(This page's most recent update is
June 2024)
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An old proverb states, “The eyes are the windows into the soul.” A genealogy corollary is that “a photo is a window into the lives of your ancestors.”
I love old photos, whether they are portraits of my ancestors or historical photos of the period when they lived. It is important to complete research that one attempts to understand the environment that surrounds our ancestors’ lives if one wants to truly appreciate what they went through.
So where can they be found? Obviously, the best resources are our own photo albums and those that our relatives possess. But what about other resources? Many archives, historical societies, libraries, and genealogical societies have collections of old photos. And in the past few years, there has been a massive movement towards making these historical photo collections available online. Some have search capabilities where you can actually put in a surname or a location, the name of a building, or a historical event and find what is available.
For the state of Mississippi, what collections are available for you to browse and/or search online? Here is a list of sites to start with. Please feel free to add in the comments other online resources that you might be aware of in the state.
Please be aware that there may be very strict rules regarding downloading or other use of the images that you may find. Copyright and other legal protections may be in force. Make sure that you read the limitations of use for any image that you find in these collections and wish to download and/or copy. It is your responsibility to adhere to the rules for all of these collections.
Please note that links to these sites may change in the future. The author (me) will not constantly be checking and updating these links, so if you find a broken link, please use your favorite search engine to locate the new link.
Mississippi Historical Photo Archives
- 1927 Flood Photograph Collection
- Alcorn County Photographs
- Amite County Historical and Genealogical Society Photos
- Barry County Photo Albums
- Black Past – Mississippi
- Bolivar County Photo Gallery
- Carroll County Photo Collections
- CHARM Digital Collection
- Choctaw County Photos
- Civil Rights Movement Photo Gallery
- Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System
- Cooper Postcard Collection
- Copiah Photo Album
- Delta State University Pictorial History
- Eclectic Mississippi Photo Tour
- Hancock County Historical Society Photo Gallery
- Harrison County Library System
- Historic Jackson Photos
- Historic Resources Inventory Database
- Historical Society of Gulfport
- Itawamba County Historical Society Archival Photo Collection
- Itawamba County Photos
- Jackson County Photographs
- Jasper County Photograph Collections
- Jasper County, Photos – People & Places
- Lauderdale County Photo Galleries
- Lee County Photos
- LeFlore County Photos
- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs – Mississippi
- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
- Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library Local History Photo Archives
- Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library Photo Archives
- Lincoln Lawrence Franklin Regional Library Photos
- Long Beach Historical Society Pictorial Memories
- Mississippi Ancient Faces
- Mississippi Civil War Sesquicentennial
- Mississippi Dead Fred
- Mississippi Department of Archives and History Digital Archives
- Mississippi Digital Library – Collections
- Mississippi Encyclopedia Images
- Mississippi Gulf Coast Museum of Historical Photography
- Mississippi Images
- Mississippi Old Photos
- Mississippi Penny Postcards
- Mississippi State University Digital Collections
- Mississippi, DP.LA Photos
- Mississippi, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
- Mobile Public Library Digital Archives
- Monroe County Photographs
- MS Marion Photos and Postcards
- National Archives – Digital Photograph Collections
- Neshoba County Photos
- Ocean Springs Archives
- Old Mississippi Family Photos
- Pontotoc County Miscellaneous Photos
- Preservation in Mississippi
- School Photographs 1920s-1980s
- Singing River Genealogy and Local History Library
- Smithsonian Images
- Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives’ Photograph Collection
- Southern Media Archive
- Sovereignty Commission Online
- Tippah County Historical Photographs
- Tishomingo County Historical and Genealogical Society Photos
- Tishomingo County Photographs
- Tougaloo College Archives and Special Collections
- Trans-Mississippi Photo Archive
- University of Mississippi Archives and Special Collections
- University of Mississippi Digital Collections
- University of Southern Mississippi Digital Collections
- Vintage Aerial Photos – Mississippi
- Vintage Biloxi Pictures
- Visual Collections: Southern Media Archive
For historical photos from other states and articles about photo research, please visit the Photos page.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
7 replies on “Mississippi Online Historical Photos Research”
Need information on Emma Tear Quinn. Last know address Oakgrove community Noxapater MS.
My Grandmother was Emma Jones Quinn. She lived and is buried in the Oak Grove Community and Oak Grove Cemetery.
The link “ishomingo County Historical and Genealogical Society Photos” is missing the first letter – T. On this page:http://www.theancestorhunt.com/blog/mississippi-online-historical-photos-research
Thanks Rick. I will fix.
Slave owner Wesley Boler are related to my family. There were slaves at the “Boler Inn”. It would be interesting to see if there are photos of the Boler’s with the slaves.
So far, I haven’t found many photos of my ancestors at all. I don’t know which of the children they were given to and then passed down through. I would love to locate any. Good luck in your search.
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Rust College & Mississippi Industrial College Archive Photos