(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights Marion County Museum & Archives curator Carol Durham.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born in the bluegrass country of Kentucky in Richmond, Ky., on Oct. 20, 1946.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I graduated from Columbia High School, went on to Mississippi College and got a degree in art and went on to Louisiana University (Monroe) and got a master’s in art.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: In June I came in as the curator of the Marion County Museum & Archives. It’s under the leadership of the Marion County Historical Society. As curator I take care of all of the historic objects that are here like papers and photographs. I work on educational programs with graphics so anybody that comes in can learn not just a name but more information. I create interactive programs for kids so they can learn about history. I bring in speakers for exhibits like the Vietnam War exhibit and coming exhibits. It’s taking care of what’s here at the museum and preparing educational programs that share the history both for adults and for children. With my vision, the museum will be extending and renovating the entire building. The museum only had half of the building, but the city, which owns it, gave us the other half.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: The thread that goes through all of the things I’ve done is art, graphics and video. That’s a lot of what I’m incorporating here to enhance the appeal of the museum. That thread began in the arts, then it took me to teaching for a while, then it took me to New York City with an international company that made our materials and even to work at an elephant sanctuary. I came to retire down here, but this opportunity became available and I thought I could use my experience to offer different perspectives for the museum and make it more appealing visually.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: I enjoy talking with people who are interested in the history of this region. I learn from, and they learn from me. I enjoy the creative aspect of planning and thinking ahead to find a subject matter that would be good to build an exhibit around like the Vietnam exhibit. We’ll be doing a prohibition one beginning in April that will connect to the murder of Sheriff Polk by bootleggers in 1960. We’ll have a railroad exhibit in October. That creative part of the job is something I really enjoy.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
A: The curator job is under the county, and they have allotted only 19 hours a week for the position. Because I have so much in mind that I want to do to make this a museum that people are aware of and travel here to see, 19 hours a week is a short amount of time to get all of the things done I’d like to do.
Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned in your career?
A: Because I’ve traveled a lot and lived in a lot of areas, I think the tolerance for other people and understanding they’ve had a different experience than what I had — the tolerance of that and not making general judgements about people. I really like to focus on individuals.
Q: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian. I love animals, which is part of why I went to the elephant sanctuary. But I always enjoyed drawing, and I didn’t know how that would fit into my life’s work. At one point in college I thought I would be a medical illustrator and focus on biology for both people and animals, but then I ended up going totally into the arts.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I was a lifeguard at the city pool here in Columbia and teaching swimming lessons.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: Nothing is better than the flavor of my mother’s crispy hoecake cornbread with turnip greens. Hoecake supposedly was the way slaves made cornbread using a hoe. They would heat the hoe, mix cornmeal with boiling water, grease the hoe with bacon fat and pour a puddle of cornbread on it. My mom, Bernice Durham, made it in a skillet with a lot of bacon drippings, and it was crispy and delicious.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: I traveled all over the world from Europe to Africa to China and everywhere in between, but I would love to go to Brazil. Some very good friends of mine created an elephant sanctuary there in 2016, and I would love to be there and help them.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I teach a water color class at the Artwistic Gallery once a week with about eight adult students. I really enjoy that, being with them and painting.
Q: What do you enjoy about Columbia and Marion County?
A: Columbia is home. I’ve traveled all over the place and knew that I wanted to retire here. My mother’s family came here in wagons in 1811 so I’m like a lot of people who still live in the county whose families were some of the original settlers. That history has deep roots, and it’s hard to describe the connection. It’s beyond words. I have a sister, Marcella Ward, here, and she’s lived here all her life. Even though I was gone for more than 50 years, I can always connect with her.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: I would love to see my father’s grandmother again and just have lunch with her. My father was Parker Durham, and she was Marcella Durham. Marcella is a family name. There’s so much I didn’t get to ask her that I would love to hear about now.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on who you are today?
A: When I was 21 years old, I accepted a job in New York City that made a huge difference with my confidence and just moving into a city that was a melting pot. It was a melting pot of people like my family, with my father’s side coming over from Scotland and Ireland. It was a city of immigrants that offered so much of a diversified view from my little sheltered view in South Mississippi. That experience of going to New York City was the beginning of broadening my views about a lot of things.
Q: What is one thing you want to do that you’ve never tried?
A: One thing I wish I had done that I would not try now is skydiving. My father was a B-25 pilot, and something about the flying and that sense of floating is appealing.
Q: Using one word for each, what are your top three morals?
A: Integrity, compassion and sharing (being of service and sharing the things I’ve experienced to help other people).
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: As someone who has had a beneficial and hopefully an exciting impact on others.
—Joshua Campbell
