The Old Court House Museum has received a very precious gift — the gift of history.

The recent donation by Linda Allen Ledford and her brother Larry Nelson Allen of 53 photographs from the Dec. 5, 1953, Vicksburg tornado to the Old Court House Museum taken by their father, Elmo Simpson Allen Jr., is a priceless gift. One that will be remembered over the years any time someone visits the museum or does research to learn about the tornado that devastated the city more than 60 years ago. And they will not all be kept under lock and key.

George “Bubba” Bolm, curator and director at the Old Court House Museum, said some of the photos will be displayed and some will go in the archives.

“We will scan them, or digitize them, and add them to our tornado collection,” he said, adding people often come to the museum for research, and the photos will be available for those needing to see a visual of the devastation from that day.

The tornado took 38 lives, and he said it did more destruction to the city than the Civil War.

“The tornado of 1953 was an extremely devastating storm and it changed the face of Vicksburg,” Bolm said.

For the residents who survived the tornado, Dec. 5, 1953, was a hallmark day in their lives. Like Pearl Harbor, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the destruction of the World Trade Center, the tornado’s survivors will always remember where they were and what they were doing when it hit. And those who survived have passed their stories on to family members and other people interested in their experience.

But like the World War II veterans who over the years provided the living history accounts of battles and experiences during that great conflict, many of the survivors of the 1953 tornado are slowly beginning to leave us, taking those important first person accounts with them.

That’s what makes the donation of the photographs so important. They provide the visual association to the stories of the damage the tornado wrought, and give those who will study the twister in the future an opportunity to take the recorded accounts the match them with the photographs to have a better understanding of what happened then and how it changed our city in the years since it touched down and left a trail of destruction.

And it’s important we remember such disasters and how they made Vicksburg a better place and the community it is today.

While we hope a tornado like the ‘53 storm will never hit our city again, it’s good to have a reminder of what happened and how people pulled together to rebuild and renew. That’s what makes those photographs so important.