Post-Bellum Merchants:  A New Kind of Planter.   Aaron Anderson, University of Southern Mississippi

7:00 p.m.   Cocktail Buffet at Stanton Hall (ticketed event - $25) 

 Remembering and Honoring the Stantons

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

9:00 a.m.   Session #11:   Reconstructing History:  the African American Experience.  Tim West, Southern Historical and Folklife Collections, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

John R. Lynch and the Memory of Reconstruction.   Justin Behrend, Mount Holyoke

The Davises and Montgomerys.   Matthew Holden, University of Virginia

10:30 a.m.  Break for Refreshments in the Eola Hotel lobby.

11:00 a.m.   Session #12:  Not  Forgotten and Not Really Gone:  the Natchez Diaspora.  Moderator:  Vincas Steponaitis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Natchez Among the Chickasaw.   John O’Hear, Mississippi State University and Brad Lieb, University of Alabama

The Natchez Among the Cherokee.  Brett H. Riggs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Natchez Among the Catawba.  R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

12:30 p.m.  Lunch at the Carriage House (ticketed event - $20) “Remember  the Alamo: ” Historical Revelation and Revision and a few Natchez Connections.

How Did Davy Die?  The Continuing Saga of the Alamo  “Diary of José Enrique de la Peña.”  Don Carleton, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin

7:00 p.m.   Cocktail Buffet at Longwood (ticketed event - $25)   Remembering and honoring the Nutts & the Rouths

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11

11:00 a.m.   Brunch at Magnolia Hall (ticketed event - $20)  Remembering and honoring the Hendersons

CONFERENCE EXHIBIT Eola Hotel:   A Gentleman of Fine Talents and Extensive Experience:  Thomas Affleck of Washington, Mississippi, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, Louisiana State University

OPTIONAL CONFERENCE TOURS—Free to Conference Participants

Friday, February 9

2:00—5:00 p.m.  Cemetery Tour—City Cemetery, Routh Cemetery, and Longwood Cemetery   

Saturday, February 10

2:00 —4:30 p.m.  Camellia Tour—Historic gardens  

2:00 —5:00 p.m.  Archaeological Discovery—Map Study and Site Tours

Untimed Tours

Your name badge is your admission ticket to tour Melrose, William Johnson House, House on Ellicott Hill, Rosalie, and Magnolia Hall during the Historic Natchez Conference. 

All lectures are free and open to the public, as well as all tours, all coffees and the receptions on Wednesday and Thursday. The few ticketed events are listed in program and on the registration form.

REGISTER HERE

Click here for a printable brochure.

The conference has been planned and coordinated  with the active participation and generous support of  the following sponsors:

California State University Northridge

Center for American History
University of Texas at Austin

Historic Natchez Foundation

Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection

Louisiana State University

Mississippi Department of
Archives and History

Natchez National Historical Park

Southern Historical and Folklife Collections

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of Southern Mississippi

For more information,  contact
Historic Natchez Foundation

Phone
601.442.2500 or 800.445.2510

Email