Mitchell Memorial Library’s fourth floor was filled with people and the classic sound of violins during Thursday’s opening ceremony of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, and the Franklin and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana.
The event itself was historic, as Mississippi State University became one of only six universities in the nation to hold a presidential library. It took two years of construction, but the 21,000 square-foot facility is now open to the public.
The new library contains artifacts, statues and thousands of papers written by the nation’s 18^th president. In fact, the Grant Presidential Collection is the world’s largest collection of Grant artifacts, which include research notes and photos.
MSU President Mark Keenum said the new library is a “priceless treasure” to the university. He said the facility would not have been possible without the help of John F. Marszalek, executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, as well as MSU Dean of Libraries Frances Coleman. Keenum also thanked the Mississippi Legislature for providing $10 million for the project.
Before Keenum moved to Starkville when he was named as the university’s president in 2008, he said he received a call about the Grant collection being moved from Illinois to MSU. Keenum said he was “downright giddy about it.”
“We set out to make it happen,” Keenum said. “As I said, my family’s moving vans and President Grant’s moving vans literally arrived here in Starkville at the same time and, Grant and I have been here ever since.”
Keenum said one of his first media calls about the collection was from a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, who asked Keenum how he felt about the documents being moved from Illinois to the deep south. Keenum said the reporter asked if he thought it was ironic Mississippi would be home to the documents, and Keenum disagreed.
“Stop and think about it,” he said. “I said there is not another state in the nation that had more to do with propelling Grant’s career than the state of Mississippi.”
Keenum was referring to Grant’s crucial victory in the Siege of Vicksburg, which he claims resulted in Grant receiving President Abraham Lincoln’s appreciation. Thus, propelling him to the status of Commanding General of the Army, and eventually becoming the president of the United States.
Keenum said since the university now has such a remarkable collection of Grant and Lincoln items, it is a national center of the American Civil War. Keenum said he hopes it will be a reminder of the nation’s past.
“Our university offers a unique opportunity to the study of the Civil War, not from a northern perspective or a southern perspective, but from a truly American perspective,” Keenum said. “So, I hope that this will, to more fully understand our past, remind us how much all Americans have in common and reiterate that our shared devotion to liberty and justice for all ails us to overcome the divisions that from time to time appear.”
Along with the Grant Library, this summer, MSU acquired the largest, privately held collection of Lincoln material in the nation.
The Collection of Lincolniana was given to the university by Frank and Virginia Williams, and is valued at about $3 million. Frank Williams, former chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, spent about 50 years collecting all the items, and has written several books about Lincoln.
Frank Williams said while he is a fan of modern digital innovations which libraries utilize, the importance of written word will always be paramount.
“There’s absolutely nothing in our civilization that will ever replace the written word,” Williams said.
The Williams’ collection is a vast compilation of books, artifacts, ephemera and paintings, representing the life of the nation’s 16^th president and the Civil War.
Also among the Opening Ceremony speakers was Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who called the opening a “new day of opportunity.”
Bryant’s speech was filled with history of Grant’s connection to Mississippi and to Lincoln. He said the library’s expansion will honor the two presidents, and create more historical tourism for the state.
“Generations hence will come here, and I believe hundreds of thousands of tourists,” Bryant said. “Each year some 20 million people visit this great state. Thousands upon thousands will come to see this exhibit to marvel that it is here in Mississippi. They will come to know us better, for this is a great day for Mississippi’s future. We cannot build our future on anyone’s past, but we cannot forget what has happened. We will go on.”

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Rachel Bowman | The Reflector

MSU President Mark Keenum addresses the crowd gathered during Thursday's opening ceremony of of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, and the Franklin and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana.