Miss. Code. tit. 16, pt. 3, ch. 4 - Policy and Standards for Curated Federal Archaeological Collections

Introduction. Curation at the MDAH Curation Facility

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History was established in 1902 and serves as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). In addition, all state owned collections are housed in the MDAH facility in addition to several federal collections, such as the Federal Highway Administration. The facility also houses the state-wide archaeological and architectural survey files, site card files and the National Register of Historic Places files.

The MDAH facility was initially designed for the purpose of curating the states paper archives. The building design consists of concrete exterior walls, a covered loading dock and a poured concrete floor. The facility is located on the third floor of the Charlotte Capers Building. All artifact collections are curated on this floor. The facility is temperature controlled, virtually fire-proof, and has seven miles of movable shelving that is capable of storing over 15,000 curation boxes measuring 15 X 12 X 10. The archaeological laboratory is in the basement of the Capers Building and is where the incoming collections are processed before being curated on the 3^rd floor. Security measures include controlled access to the collections. All visitors must be logged in before they are given access to the collections. In addition, the Capitol Police patrol inside the building twice a night.