Mississippi Online Historical Photos Research

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. And it is important to a 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 resource is 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.

(Updated November 2023)

Mississippi Historical Photo Archives

For historic photos from other states and articles about photo research, please visit the Photos page.


For all Free Mississippi Collection Links in 24 Genealogy Categories, go to the By Location Page, click on Mississippi, and then click on the category of interest.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

7 replies on “Mississippi Online Historical Photos Research”

My Grandmother was Emma Jones Quinn. She lived and is buried in the Oak Grove Community and Oak Grove Cemetery.

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.

404 ERROR!
Sorry, we can’t find the page you are looking for. Please go to Home.
for this link:
Rust College & Mississippi Industrial College Archive Photos

Leave a Reply to Noelle Boler Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *