Tag Archives: MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History

18th Big Boo!-seum Bash Tonight

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bigbooseumFor the 18th year, Little Rock Museums have joined together to present BIG BOO!-seum Bash Thursday, October 24, 2013 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This FREE event provides a safe alternative to door to door trick-or-treating. Each location will offer games, story-telling, candy and fun!

Participating members of the Greater Little Rock Museum Consortium will host BIG BOO!-seum Bash at the following locations:

  • Central Arkansas Library System (Main Branch)
  • Central High School National Historic Site
  • Curran Hall Visitors Center
  • Historic Arkansas Museum
  • MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
  • Museum of Discovery
  • Mosaic Templars Cultural Center
  • Old State House Museum
  • Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center

Visitors can drive to each location, where FREE parking is available.

Participants can start at any location where Game Cards will also be issued at each site. Visit all nine participating locations to qualify for the Grand Prize-Flat Screen TV (additional information listed on Game Cards). 

New this year, each site will offer a prize drawing for kids who visit that site.  Be sure to register at each of the sites visited.  For instance, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will draw for a FREE boys or girls bicycle.

Mac Park Music Concludes 2013 with Beers and Brats

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Beer Brats 2013 MacFrom the late 1920s through the mid 1950s, Little Rock’s MacArthur Park was a centerpiece of live music.  The Foster Bandshell, named in memory of Mrs. H. H. Foster, stood in the park near 10th and Commerce.  The structure was torn down in the early 1960s.  A portion of the Arkansas Arts Center sits on the site of the old Foster Bandshell.

In 2002, the lakeside pavilion in MacArthur Park was renamed the Foster Pavilion to pay tribute to the memory of Mrs. Foster and the bandshell.

The Foster Pavilion will be the site of a new music series taking place on Wednesday nights in September.  MAC PARK MUSIC! wraps up its inaugural series tonight from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

Tonight is the annual Beer and Brats fundraiser.  The lineup features the Steve Giles Jam Band. Brats will be grilled by Mac Park supporter Bryan Barnhouse.  The cost is $15 for adults, $10 for students aged 13-20, $7 for kids aged 6 to 12.  It is free for those aged 5 and under.  Proceeds go to benefit improvements in MacArthur Park.

Civil War Little Rock Campaign commemorated tonight

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macmusOn September 10, 1863, Confederate forces under General Sterling Price evacuated Little Rock in advance .of Federal forces, thus ending the Little Rock Campaign. By 5:00pm, his forces had left the city and at 7:00pm, civil authorities formally surrendered. Little Rock became the fourth Southern capital to come under Federal control.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Little Rock Campaign, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host a temporary exhibition of two Civil War flags from the 3rd Iowa Cavalry and the 37th Arkansas Infantry.

Troops from the 3rd Iowa Cavalry were among the first Federal troops to enter Little Rock and capture the Arsenal (in what is now MacArthur Park).  The flag from the 37th Arkansas Infantry was captured by Iowa forces at the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863.  Members of the 37th Arkansas Infantry were among the Confederate soldiers in Little Rock in September 1863.

Both flags are on loan from the State Historical Museum, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and have never been exhibited in Arkansas before.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from September 11 through October 19.

There is a preview reception tonight from 5pm to 7pm at the museum. To commemorate the arrival of Federal troops into Little Rock on September 10, 1863, a symbolic lowering of the Confederate national flag and a raising of the Union guidon will take place in front of the museum at 5pm.

Partial funding for the exhibit is provided by the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and Radiology Associates PA.  The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History is a program of the City of Little Rock’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Vintage Military Vehicles at MacArthur Museum

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vintagevehiclemacmusThe MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will be hosting an event today to showcase vintage military vehicles.  The event will run from 9am to 3pm and is FREE.

This event will showcase approximately 20 vintage military vehicles including World War II Jeeps, a 1941 Staff car, 1992 Humvee, and the 1915 Dodge touring car used by Gen. John J. Pershing in Mexico in his search for Pancho Villa.  Food and beverages will be available for purchase on-site from Bryant’s BBQ and Repicci’s Italian Ice of Little Rock.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History was created to interpret our state’s military heritage from its territorial period to the present.

Located in the historic Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal–the birthplace of General Douglas MacArthur–the museum preserves the contributions of Arkansas men and women who served in the armed forces.

Exhibits feature artifacts, photographs, weapons, documents, uniforms and other military items that vividly portray Arkansas’s military history at home and abroad.

The Museum is a program of the City of Little Rock’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Ark Literary Fest presents THE NEW 22 at MacArthur Museum

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1371603221-new_22_copyMilitary and literature buffs should enjoy The New 22, a free Arkansas Literary Festival program, Thursday, June 20, at 6:30 p.m., at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 503 East 9th Street.
The New 22 is a panel discussion featuring authors Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, and David Abrams, Fobbit. These books have been compared favorably to Joseph Heller’s influential novel Catch-22. Set in Dallas and Baghdad, respectively, the novels offer satirical takes on some of the hard contradictions soldiers face. A reception and book signing will follow the program. Both books will be available for purchase.

Ben Fountain is an award-winning author whose debut novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk, received numerous awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. David Abrams, who retired in 2008 after a 20-year career in the active-duty Army as a journalist, has received several military commendations including being named the Department of Defense’s Military Journalist of the Year in 1994. His debut novel, Fobbit, was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2012 and a Best Book of 2012 by Paste Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Barnes & Noble.

The Arkansas Literary Festival is a program of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). The New 22 is sponsored by the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. The event is free and open to the public; reservations are requested. Please RSVP to pedwards@cals.org or 918-3009. For more information about the Arkansas Literary Festival, visit www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org.

Flag Day Concert in MacArthur Park tonite

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flagdayOn Saturday, June 8, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host the 17th annual Flag Day concert, A Stars and Stripes Celebration, featuring the Little Rock Wind Symphony.

The concert begins at 7:00 p.m. and is free to the public.

Our annual Flag Day salute to the red, white, and blue, features hand-clapping marches, flag-waving patriotic songs, toe-tapping happy tunes.  There will be free American flags, ice cream and water.

The program will featured Timothy Tucker, baritone in selections with the LR Wind Symphony, under the direction of Dr. Karen Fannin.  The performance will include:

  • Dudley Buck: Festival Overture on the Star Spangled Banner 
  • John Philip Sousa: Washington Post March
  • Sousa: Who’s Who in Navy Blue
  • Aaron Copland: Old American Songs
  • James Barnes: Star-Spangled Salute!
  • Henry Fillmore: The Klaxon
  • Henry Fillmore: Circus Bee
  • Irving Berlin: God Bless America
  • Bob Lowden: Armed Forces Salute
  • Samuel Ward / Carmen Dragon: America the Beautiful
  • Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever

 

flagdayaudienceBring a picnic dinner for your family, lawn chairs or a blanket, and enjoy the concert at historic MacArthur Park in downtown Little Rock.   Dogs on leashes are welcome — and don’t forget there is a new dog park in MacArthur Park as well.

Black Hound Barbecue and Hot Dog Mike will be available to purchase food as well.  In the event of rain, the concert will be rescheduled for Sunday, June 9.

This event is sponsored by MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Little Rock Wind Symphony, Blue Bell Creameries, Woodmen of the World, Central Arkansas Water and Premium Refreshment Service.

Military History Museum Hosts Author Today

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1368546527-enduringlegacyOn Saturday, May 18, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History will host author and professor, Dr. Stuart Towns, as he tours to promote his new book Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause (University of Alabama Press, 2012).  Dr. Towns will speak at 2pm at the museum in MacArthur Park.

Enduring Legacy explores the vital place of ceremonial oratory in the oral tradition in the South. It analyzes how rituals such as Confederate Memorial Day, Confederate veteran reunions, and dedication of Confederate monuments have contributed to creating and sustaining a Lost Cause paradigm for southern identity. Towns studies in detail post—Civil War southern speeches and how they laid the groundwork for future generations, from southern responses to the civil rights movement and beyond. The Lost Cause orators that came after the Civil War, Towns argues, helped to shape a lasting mythology of the brave Confederate martyrs and of the southern positions for why the Confederacy lost and who was to blame.

W. Stuart Towns is recently retired from Professor and Chairman of the Department of Communication Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. Before that he was Professor and Chair of Department of Communication at Appalachian State University and the University of West Florida. After spending over 30 years in the Active Army Reserves, Stuart retired as a Colonel. While in the Reserves, he served with the 361st Civil Affairs Brigade, and was a member of the Consulting Faculty Program at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History relates the military heritage of Arkansas and its citizens to a diverse and widespread audience. Located in the historic Arsenal Building in MacArthur Park—one of Central Arkansas’s oldest surviving structures and the birthplace of one of this country’s foremost military heroes—the museum collects, preserves, and interprets our state’s rich military past from its territorial period to the present.