"Sawmills and Logging Railroads of Hattiesburg" by Dr. Gilbert Hoffman - Oct. 16, 2007

News item published on: 2007-10-11 09:16:54

Dr. Gilbert Hoffman

Tuesday / October 16, 2007 / 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Cook Library, University of Southern Mississippi (Room 123)

As part of the University Libraries Speaker Series, Dr. Gilbert Hoffman will talk on the history of sawmills and logging railroads of Hattiesburg. He will focus on the histories of the J.J. Newman and Tatum Lumber Companies and how the railroads assisted in the transportation of the lumber to market. Dr. Hoffman will highlight his talk with historic photographs of J.J. Newman and Tatum Lumber Companies.

Dr. Gilbert Hoffman grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, where he attended Central High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University in Aeronautical Engineering and his Master’s degree (Engineering Mechanics) and PhD (Aerospace Engineering) from Stanford University. Dr. Hoffman has been researching the sawmill industry for 35 years and has written several books about the topic including Dummy Lines through the Longleaf: A History of the Sawmills and Logging Railroads of Southwest Mississippi and Steam Whistles in the Piney Woods: A History of the Sawmills and Logging Railroads of Forrest and Lamar Counties, Mississippi. His archives are housed in McCain Library & Archives at the University of Southern Mississippi (Collection Number M272).

Refreshments will be prepared from recipes once served on various railroads in the United States. These recipes were found in Dining by Rail: The History and the Recipes of America’s Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine (Gulf Coast Library TX715 .P848 1998).

The University Libraries’ Special Collections is home to numerous collections relating to the lumber and railroad industries. A list of the collections can be found at www.lib.usm.edu/~archives/subj-lum.php and www.lib.usm.edu/~archives/subj-rr.php. Special Collections also has a growing collection of books, journals, and pamphlets relating to the railroad industry. To use these collections, visit the McCain Library & Archives reading room (Room 305) Monday thru Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. In addition, an exhibit featuring items from the railroad collections Survivors of a Throwaway Culture: Railroad Ephemera and its Research Value is currently on exhibit in the McCain Library & Archives reading room.

Questions? Contact Peggy Price at Peggy.Price@usm.edu or 601.266.5077.