Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System Traveling Exhibits Program
Please click the image above for the Traveling Exhibits Program Registration Form
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System (CLPLS) Traveling Exhibits Program is designed to showcase the rich and engaging history of Lowndes County, MS with a larger audience.
The CLPLS will loan its traveling exhibits to archives, libraries, museums, and other public indoor venues. The traveling exhibits are available for Mississippi and Alabama institutions ONLY. They are available free of charge. No shipping. Pick-up/drop-off only. Each exhibit can be booked for an eight-week period.
To learn more about how to host a traveling exhibit, contact us at mvance@lowndes.lib.ms.us or call 662-329-5304.
Photo: A farmers’ hay market where pigs, chickens, and sorghum and cane syrup were sold, Main Street at Fourth Street intersection, circa 1927. Courtesy of Curatorial, Inc. and the O.N. Pruitt Collection at the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.
Mr. Pruitt's Possum Town: Photographing Trouble & Resilience in the American South
This exhibit includes six free-standing panels featuring the work of photographer O.N. Pruitt from the 1910s-1960s. For some forty years, Pruitt was the de facto documentarian of Lowndes County, Mississippi, and its county seat, Columbus – known to locals as “Possum Town.”
Otis Noel Pruitt’s work is distinguished by a passion for prolifically and diligently documenting the customs, lives, joys, and sorrows of people in his hometown. His pictures provide a candid and ultimately disturbing visual history of the inequality of that era in the Jim Crow American South, and serve as an invaluable resource for those interested in civil rights, photography, and American history.
The exhibit offers modern viewers an invitation to meditate on the interrelations of photography, community, race, and historical memory.
Funding for this exhibit made possible by the Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
Specifications
Six (6) retractable panels: 34” x 80” each
One (1) shipping roadcase
Crate size: 91 lbs. 42" x 18" x 15"
Opens in a PDF Document. Includes the Exhibit Policies, Unpacking Instructions, Opening Report, Closing Report, Sample Publicity, and more.
Through the Lens of Carl Brown:
Lowndes County, Mississippi in the 1940s-1950s
Photo: Unidentified woman in front of an abandoned Columbus and Greenville Railway car. Photograph was taken by Carl Brown for the Lowndes County Department of Public Welfare (County Welfare Department) on October 10, 1950.
This exhibit features twenty photographs taken by photographer Carl Eugene Brown of life in Lowndes County, Mississippi in the 1940s-1950s. Brown, born in Anguilla, MS in 1918, moved to Columbus in 1929. It was during his service in World War II that he developed his interest and skills in photography. After the war, he opened a studio and for four decades he was one of the preeminent photographers in the Lowndes County area.
Brown captured images of the local and surrounding communities including portraits, proms, parades, clubs, businesses, events, car accidents, churches, fairs, agriculture, houses, recitals, animals, and copy work. His work showcases the lives and history of a Mississippi city from the mid to late twentieth century.
This exhibit was made possible through a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council along with assistance from the Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System, and the Stephen D. Lee High School Foundation.
Specifications
Twenty (20) framed images (measuring 13” x 16”) with twenty (20) corresponding labels
Five (5) panels
Sixteen (16) Supplemental Images with Sixteen (16) corresponding labels
Images in plastic frames, Plexiglas, and wire for hanging
Three (3) Storage Containers
Opens in a PDF Document. Includes the Exhibit Policies, Unpacking Instructions, Opening Report, Closing Report, Sample Publicity, and more.