The Archives
The College and Methodist Archives are two distinct but interrelated special collections of the library. The Millsaps College Archives preserve the records of the college since 1892; the J.B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism bring together manuscript and printed materials that tell the history of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church and its antecedents since 1799.
Please Note:
Visitor access to the College and Methodist Archives is by appointment only.
Please contact Wyatt Winnie at [email protected] or 601-974-1071 for more information or to arrange your visit.
Millsaps College Archives
The Millsaps College Archives preserve the administrative records of the college and collect faculty, student and college publications and private papers. Most of the records of the college’s early period were destroyed in a fire that leveled the main building in 1914. The archives contain few records prior to that time.
In 1982, the library staff began collecting the college records that had been stored in the attic of Murrah Hall until its renovation and combining them with material already in the library. Organization of these records is still in progress. The College Archives hold a small collection of papers from Grenada and Whitworth colleges, Methodist institutions that closed and transferred their students to Millsaps in 1938.
J.B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism
Housed in the Millsaps-Wilson Library of Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, the J.B. Cain Archives Collection is named for Rev. J.B. Cain, longtime historian of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church. The collection is operated in conjunction with the Millsaps College Archives and is funded jointly by the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church and Millsaps College, an institution of the United Methodist Church.
Millsaps College has been a depository for Mississippi Methodist historical material ever since the establishment of the Mississippi Conference Historical Society in 1898. The J.B. Cain Archives comprise books and printed material relating to Mississippi Methodism, church registers and records (1829-1996), a manuscript collection (1789 to present), the records of both conferences’ Historical Societies (1898-1977) and Commissions on Archives and History (1968-present), and the archives of the United Methodist Women (1954-2000).
The books have been cataloged in the general catalog of the library. They cover the general history of Methodism, history of the Mississippi Conference and its antecedent conferences, history of other conferences, local church histories and biographies. The Methodist publications include conference journals, the New Orleans Christian Advocate and the Mississippi Methodist Advocate.
Research Requests
Please fill out this form to submit your request. Due to staffing limitations, requests will take 60 days or more to fill.
