Last week Distinguished Professor Jim Baumlin from the MSU Department of English donated to the MSU Libraries an original copy in good condition of the Saturday, August 31, 1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. The cover contains a full-page etching of “General Lyon at the Battle of Springfield,” which is now commonly called the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, which was fought on August 10, 1861 twelve miles southwest of the square.

Although the Son of the South digital archive and other institutions already have scanned this and other issues of Harper’s Weekly during the Civil War years, the Digitization Lab of the MSU Libraries, led by Shannon Mawhiney, may make another scan using current scanning and metadata standards, then make our scan and the associated metadata and transcriptions available free of charge to the online public.

Later in 1861 there was more combat and military action much closer to the Springfield square that is now commonly called the Battle of Springfield. Dr. Baumlin and the Ozarks Studies Institute, an initiative of the MSU Libraries, are working with Bill Piston and John Rutherford to publish their new book about the Battle of Springfield. It will be available for purchase later in 2020.