How did Civil War champion become a disgraced figure, and the champion of slavery become a hero?

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6. good question about his presidential paper repository

...“They want to know why Mississippi? That’s the first thing people ask,” said John Marszalek, executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library.

The answer goes back to the 1960s, when the Ulysses S. Grant Association decided to collect all of his letters, manuscripts and other items in one place.

It started at Ohio State in 1962, then moved to Southern Illinois University in 1964 until 2008, when the association decided to move the collection to MSU.

“Dr. Marszalek is a nationally and internationally known scholar,” said Frances Coleman, dean of University Libraries. “When he was made executive director of the collection, that had a lot to do with its coming here.”

“It came here because Mississippi State made the best offer, the best arrangements and offered the best support,” Marszalek said.

“Our wanting the collection here was on behalf of students,” Cole said. “We recognized its value in support of history and the scholarship of history.”

It took an out-of-court settlement to get Southern Illinois University to relinquish the collection.

It’ll probably always seem a little odd for a Mississippi school to house the presidential library of the Union’s commanding general. Marszalek, Cole and the rest know the question will keep coming up.

In a nod to that continuing curiosity, the library had bookmarks printed to explain why the home of the MSU Bulldogs might be the perfect place for Grant’s legacy.

“Hold on with a bull-dog grip, and chew & choke, as much as possible,” Lincoln wrote to Grant on Aug. 17, 1864.

“See?” Marszalek said. “It was meant to be.”


http://djournal.com/lifestyle/grant-bulldogs-union-generals-papers-home-mississippi-state/