PORT GIBSON — Members of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History asked for the public’s help in finding a missing puzzle piece in the history of the Windsor Ruins.

Mingo Tingle, the chief of MDAH Technical Preservation Services said the department is seeking photographs of Windsor Ruins that were taken between 1942 and 1971 to determine when one of its masonry columns was lost.

A report from MDAH last week said Windsor Plantation was built for Smith Coffee Daniell II in 1861 near what is now Rodney Road in Port Gibson.

The mansion was one of the largest private residences in the state before the Civil War, the report said, and featured 29 Corinthian columns, each 45 feet tall, before a fire destroyed the residence in 1890.

Today, only 23 full columns and five partial columns remain standing and it was previously believed that the missing columns were lost during the fire, Tingle said.

However, a 2017 study of the site conducted by architectural conservator George Fore cast doubt on this belief, Tingle said.

“The report showed that three of the columns missing today were still standing as late as 1910,” Tingle said. “We are trying to figure out when its 17th column was lost. It’s pictured in Eudora Welty’s 1942 photo of the ruins but missing in a National Park Service photograph in 1971. Having more pictures of Windsor Ruins from this period will help us solve this puzzle.”

Windsor Ruins was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, acquired by MDAH in 1974 and designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1985.

Anyone who has photos of Windsor Ruins taken between 1942 and 1971 may email mtingle@mdah.ms.gov with detailed description of each photo submitted.