Tag Archives: David Ware

Legacies & Lunch: Lessons from an Old School

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legaciesThis month, the Butler Center’s Legacies & Lunch series not only looks at a chapter in Arkansas history, but it explores the challenges of researching and writing history.
Grace Blagdon and David Ware will discuss the Brinkley Academy, a major part of African American educational history in Arkansas. Blagdon, whose father was the school’s principal, will share what she has learned from surviving students. Ware, historian of the Arkansas State Capitol, will touch on the challenges he and Blagdon faced in creating an exhibit, Old School: Remembering the Brinkley Academy, from the school’s few remaining historical materials.
Legacies & Lunch is free, open to the public, and supported in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council.
This month, Legacies & Lunch moves to a new location.  With the opening of the new CALS Ron Robinson Theater in the Arcade Building, the program will take place there.  It is easily accessible from the Main Library’s parking lot. Attendees are invited to bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert will be provided.

The program is held from noon-1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). It was founded in 1997 to promote the study and appreciation of Arkansas history and culture.

History of State Capitol is topic of noon talk today

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irreverant_overview

The State of Arkansas turns 177 later this week.  A good way to mark this is to contemplate the building which has been the seat of government for over 100 of those years.

ad conclusio, per aspera; or, Two Architects, Six Governors, Dozens of Contractors, One Jailed Senator, Fifteen Years, and 2.23 Million Dollars Lead to What? is the name of a noontime conversation being hosted by the Central Arkansas Library System today, June 12.

The program, which will take place in the Arkansas State Capitol building in Room 272, will feature State Capitol historian David Ware.

It is being billed as “an irreverent overview of how the Capitol project survived.”  Construction of the Arkansas Capitol began in 1899 and stalled early due to problems with financing and failed deadlines.

With the support and vision from the project’s most emphatic backer, then-Governor George Donaghey, members of the Arkansas Legislature met for the first time in the chambers of the still-unfinished Capitol on January 9, 1911. Donaghey declared the building was “done enough” to accommodate the solons and state officers.

Bottled water and cookies will be provided; guests are invited to bring their own lunch.