BPL’s Jim Baggett Receives 2022 Marvin Yeomans Whiting Award as State’s Top Archivist

 

BPL's Jim Baggett receives 2022 Marvin Yeomans Whiting Award. 

Birmingham, Alabama – Jim Baggett, longtime archivist for the Birmingham Public Library, has been named 2022 winner of the Society of Alabama Archivists "Marvin Yeomans Whiting Award." 

Baggett was named recipient of this prestigious during the recent Society of Alabama Archivists Annual Meeting at Troy University - Dothan. Named for Marvin  Yeomans Whiting, BPL’s first archivist and a pioneer in the professionalization of archives in Alabama, this award recognizes individuals, organizations, or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the preservation and dissemination of local history in Alabama. The Marvin Yeoman Whiting Award recognizes the preservation of historic documents and oral history but not buildings, historic sites, or artifacts. 

BPL Executive Director Janine Langston said both Baggett and Whiting helped raise the profile of the BPL Archives & Manuscripts Department among researchers across the globe.

“Visitors from around the world visit the BPL Archives & Manuscripts Department to conduct research because of the work of both Whiting and Baggett,” Langston said. “We are honored to have Jim as a member of the BPL team and congratulate him on this well-deserved achievement. “ 

Baggett said he is honored to receive an award named after Whiting, his mentor who trained him after Baggett began his career at BPL. 

“Marvin Whiting was one of the major influences in my life,” Baggett said. “He taught me as one of my professors at UAB. He trained and directed me as an archives intern. And he hired me as Assistant Archivist and made sure I was prepared to succeed him as Archivist when he retired. He was also a good friend and a truly unique individual. Whatever success I have had, I owe much of it to Marvin.”

Baggett said no individual has done more to collect and document the history of Birmingham than Marvin Yeomans Whiting, who died in 2010. 

After joining BPL’ s staff in 1975 as a CETA worker, Whiting became BPL’s first archivist and curator of manuscripts. Over the next two decades, he and his staff assembled an archive and manuscript collection containing millions of documents, tens of thousands of photographic images, maps, drawings, blueprints, video and audio recordings, motion picture film and artifacts.

Housed in BPL’s Research Library adjacent to the Central Library downtown, the archives serve researchers and writers seeking information on a variety of issues including: the Civil Rights Movement and race relations; industrial and economic development in the South; the labor movement; the experiences of African Americans, Jews and other ethnic groups in Birmingham; church and religious history; politics in the South; architecture and education; sports history; and the study of music, arts and literature. 

BPL’s Archives Department has received national accolades, including this 2016 article in The Atlantic. 

Born in Fort Valley, Georgia, in 1934, Whiting became the third generation of his family to attend Emory University in Atlanta, where he obtained a B.A. degree in Literature in 1956. After getting married in 1960, Whiting served as a minister in two small churches for two years then moved into education. He returned to Emory and completed an M.A. degree specializing in American colonial history, taught at a couple universities and then joined the Birmingham Public Library staff in 1975.

During 20 years as a an archivist at BPL, Whiting served as an adjunct professor at Birmingham-Southern College, UAB and the University of Alabama. He was a member of the Jefferson County Historical Commission and a board member of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Whiting was the author of a number of books and articles.

The 2022 Michael Yeomans Whiting Award is just the latest accolade Baggett has received over nearly three decades in BPL’s Archives Department. 

In April 2021, The Alabama Historical Association, the oldest statewide historical association in Alabama, presented Baggett with the Milo B. Howard Award for his article “’A Law Abiding People’: Alabama’s 1901 Constitution and the Attempted Lynching of Jim Brown.” The article was published in The Alabama Review. 

 That same month, the University of Alabama named Baggett the 2021 Outstanding Alumnus in Library & Information Studies for his service and contributions to librarianship in Alabama. 

Baggett has lectured and presented conference papers throughout the U.S. and in Europe. He has been featured on Alabama Public Television, Alabama Public Radio, National Public Radio, C-SPAN, and Birmingham area television stations and newspapers. 

Baggett has served as curator or co-curator for several exhibits, including Looking Back at Gee’s Bend: The Photographs of John Reese, which traveled to sixteen locations in five states, and Common Bonds: Birmingham Snapshots, 1900-1950, which traveled throughout Alabama and to Europe. He has authored or edited five books on Birmingham and Alabama history, including A Woman of the Town: Louise Wooster, Birmingham’s Magdalen and Alabama Illustrated: Engravings from 19th Century Newspapers. 

Jim Baggett with his 2019 ALA Eminent Librarian Award. 

Baggett has written articles on archival preservation and Alabama history for Alabama Librarian, Alabama Heritage, Birmingham magazine, The Alabama Review, and other publications. In 2019, Baggett received the Eminent Librarian Award from the Alabama Library Association. In 2013, he received the Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton Award from the Alabama Historical Association.

 Upon receiving the awards last year, Baggett said he humbled to be recognized by the Alabama Library Association and UA. 

"There's nothing I could have accomplished without the support of the Birmingham Public Library and the help of the wonderful people I've worked with over the years,” Baggett said. “I still enjoy coming to work, and that's a great gift."