Look inside the June/July
2016 Issue of the Arkansas Archivist for these and other features
The ASA Unveils Historic State Auditors Book
Anyone who is a reality television junkie will be familiar
with shows like Storage Wars where people bid sight unseen on the contents of
storage units. Many times the winner of the auction walks away with a significantly
valuable item. While not a part of the show, Phillip Palmer of Maumelle,
Arkansas, stumbled upon a very important item when he purchased an interesting
piece of Arkansas history from an antiques dealer. It was a book
recording the correspondence between the State Auditor’s office and other
officials covering the period 1836 to 1879.
New Project Archivist at the ASA
This summer we are fortunate to have Danielle Butler working
in our office as a Project Archivist. She is working on an important
project that will be of great interest to our readers, digitizing material
regarding Japanese internment camps. Danielle Butler grew up in Austin, Texas,
and then moved to Texarkana when she was in high school. After high
school, she attended Ouachita Baptist University where she completed her BA in
History. She then attended UALR and completed her MA in Public
History.
Black History Commission News
“African American Arts in Arkansas,” was the latest
symposium sponsored by The Black History Commission of Arkansas and the
Arkansas State Archives. About 50 people attended the symposium on June 4
at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and took away a wealth of knowledge.
When asked what they took away from the event, Jeff Lewellen and Garland Taylor
had interesting responses.
From the Director
June and July were momentous ones for our agency. On
July 1, we transitioned from the Arkansas History Commission after 111 years to
the Arkansas State Archives. July 1 also found us moving from the administrative
umbrella of Parks and Tourism to the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
We’d been aligned with Parks and Tourism since 1971, and our regional archives
— the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives (NEARA) at Powhatan Historic State
Park and the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA) at Historic
Washington State Park — will continue to reside within those parks. My
staff and I are excited about the opportunities that this transfer presents to
work more closely with our colleagues in the state museums and historic
preservation, while at the same time glad that our relationship will continue
with our friends in Arkansas State Parks.
