Mississippi

The Windsor Ruins are located in Claiborne County in the U.S. state of Mississippi, about 10 miles southwest of Port Gibson near Alcorn State... University. The ruins are those of the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion built in the state, and have been used in various motion pictures. The Windsor Plantation at one time covered 2,600 acres . Smith Coffee Daniell II, who was born in Mississippi in 1826, the son of an Indian fighter turned farmer and landowner, constructed the mansion itself in 1859-1861. In 1849 he married his cousin Catherine Freeland by whom he had three children. Basic construction of the house, which was designed by David Shroder was done by slave labor. The bricks for use in the 45 foot columns were made in a kiln across the road from the house. The columns were then covered with mortar and plaster. There were 29 of these columns supporting the projecting roof line with its plain, broad frieze and molded cornice. This provided protection for the galleries that encompassed the house at the second and third levels.
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Waverley is a mansion in Clay County, Mississippi, 10 miles east of West Point. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973. A statement at... that time by the National Park Service read: The antebellum home was originally owned by George Hampton Young, a colonel from Georgia. At one point, the Waverley plantation was independent, providing its own produce and meat, textiles, and energy. The mansion fell into disrepair following the end of the Young family line in 1913, but was restored by the Robert Snow family beginning in 1962.
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Ammadelle, in Oxford, Mississippi is an Italianate mansion that is a fine example of design work by Calvert Vaux. It was built by Thomas E. B.... Pegues. Final details were incomplete when the American Civil War started, and the missing details were never finished. It is a red brick building with white Italianate trim and black shutters. It was designed in an irregular plan by Calvert Vaux, an architect who had moved to America in 1850 to work with Andrew Jackson Downing and would later work with Frederick Law Olmsted. Vaux was 34 years old, and working independently after Downing's death, when he prepared plans for Ammadelle in 1857. That Vaux thought Ammadelle was one of his best works is suggested by his inclusion of a similar design in the second and third editions of his book Villas and Cottages. The house is in very well preserved condition; it has been altered in only small ways of replacement of three mantels. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Vaux's original plans are with the owner of the building. It is located at 637 North Lamar Street in Oxford.
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Arlington is a historic Federal style house and outbuildings in Natchez, Mississippi. The 55-acre property, which includes three contributing... buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It was further declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Following a fire that destroyed much of the main house, it was placed on Mississippi's 10 most endangered historic places for 2009 by the Mississippi Heritage Trust. Tradition maintains that Arlington was built by John Hampton White, a native of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and his wife, Jane Surget White. The date that construction of the house began is murky. It is thought by scholars to have been built about 1819–20. The architect of Arlington is unknown. Its design has historically been attributed to John Hampton White, but no documentation exists to validate the claim. What is documented is that Lewis Evans, a wealthy Natchez planter, purchased the land on which Arlington stands in 1806. Here he established a plantation and built a house. In 1814 he sold a portion of the plantation containing his house to Jonathan Thompson, a land speculator.
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James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for... projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He died of Streptococcus pyogenes on May 16, 1990. Henson, who was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and educated at University of Maryland, College Park, is one of the most widely known puppeteers ever. He created Sam and Friends as a freshman in College Park. After suffering struggles with programs that he created, he eventually was selected to participate in Sesame Street. During this time, he also contributed to Saturday Night Live. The success of Sesame Street spawned The Muppet Show, which featured Muppets created by Henson.
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John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine. Singing in a loud whisper, to a melodious finger-picked accompaniment, he began to play local dances... and parties while working as a sharecropper. He first recorded for Okeh Records in 1928, but these were commercial failures, and Hurt drifted out of the recording scene, where he continued his work as a farmer. After a man discovered a copy of one of his recordings, "Avalon Blues", which gave the location of his hometown, there became increased interest in his whereabouts. Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, would be the first to locate Hurt in 1963. He convinced Hurt to relocate to Washington, D.C., where he was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This rediscovery helped further the American folk music revival, which had led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurt's era. Hurt entered the same university and coffeehouse concert circuit as his contemporaries, as well as other Delta blues musicians brought out of retirement.
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Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs. His professional career lasted from the mid 1930s until his death in 1983, and saw... the creation of many plays that are regarded as classics of the American stage. Williams adapted much of his best known work for the cinema. Williams received virtually all of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama, including several New York Drama Critics' Circle awards, a Tony Award for best play for The Rose Tattoo and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . In 1980 he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter and is today acknowledged as one of the most accomplished playwrights in the history of English speaking theater.
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John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade. He also served in the... House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990. Beginning writing in 1984, he had his first novel A Time To Kill published in June 1989. As of 2008, his books had sold over 250 million copies worldwide. A Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing, the others being Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling. Grisham's first best seller was The Firm. Released in 1991, it sold more than seven million copies. The book was later adapted into a feature film in 1993, and a TV series in 2012 which "continues the story of attorney Mitchell McDeere and his family 10 years after the events of the film and novel.
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Louisiana ; Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is... the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish. Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish, Native American and African cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been a Spanish and French colony.
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Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th most populous of the 50... United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144. Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902. The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.
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Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida... and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th most extensive and the 23rd most populous of the 50 United States. Alabama ranks second in the area of its inland waterways. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, suffered economic hardship, in part because of continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries and urban centers, white rural interests dominated the state legislature until the 1960s, while urban interests and African Americans were under-represented. Following World War II, Alabama experienced growth as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and technology. In addition, the establishment or expansion of multiple military installations, primarily those of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, added to state jobs. Alabama is unofficially nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird.
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