NATCHEZ &045; Plans for a new Museum of Mississippi History were unveiled at a public meeting held at the Historic Natchez Foundation building Thursday.

The 21,000-square-foot building, which will be constructed near the new William Winter Archives Building in downtown Jackson, will offer four times the space of the Old Capitol Museum, now home to the interpretation of state history.

Hank Holmes, director of the Department of Archives and History, said planning for the new museum has been under way since 1998.

&uot;The Legislature has been very supportive of the idea, giving us nearly $3 million for planning,&uot; Holmes told the approximately 50 Natchez people attending the meeting.

The next stage will be funding of the construction, a step that will require the Legislature to pass the appropriate bond bill.

Holmes said he hopes phase-one funding, providing enough money for the shell of the structure to be built, will take place in the next legislative session.

The second phase of funding will provide money for completion of the interior space.

Exhibits for the new museum will be funded through a private nonprofit organization, the Foundation for Mississippi History, Holmes said.

Fund raising has begun, and he welcomed Natchez-area history enthusiasts and others to donate right away.

Checks should be made payable to the Foundation for Mississippi History and mailed to P.O. Box 571, Jackson, MS 39205-0571.

Two compelling forces drive the need for a new museum, said Lucy Allen, director of the Old Capitol Museum.

For one, the museum has run out of space for collections. Second, the Old Capitol building is in need of serious structural repairs that would require the museum to vacate the space during restoration work.

&uot;The Old Capitol needs to be preserved and interpreted on its own,&uot; Allen said.

Further, a new museum offers an opportunity to take advantage of all the new ways of interpreting history and all the research made available since 1961, when the Old Capitol Museum opened in the former statehouse.

&uot;This new museum we hope will share everyone’s voice,&uot; Allen said. &uot;We want it to be Mississippi’s voice.&uot;

The four floors of the new museum will include large open spaces for interactive exhibits, an orientation theater, modern classrooms, a museum store and staff offices and work areas.

Exhibits will take the visitor through eight zones of display, beginning with &uot;Early Civilizations: The First Peoples &045; 10,000 B.C. to 1519 A.D.&uot;

Others are:

4&uot;Contact, Conflict, Contrast: Native Americans, Europeans, Africans &045; 1519 to 1798&uot;

4&uot;The State Takes Shape: Territory, Statehood and Treaties &045; 1798 to 1832&uot;

4&uot;Rise and Fall: Cotton Kingdom and Civil War &045; 1832 to 1865&uot;

4&uot;Reconstruction: Freedom and Counter Revolution &045; 1865 to 1902&uot;

4&uot;Rebuilding: Progressivism and Repression &045; 1902 to 1929&uot;

4&uot;Upheavals: The Great Depression, the New Deal and World War II &045; 1929-1945&uot;

4&uot;Modern Mississippi: Civil Rights, Diversity and Diversification &045; 1945 to the present.&uot;

The meeting in Natchez was one in a series of town meetings throughout the state to provide information and to seek input from Mississippians, Holmes said.