06/02/2026
📜 June Item of the Month
The first issue of the Mississippi Valley Collection (MVC) Newsletter, published in January 1977, offers a glimpse into the early efforts to preserve and share the history of the Mid-South.
Among the highlights in this inaugural issue are the donation of the Church family papers—including materials related to R.R. Church Sr., a formerly enslaved man who became one of Memphis's most successful entrepreneurs—and the acquisition of a map of President's Island documenting the activities of the U.S. Freedmen's Bureau in Memphis in 1862.
The photograph featured here is from Special Collections, too. It shows the train transfer boat William B. Duncan on the Mississippi River near Helena, Arkansas, in 1929. Piloted by Captain James A. Burnett and photographed by Jack Watson, the vessel transported Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad trains across the river between Mississippi and Helena.
Nearly 50 years later, this first newsletter remains a fascinating record of the collections, stories, and historical resources that continue to support research and discovery today.
Learn more and read the first issue here: https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/item-of-the-month/
Special Collections is a part of the University Libraries at the University of Memphis.
