Category Archives: History

Mark Christ to receive Booker Worthen Literary Prize

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christ_markAs one of the most fertile regions in the South, the Arkansas River Valley was highly contested territory during the Civil War. While the Siege on Vicksburg raged, equally important battles were fought here in Arkansas. This struggle is the topic of Mark Christ’s nonfiction work, Civil War Arkansas 1863, which has been selected to receive the 2013 Booker Worthen Literary Prize, awarded by the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS).
Christ, community outreach director for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, has edited a number of books and articles about Civil War events in Arkansas. He is a member of the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, serves as chairman of the board of directors of the Arkansas Humanities Council, and is a member of the board of trustees of the Arkansas Historical Association. Christ recently received the 2013 State Preservation Leadership Award from the Civil War Trust, the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States.
The Worthen Prize is awarded each year to an author living in the CALS’s service area whose work is highly regarded. It is named for Booker Worthen, who served twenty-two years on CALS’s board of trustees. The Worthen Prize will be presented to Christ at CALS’s annual event, “A Prized Evening,” which also features presentation of the Porter Prize. “A Prized Evening” will be held in October 2013; an exact date will be announced later this year.

QQA Spring Tour This Weekend

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QQAThe QQA’s 49th Spring Tour of Homes takes place this Mother’s Day weekend in the Park Hill neighborhood.

This year’s tour will include five homes on Skyline Drive.

Sunday, May 12
1:00-5:00 p.m. Self guided home tours, trolley rides, food vendors, kid friendly activities
$20 per person in advance
$25 per person day of tour ($20 for QQA members)

The Spring Tour is the QQA’s oldest function. Since 1963, the tour has been staged for the purpose of fostering appreciation of historic buildings and neighborhoods and the need for their preservation.

Although the basic purpose of the tour has remained much the same since 1963, the manner in which the tour is conducted has changed dramatically. From a casual afternoon open house, the tour has grown into a weekend-long extravaganza which includes both evening and afternoon tours and a variety of activities.

The Spring Tour has proven to be one of the QQA’s most effective methods of changing negative perceptions about the Quapaw Quarter and for recruiting new residents to the area. Members of each year’s Spring Tour Core Committee work to ensure that the tour is used to the best possible advantage for improving the image of the Quapaw Quarter and historic preservation in the Little Rock region.

qqa home tour 20132013 Spring Tour Sponsors

40th Annual Territorial Fair at Historic Arkansas Museum

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Today from 10am to 4pm, Historic Arkansas Museum is hosting the 40th Annual Territorial Fair.

A festive family event, the Territorial Fair delights all with pioneer music, Maypole dancing, lots of crafts for kids, stilt-walking, hoop-rolling, sack-racing and other frontier fun.

In its 40th year, this year’s Territorial Fair celebrates the 2013 Heritage Month theme, “Saving Our Heritage: Arkansas’s Historic Structures,” with activities highlighting the museum’s historic properties, including the oldest house in Little Rock.

Visitors will be taken back in time, when the now historic houses were brand new or being built. Guests can take part in many hands-on activities, like making bricks and whitewashing a fence, or watch as pioneers shave wooden shingles and forge nails for their houses. It took a lot to build, furnish and care for these early homes and the hard work still shines more than 150 years later.

Art Abounds Downtown during 2nd Friday Art Night

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2FAN logo Font sm2Among the various sites featured tonight from 5pm to 8pm as part of 2nd Friday Art Night are:

The Central Arkansas Library System Butler Center Galleries (401 President Clinton Avenue) is opening three new exhibits:

Creative Expressions (which will run through August 25)

This exhibition features artwork from the Creative Expressions Program at the Arkansas State Hospital.  Creative Expressions is a non-profit organization that uses the visual arts to promote and support the self-awareness and growth of individuals with mental illness.

Arkansas Art Educators State Youth Art Show (which will run through July 27)

Arkansas League of Artists Spring Members Show (which will run through June 28 at the Cox Creative Center).

 

studioMAIN (1423 South Main Street) will open a new exhibit – “From Bauhaus to our Haus”

studioMAIN invites you to join us this Friday for our exhibit celebrating the Bauhaus movement. Come learn about that history of the movement and its influence on today’s architecture, design, and education. Several local examples of building inspired by the Bauhaus and International style will also be highlighted.

This will be a great opportunity to learn (or be reminded) about this amazing transition in the history design before the opening of the Arkansas Arts Center’s upcoming exhibit, Bauhaus twenty-21: An Ongoing Legacy (May 24 – September 1).

As part of the member’s opening for the AAC, studioMAIN will be hosting a lecture and panel discussion, stay tuned for further information in the next couple weeks.

 

Historic Arkansas Museum (200 East Third Street)

In addition to the opening of two new exhibits, HAM will have live music by the Rolling Blackouts and an opening reception for two new exhibits. Opening in the Trinity Gallery is Reflected by Three: William Detmers, Scott Lykens and G. Tara Casciano. Opening in the 2nd Floor Gallery will be Painting in the Open Air: Day and Night, with plein air paintings by Jason Sacran.

 

Old State House (300 West Markham)

Up-cycled Jewelry. Create an artful bracelet from unexpected found supplies: safety pins, buttons, charms and fabric. These bracelets make great Mother’s Day gifts.

May 9 Architeaser

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IMG_5185In keeping with May being Arkansas Heritage Month, today’s Architeaser features a detail of the south portico on the Old State House. The Old State House Museum is the oldest standing state capitol building west of the Mississippi River.

Construction on the building began in 1833 and was declared complete in 1842. The building was commissioned by Territorial Governor John Pope, who selected Kentucky architect Gideon Shryock (who previously designed the Kentucky state capitol building) to create plans for the Arkansas capitol. Shryock chose the Greek Revival style, then a popular design for public buildings, for Arkansas’s new capitol. The original plans were grand and too expensive for the young territory’s finances. Consequently, the plans were changed by George Weigart, Shryock’s assistant, who oversaw construction at the Little Rock site.

In 1885, the building was renovated and expanded.  The south facade and portico were rebuilt.  It is this rebuilt portico which is featured on today’s Architeaser.  Former Little Rock Mayor John Wassell was responsible for overseeing much of the renovation and built the winding wooden staircases now find inside the building.

 

 

May 7 Architeaser

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hamMay is Arkansas Heritage Month.  As a way to celebrate it, the next few Architeasers will focus on facilities connected to the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Today’s Architeaser features architecture from the past and present.  These structures sit side by side on the city block which is home to part of Historic Arkansas Museum.  The center of the photo is anchored by the 2001 expansion to the museum which was designed by the firm of Polk Stanley Yeary (now Polk Stanley Wilcox). Framing the building on either side of the photo are some of Little Rock’s oldest structures.

Historic Arkansas Museum opened in July 1941 as the Arkansas Territorial Restoration.  It includes Little Rock’s oldest structure, the Hinderliter Grog Shop, built in 1827.  In 2001, the name was changed to Historic Arkansas Museum in conjunction with the opening of a 51,000 square foot museum center which capped off a three phase capital building program.

Dr. Cal Ledbetter Collection opens at UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture

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The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture revealed its newest collection, donated by educator, scholar, and legislator Calvin R. Ledbetter Jr., at a reception held at the Arkansas Studies Institute Tuesday evening, April 30.

Calvin R. Ledbetter Jr.The 12-linear-foot collection covers Ledbetter’s life between 1964 and 1988. The papers document Ledbetter’s political career including the state’s legislative sessions from 1967 to 1977. A portion of the papers references his academic career at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Ledbetter, 84, led an accomplished political and educational career.

In addition to the collection housed at ASI, there is an online exhibit at ualrexhibits.org/ledbetter. The digitized collection includes photographs, video clips, and a selected bibliography on articles and books written by Ledbetter.

In 1960, Ledbetter joined the faculty at Little Rock University, now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has served as chair of the Department of Political Science and dean of the College of Liberal Arts, now the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. After retiring in 1997, Ledbetter was named professor emeritus of political science.

The gift of Dr. Ledbetter is not just his collection, ever the visionary, he has an eye on the future. In addition to donating his papers for research, Ledbetter has established the Cal Ledbetter Arkansas Legislative Institute Endowment to promote a better understanding of Arkansas through the scholarly study of legislators and legislative process.

Ledbetter served for five terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives between 1967 and 1977. In the course of his political career, he served three Arkansas’ governors, Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, and David Pryor. CAHC holds the collections of both Rockefeller and Bumpers.

The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture is housed in the Arkansas Studies Institute, a partnership between UALR and the Central Arkansas Library System. For more information, go to ualr.edu/cahc.

In recognition of his contributions, the Arkansas House of Representatives passed HR1045 this session. It was sponsored by Rep. Ann V. Clemmer, a member of the UALR Political Science faculty.