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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Colleagues in the West Tennessee Historical Society:
The WTHS Board met
on July 16th at MUS and took a number of important steps to help
the society fulfill its mission.
Perhaps the most important of these was the formalization of our agreement with Mr. William P. Detling as the Executive Director for WTHS. Bill Detling is an artist and marketing professional, recently retired from Delta Foremost Company, a Memphis chemical enterprise. Mr. Detling is an independent contractor who will be responsible for handling many of the logistical and communications tasks formerly done by WTHS volunteers. He will help especially with the newsletter, with marketing the society to new members, and with marketing WTHS products to other groups and to bookstores. He will be our first best resource for members or prospects to contact with questions or concerns about the affairs of the society. His telephone numbers are 901-683-3854, and 901-219-8857 (cell). His email address is detling2@aol.com. Bill has already done a great job for WTHS in marketing our Paul Coppock books. We have already recovered nearly two-thirds of the books’ purchase price and we have a full season of holiday book purchasing coming up in the next few months.
In another exciting innovation, the Shelby County Archives (operating under the office of Shelby County Registrar Tom Leatherwood) is in the process of scanning in the back issues of the WTHS Papers to make them available online. Our own John Dougan is very closely involved in this process. We will get out the word on how to access our journal’s contents, once the project has been completed.
The Executive Board also approved in principal the transfer of the WTHS printed materials to the University of Memphis Libraries’ Special Collections Department. The Special Collections Department has housed and provided service to the WTHS Collections for more than a quarter century and it made little to do other than formalize the University’s ownership of these materials. The society’s artifacts will not be part of the gift. Shelby County Archivist and WTHS board member John Dougan, Marilyn Van Eynde, and Kent Moran are working with the University to work out the details of this transfer of title.
WTHS Papers Editor, Dr. Derek Frisby, reported to the board that the journal is on schedule for a mid-winter publication and he hopes for an earlier distribution date than we had last year.
Mr. Tim Sloan reported to the board that the WTHS sanctioned historical marker for the City of Munford had been paid for and placed. There has been a hold up on casting the marker honoring Isaac Hayes, because, although the marker application has been paid for, the application has not been completed.
I, personally, have had an exciting summer researching and writing on the manuscript for Historic Shelby County, which WTHS in producing in conjunction with Historical Publishing Network of San Antonio, Texas. We expect a book of high quality and to publish the work in 2007.
Our first meeting of our new program year will feature a power point presentation on Ames Plantation by its director, Jamie Evans. It will be 7:00 p.m. Monday, September 11, at MUS. Ames is a terrific facility and this should be a great program.
Your board is doing a lot to build up the society. Won’t you join in and help us by recruiting new members? Send prospects to the website at www.wths.tn.org, or download an application and give it to a friend.
With all good wishes,
John E. Harkins
Information
Lecture Schedule
2007-2008
Papers (Contents)
1988-2006