Mississippi State University houses the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library

Yahoo

29-03-2025

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University is home to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, a massive collection of correspondence, research notes, artifacts, photographs and memorabilia by and about the 18th president of the United States.
Founded in 2012, the Grant Presidential Library, located on the fourth floor of the Mitchell Memorial Library on the Mississippi State University campus, opened in November 2017.
Presidential libraries have three primary goals, said Dr. Anne E. Marshall, executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum and Ulysses S. Grant Association.
Their purpose is to house archives, serve as a museum and promote the public's interest and investment in the institution of the presidency in an effort to expand civic education, engagement and dialogue.
The collection of Grant memorabilia that the presidential library is based around has, until recently, been owned by the Grant Association. It came to Mississippi State in 2009 from its former location at Southern Illinois University and remained a collection before being declared a presidential library in 2012.
"Because it is the most extensive collection of Grant research and materials, we decided to establish the library," Marshall said.
A memorandum was signed in March to facilitate the donation of the collection to Mississippi State University where it is housed, and plans are in development to construct a standalone building for the library at the corner of Russell Street and Highway 12, adjacent to campus.
The Grant Presidential Library is home to every known letter to and from Grant. Some are original, though most are photo copies. The fact that they're all on hand though is important for researchers.
"For researchers, the value is in the comprehensive nature of our collection," Marshall said.
Along with letters, the museum owns heirlooms like a blue and white Mikado china set gifted to Grant by the Emperor of Japan and a set of wedding china used during the wedding of Grant's daughter at the White House.
The library is also home to collections of officials who were close to the president, like John Rawlins, a Grant aide, and Orville Babcock, another aide who later betrayed Grant.
A number of other items, including an original portrait of Grant painted by James Reid Lambdin and a Civil War cannon are on loan to the library from private collections.
"We benefit from the fact that people who are maybe not ready to give up their precious artifacts do see that we will be great caretakers of their items," Marshall said. "You can't own everything, but we can house it and show it."
The Lincoln collection
Housed within the Grant Presidential Library is the Frank & Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, a collection of President Abraham Lincoln memorabilia.
Frank J. Williams, retired Rhode Island Chief Justice, founding chair of The Lincoln Forum and longtime president of the Grant Association, was so impressed by MSU's commitment to the Grant Association and its collection that he decided to entrust the university with his personal collection as well.
Williams' fascination with Lincoln began when he was in fifth grade and his classroom desk sat under a portrait of the 16th president, said Dr. Susannah J. Ural, the Frank & Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln & Civil War Studies.
"He was just obsessed with Lincoln," Ural said. "Lincoln as a leader, Lincoln as a citizen, Lincoln as a president, Lincoln as a lawyer. And so what he started to do, over the course of his life, was just collect everything he could find on Abraham Lincoln."
There are close to 50,000 items in Williams' collection, including many items that Lincoln touched like legal documents and letters. At least two-thirds of the collection is from after Lincoln's death and documents how people remembered him, according to Ural.
Another reason Williams chose MSU to house the collection is he liked the idea of it being in the South.
"That you have the two most powerful leaders of the Union, Lincoln and Grant, in what was one of the most powerful states in the nation during the Civil War, and before the Civil War certainly ... and to study that full scope of the Civil War era, it was really important to him."
"He loves people getting to know Lincoln through these items that Lincoln held," she added.
What we can learn from Grant
As a history professor, Marshall dealt primarily with students and other academic historians, but her role with the Grant Presidential Library has provided an opportunity to travel Mississippi to share the work happening with the library and museum.
Likewise, the Grant Presidential Library draws visitors from across the world to Mississippi and the university. It's a major cultural feature that draws people in and has proven to be of great value to the university.
"I'm very proud of Mississippi and I love the fact that we bring people to Mississippi," Marshall said. "They're not here really for any reason other than to come visit our library. I love that we can kind of be the sort of front door for Mississippi."
What makes Grant's life story so compelling, Marshall said, is that he was a typical American who became one of the most famous men of the 19th century.
"We're all attracted to people who seem almost superhuman, but he really did have this early history of mediocrity and failure," Marshall said. "A couple of years before the Civil War, he was broke and selling firewood in downtown St. Louis, and then within a decade, he's in the White House."
His commitment to the union of the United States and the unique attributes of the American republic are inspiring, Marshall said. The museum doesn't sugarcoat the details of Grant's presidency, giving visitors a realistic view of his successes and failures.
She's found that people connect with stories of struggle and imperfection, how people make sense of those mistakes and do better.
"All of that is right in Grant's story," Marshall said.
The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library is free and open to the public. Located at 395 Hardy Road on the Mississippi State University campus, the library is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
For more information, visit usgrantlibrary.org or the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library pages on Facebook and Instagram.