Documenting Arkansas


Book Description

"This book contains over two hundred documents from eighty different collections at the History Commission. During its one-hundred and seven-year existence, the State Archives has actively collected materials from this crucial era of our state and nation's history: diaries written by soldiers and citizens; letters to mothers, fathers, wives, sweethearts, brothers, and sisters; military orders; newspaper accounts; photographs, broadsides, and even part invitations recounting the day-to-day lives of people caught up in the most significant event in nineteenth century America. This volume uses these primary source materials to tell the story of the Civil War from an Arkansas perspective. The variety of items represents the breadth of the Commission's Civil War resources, while thousands more documents are available to researchers. The limited narrative accompanying the materials provides just enough context to allow the documents to speak for themselves."




Ghost Signs of Arkansas


Book Description




Arkansas Made, Volume 1


Book Description

Volume I. Quilts and textiles, Ceramics, Silver, Weaponry, Furniture, Vernacular architecture, Native American art -- volume II. Photography, Fine art.




Arkansas Made, Volume 2


Book Description

Volume I. Quilts and textiles, Ceramics, Silver, Weaponry, Furniture, Vernacular architecture, Native American art -- volume II. Photography, Fine art.




A Documentary History of Arkansas


Book Description

A Documentary History of Arkansas provides a comprehensive look at Arkansas history from the state's earliest events to the present. Here are newspaper articles, government bulletins, legislative acts, broadsides, letters, and speeches that, taken collectively, give a firsthand glimpse at how the twenty-fifth state's history was made. Enhanced by additional documents and brought up to date since its original publication in 1984, this new edition is the standard source for essential primary documents illustrating the state's political, social, economic, educational, and environmental history.




A Journal of Travels Into the Arkansas Territory, During the Year 1819: With Occasional Observations on the Manners of the Aborigines (1821)


Book Description

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.




Remote Access


Book Description

"Arkansas-based photographers Sabine Schmidt and Don House examine several libraries that serve some of their state's smallest communities. Through vibrant images and personal essays, they document how public libraries address numerous local needs"--







Arkansas Beer


Book Description

Arkansas's booze scene had a promising start, with America's biggest brewing families, Busch and Lemp, investing in Little Rock just prior to Prohibition. However, by 1915, the state had passed the Newberry Act, banning the manufacturing and selling of alcohol. It was not until sixty-nine years later that the state welcomed its first post-temperance brewery, Arkansas Brewing Company. After a few false starts, brewpubs in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Little Rock found success. By 2000, the industry had regained momentum. An explosion of breweries around the state has since propelled Arkansas into the modern beer age.




The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas


Book Description

Winner, 2022 J.G. Ragsdale Book Award, Arkansas Historical Association The Ku Klux Klan established a significant foothold in Arkansas in the 1920s, boasting more than 150 state chapters and tens of thousands of members at its zenith. Propelled by the prominence of state leaders such as Grand Dragon James Comer and head of Women of the KKK Robbie Gill Comer, the Klan established Little Rock as a seat of power second only to Atlanta. In The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas, Kenneth C. Barnes traces this explosion of white nationalism and its impact on the state’s development. Barnes shows that the Klan seemed to wield power everywhere in 1920s Arkansas. Klansmen led businesses and held elected offices and prominent roles in legal, medical, and religious institutions, while the women of the Klan supported rallies and charitable activities and planned social gatherings where cross burnings were regular occurrences. Inside their organization, Klan members bonded during picnic barbeques and parades and over shared religious traditions. Outside of it, they united to direct armed threats, merciless physical brutality, and torrents of hateful rhetoric against individuals who did not conform to their exclusionary vision. By the mid-1920s, internal divisions, scandals, and an overzealous attempt to dominate local and state elections caused Arkansas’s Klan to fall apart nearly as quickly as it had risen. Yet as the organization dissolved and the formal trappings of its flamboyant presence receded, the attitudes the Klan embraced never fully disappeared. In documenting this history, Barnes shows how the Klan’s early success still casts a long shadow on the state to this day.