05/06/2026
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System (CLPLS) has completed the processing and digitizing of the Lowndes County World War II collection covering 1942-1978.
Now open to researchers, the collection includes nineteen black and white photographs of local soldiers, two scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings, three war ration booklets, and one WWII Blue Star flag.
The two scrapbooks consist of newspaper clippings largely documenting the lives of Lowndes County soldiers, both men and women, in training, their military service, awards, visits home, and casualties. The articles also detail the domestic front with local fundraising efforts, the birth of children, businesses, family visits with soldiers, and more. The local articles were published both in the 1940s as well as in the 1970s, the later articles printed as part of a column titled “Columbus News 32 Years Ago Today”.
Archival staff indexed both scrapbooks to assist patrons when researching local names and organizations. Staff also uploaded the identified photographs of soldiers from the collection to their entries on the Findagrave.com database.
In addition, the two scrapbooks along with their respective indexes and the nineteen photographs are digitized and available on the Mississippi Digital Library (MDL). The CLPLS works with the MDL out of the University of Southern Mississippi to make collections housed in the library archives available online to researchers worldwide.
To view the digited Lowndes County World War II collection, visit https://msdiglib.org/columbus.
For more information call 662-329-5304 or email [email protected].
