Tag Archives: Department of Parks Heritage and Tourism

UALR Evenings with History: A Brief History of Human Rights on March 6

Posted on by

The UALR Evenings with History program returns tomorrow night (March 6) with Charles W. Romney’s “A Brief History of Human Rights.”

What are Human Rights? Some claim humans have always had rights that cannot be traded, infringed, or given away. Others argue international organizations and American officials invented the concept of human rights in the 1970s to further various political agendas. In this Evening with History we will discuss the two historical interpretations behind each vision of human rights, assess the relative strength of both ideas of international rights, and explore the political and intellectual stakes in the debate over the origins of Human Rights.

Charles Romney graduated from Pomona College and received his Ph.D. in history from UCLA. He worked in public history for seven years on documentary films and digital history projects, and in the five years before joining UALR taught Asian and African history at Whittier College in California. At UALR he is the Graduate Coordinator of the History Department’s MA program in Public History.  Dr. Romney teaches classes on public history, digital history, African history, and on the United States and the world.  His current research includes a study of law, labor, and the state in modern America and a comparative history of colonial Hawaii.

The Evenings with History take place in the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street. Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

Corporate sponsors for the 2011-2012 season are Delta Trust, Union Pacific Railroad, the Little Rock School District—Teaching American History Program; the law firms of Friday, Eldredge, & Clark and Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. Also thanks for support and gifts in kind from the Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio–KLRE-KUAR; and Grapevine Spirits

Old State House: Growing Up in Arkansas

Posted on by

The Old State House museum opens a new exhibit today – “Things You Need to Hear: Memories of Growing Up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980.” The exhibit is a collective memory of growing up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980 and is told by the people who did it.  Through the exhibit, Growing Up in Arkansas, curator Dr. Margaret Jones Bolsterli conveys the importance of passing family histories from one generation to another.

The exhibit is comprised of five themes: community, family, work, school, and leisure. Bolsterli said that she “envisions this exhibit as a collective memory of growing up in Arkansas told by the people who did it.” Oral histories will be a highlight of the exhibit, some included in surprising ways. Each theme of the exhibit will be encapsulated in its own vignette, detailing a special sense of time and place. Artifacts will be included in each of these settings, revealing the layers of what life was like for past generations. Visitors will experience these time capsules and reflect on the past in Arkansas.

The museum, a division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, is open from9am to 5pm on Monday through Saturday. On Sunday it is open from 1pm to 5pm.

UALR Evenings with History: How an Arkansan taught Chinese Nationalism

Posted on by

The UALR Evenings with History program resumes for 2012 tomorrow night (February 7) with Jeffrey Kyong-McClain’s “The Heavenly History of the Han, or How a Liberal Baptist from Green Forest, Arkansas Taught Racial and Ethnic Nationalism to the Chinese.”

In the early years of the twentieth century, Chinese (or “Han”) nationalists were searching for ways to convert a tradition-bound and multi-cultural empire into a modern nation-state. Although, in the minds of these nationalists, foreign missionaries were a big part of China’s problem, many such missionaries in fact aided the Chinese against the non-Chinese in questions over who had the historical right to rule the borderlands, thereby helping Chinese nationalists assert their purported rights over vast amounts of territory.

This talk looks at the case of one missionary particularly active in this regard, Arkansan D.C. Graham, who blended liberal theology with a Social Darwinian belief in the superiority of the Chinese over the other people groups in the region (southwest China). Graham propagated this belief as the pioneer of modern archaeology and ethnography in Sichuan province in the 1920s and 1930s, and his ideas remain influential in the region to this day.

A member of the UALR History faculty, Dr. Kyong-McClain was born and raised in Minneapolis. He received a BA in History from the University of Minnesota and an MA in Theology from Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, before beginning graduate work in Chinese History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He lived for three years in the city of Chengdu, in southwestern China, the last year on a Fulbright-Hays dissertation grant. His research centers on the place of archaeology in modern Chinese nation-building; teaching interests include modern China and modern Korea, and anything pertaining to Sino-Western interaction.

The Evenings with History take place in the Ottenheimer Auditorium in the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street. Refreshments are served at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30 p.m.

Corporate sponsors for the 2011-2012 season are Delta Trust, Union Pacific Railroad, the Little Rock School District—Teaching American History Program; the law firms of Friday, Eldredge, & Clark and Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. Also thanks for support and gifts in kind from the Ottenheimer Library; Historic Arkansas Museum, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; UALR Public Radio–KLRE-KUAR; and Grapevine Spirits

Coming Soon: Mosaic Templars Holiday Open House (Dec 4)

Posted on by

Join the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in a one-of-a-kind holiday celebration. Watch the museum come alive for our Holiday Open House event on December 4, 2011 starting at 1:00pm and running until 5:00pm.

This fun event will feature holiday performances by local choir and theatre groups as well as a special presentation featuring Mosaic Templars own Act Out Loud students. We will also have a Kids’ Holiday Craft Corner with a variety of holiday activities including holiday refreshments.

Please bring toys to donate to the Say’s Stop the Violence toy drive to benefit children in the local community. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information about our Holiday Open House event, visit mosaictemplars.com or call 501-683-3593.

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Sandwiching in History: Union Station

Posted on by

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program each month sponsors a Sandwiching in History tour which familiarize people who live and work in central Arkansas with the historic structures and sites around us. The tours take place on Fridays at noon, last less than an hour, and participants are encouraged to bring their lunches so that they can eat while listening to a brief lecture about the property and its history before proceeding on a short tour.

Today at 12 noon, this month’s tour is the Union Station at 1400 West Markham.  It was constructed in 1921 to replace an earlier depot which burned in 1920.  Since the 1870s there has been a railroad station on or near this site.

The current structure was designed by architect E. M. Tucker of St. Louis and exhibits elements of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. The Missouri Pacific Railroad acquired the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad in 1917 and continued passenger service out of this depot until 1970.

Union Station was a bustling place in its heyday, serving as the point of departure for soldiers leaving Camp Robinson during World War II as well as a whistle stop during Harry S. Truman’s presidential campaign. The building is currently used as office and event space as well as the local Amtrak station.

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Coming Soon: HAM’s 44th Annual Christmas Frolic (Dec 4)

Posted on by

Celebrate the holiday season like days past at Historic Arkansas Museum’s annual Christmas Frolic on December 4, from 1 to 4 pm.

Visitors can watch nails being forged at the new Blacksmith Shop, create tree ornaments and holiday cards, sip on hot cider and enjoy ginger cake, play pioneer games, listen to 19th century fiddle music, expect a visit from Father Christmas and do some holiday shopping in the Museum Store. And lots more!

Music will be provided by Arkansas Country Dance Band, Lark in the Morning and roaming fiddlers.

Plenty of free parking is available at 3rd and Cumberland Streets.  Historic Arkansas Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

As a child, the Culture Vulture’s parents brought him to this every year. It kicked off the Christmas season for us.  Memories of the hot cider as a kid are almost as warming as the actual cider was.  My ADD however did not allow me to enjoy the candle dipping for very long.  I couldn’t understand why you just couldn’t put the wicks in the middle of the wax, let it harden and then cut them out.

 

Coming Soon: Holiday Open (Old State) House (December 4)

Posted on by

This Sunday, December 4, from 1pm to 4:30pm, the Old State House becomes the Holiday Open (Old State) House.

The traditions of joyous family holiday celebrations past can be relived at Holiday Open House. Visitors will find the Old State House colorfully decorated for the season. Fun, hands-on activities will be available to children; they may create unique holiday cards and more!

Delightful carols will be performed by local music groups. Visitors will also enjoy delicious cookies and punch.

It will also be a great time to revisit the galleries or see them for the first time. From the restored legislative chambers which tell the story of Arkansas’ leaders, to the First Ladies gowns to the exhibits: Arkansas Arkansaw-A State and Its Reputation and An Enduring Union — there is plenty to see.

Call (501) 324-9685 for more information. Admission is free.

The Old State House is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.