Gardening Papers of Chestina Andrews Welty Available at Mississippi Department of Archives and History
A new subseries of the Welty Family Papers is now available for study at the William F. Winter building of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). This new addition features the gardening papers of Eudora Welty's mother, Chestina Andrews Welty.
Included in Subseries 45.8 is Chestina's garden journal containing notes on flower arrangements and formulas, sketches of her garden, weather logs, a Valentine’s poem, and more. Additional materials in the series include garden notes, the Jackson Garden Club meeting minutes, drafts of the “History of the Jackson Garden Club,” photographic negatives of the Welty garden [circa 1930s], and glass slides of Jackson garden scenes. Chestina was a founding member of the Jackson Garden Club who served as both vice-president and president in the 1930s.
Beginning in 1957, and over the course of more than forty years, Eudora Welty donated materials to the department, primarily literary manuscripts and photographs. At her death, her remaining papers were bequeathed to MDAH and included unpublished manuscripts and 14,000 items of correspondence with family, friends, scholars, young writers, and noted writers.
The Eudora Welty Collection is the world’s finest collection of materials related to Welty and one of the most varied literary collections in the United States. The collection includes manuscripts, letters, photographs, drawings, essays, and film and video footage that spans Welty’s entire life.
For more information on the archival collection, contact Elisabeth Cambonga at 601-576-6868, or by email at ecambonga@mdah.ms.gov.