Digital Snapshots
1927 Flood Photograph Collection
This “Digital Snapshot” Exhibit features photographs from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) 1927 Flood Photograph digitized collection.
The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 displaced almost three-quarters of a million men, women, and children, caused 247 deaths, and submerged 27,000 square miles of land. African American communities were especially hard-hit, as they comprised 75-percent of the population living in the Delta lowlands, 95-percent of the labor force, and suffered under unequal refugee programs that prioritized employers’ interests over those of Black laborers. The overall collection features 124 photographs taken by the Illinois Central Railroad company's flood committee in April, May, and October of 1927 from Memphis, Tennessee through Delhi, Louisiana. This exhibit features fifty-five photographs from the overall collection.
Funding for this Digital Snapshot Exhibit was provided by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
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1927 Flood Album History
Read a contextual essay and access secondary sources.
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Snapshot Exhibit
Browse a "Snapshot" of photographs from the full 1927 Flood Album collection.
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Educator Resources
Access K-12 activities based on images in this Snapshot.
Browse Sample 1927 Flood Photographs By Location
Cite images according to the following structure:
Original Creator, “Title,” Unique Resource Identifier, Series Number and Title, Archival Repository, image URL.
Example:
Illinois Central Railroad Company, “Mississippi River Flood of 1927, Page 8; 1927-04-29,” 97135_photo, Series PI/1992.0002: 1927 Flood Photograph Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, www.dh-mdah.org/1927-flood-pg-8.
Suggested bibliographic citation format for items in this exhibit: