Little Rock’s rich cultural history has been influenced by many outstanding men and women.  This October, during Arts & Humanities Month 2014, the Culture Vulture is looking at 31 outstanding women who have shaped cultural life in Little Rock…and beyond.

Julia Burnelle “Bernie” Smade Babcock was an author and museum founder.  Born in April 1868 in Ohio, she moved with her family to Arkansas as a child.  Marrying and starting a family, she also continued to write, which had been a passion since she was younger.  When her husband died, leaving her with five children, she starting writing for money. She published several temperance novels and later wrote for the Arkansas Democrat.  She also published a magazine and a poetry anthology.  She later became recognized as an expert on Abraham Lincoln and wrote several books about him, as well as other historical figures.

In 1927, after professional curmudgeon H. L. Mencken wrote derisively of Arkansas, she decided to start a museum. The Museum of Natural History and Antiquities was first located in a Main Street storefront.  In 1929, she “gave the City of Little Rock a Christmas present” by giving the museum to the city.  It was relocated to the unfinished third floor of City Hall, with her as its employee.  In 1933, as New Deal programs were ramping up, the space was needed for WPA offices, and the museum was shuttered. Many of the museum’s artifacts were lost during this time.    She became folklore editor for the Federal Writers’ Project in 1935.

In 1941, she and businessman Fred Allsopp convinced the City of Little Rock to reopen the museum (then known as the Museum of Natural History) by locating it in the old Arsenal Building in City Park.  She lived in the basement of the building.  She was involved in the efforts to rename City Park in honor of Douglas MacArthur (who had been born there) and welcomed him when he came to Little Rock in 1952.  Retiring from the museum in 1953, she donated some items and billed the City $800 for others. That money was her retirement pension at age 85.

Moving to Petit Jean Mountain, she wrote, painted and published poetry.  She died in June 1962 at age 94.  She is buried in Little Rock’s Oakland Cemetery.

After more name changes and a relocation, her museum is now known as the Museum of Discovery and is an anchor in the River Market district.