The $4.5-million Jefferson Davis Presidential Library was dedicated May 30 at Beauvoir, the last home of the Confederate president, in Biloxi, Mississippi. The 13,500-square-foot library, scheduled to open to the public in July, contains exhibits on the life of Davis as well as a 6,000-volume research collection on Davis and 19th-century Southern life.
A museum has been open at Beauvoir since 1941. The library culminates seven years of work by the Mississippi division of the United Sons of the Confederacy and other museum supporters. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Gov. Kirk Fordice were among the dignitaries who attended the dedication, where some attendees were dressed as Confederate officers.
Posted June 8, 1998.