Tuesday, January 27, 2015

January 2015 Arkansas Archivist Newsletter



Our newsletter is out! Click here to read it:  January 2015 Arkansas Archivist

Below is a sampling from some of the articles in this month's newsletter:
Lawrence County Bicentennial Celebrated
The AHC and NEARA marked the bicentennial of the creation of Lawrence County On Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, in Powhatan with a day-long symposium titled “Erasing Boundaries: Lawrence County at 200.” The symposium featured 12 speakers presenting on a variety of topics pertaining to Lawrence County’s earliest history. The event was funded by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage. 

The AHC Kicks Off the New Year with New Research Room Technology
As of January 1, the AHC is offering a variety of options to researchers for obtaining copies of materials held at its three locations. Researchers will now be able to scan and save images from the AHC’s microfilm collection on select machines in the AHC research room in Little Rock. Flash drives can be purchased at the AHC Research Room desk for $5.75 per 2GB drive. Additionally, the AHC is adding new media duplication services for film and sound recordings. At the SARA and NEARA branches researchers will only be able to scan documents, but we hope to add the new equipment for scanning film in the near future.

Black History Commission News
The Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas History Commission will be hosting a symposium on Saturday, February 7, at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
The symposium’s theme, “The Roots of African American Education in Arkansas,” will feature speakers, Peggy Lloyd, Dr. Joseph Hale, Amanda L. Paige and Gwendolyn Twillie. Topics will include Ila
Upchurch, the history of the Colored Industrial Institute, the Jeanes Teacher Program, and a living history presentation about the life of Charlotte Stephens.

From the Director
This month, as we inaugurate a new governor, we should consider that Arkansas has had 46 governors who have all given inaugural addresses. The first governor of the State of Arkansas, James Sevier Conway, had to delay his inauguration due to the fact that the Capitol building (now known as the Old State House) was not finished in time for him to take the oath of office. In September 1836, various dignitaries escorted Governor Conway to the main chamber of the state Capitol building. Governor Conway entered the House of Representatives chamber and, flanked by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, addressed those gathered in the House chamber. “The date of our existence, as a free and independent State, has commenced,” Conway told those gathered. The Arkansas History Commission holds many of the papers of the state’s governors.