Wednesday, February 28, 2018

February 2018 accessions for the State Archives

                                                             Accessions

ASA

Margaret Louise Sims Reichardt Scrapbook
Oxford American Southern Music  CDs.  12 CDs.
Othella Faison Collection
David Oscar Arendt Photograph Collection
Arkansas Historic Preservation Program records accretion
Isaac McCoy Letter
Arkansas Educator Licensure, 1968-1970, 1984, 7 cu. ft.
Arkansas Forestry Commission records, 44 cu. ft.

Wednesday's Wonderful Collection

Wednesday's Wonderful Collection
The ASA has a number of online digitized material organized by topic. One of our best ones is called, "The World We Live In - A History of African Americans in Arkansas." The collection contains photographs, letters, and printed ephemera and it highlights the everyday life of Arkansas’s African American community, including education, work, religion and leisure. To view the collection, please visit:

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Wednesday’s Wonderful Collection - Arkansas Burger Company collection, MS.000827

The Arkansas Burger Company, a popular restaurant located in Little Rock, opened its doors in 2000. Faulkner County native Dan Spencer owned and operated the restaurant until 2017 when he retired at age 78. Spencer graduated from Arkansas Teacher’s College, now University of Central Arkansas, in 1962 and became youth director at the Little Rock Boys and Girls Club for five years. He married Jeanne Spencer in 1968 and moved to Dallas, where he was an administrator at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for 25 years. The couple returned to Little Rock in 1994. Spencer aspired to open a hamburger restaurant for many years, researching the topic thoroughly before opening Arkansas Burger Company in 2000. Spencer found a building located on 7410 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, to remodel into the restaurant. During the remodeling, Spencer spent off-days searching local thrift stores and flea markets for Arkansas-related memorabilia to display on the walls of the restaurant. This eclectic mix of posters and art now comprises the Arkansas Burger Company Collection.
This collection contains mostly visual materials that adorned the walls of Arkansas Burger Company, many of which are posters, photographs and promotional materials of sports or tourist attractions throughout Arkansas.
·         Arkansas Burger Company menus undated (Box 1)
·         Arkansas Industrial Development Commission award to city of Hot Springs, signed by Winthrop Rockefeller undated (Box 2)
·         Arkansas Razorback football brochure 1966 (Box 1)
·         Arkansas State Capitol photo postcard undated (Box 1)
·         "B.C." cartoon on cardboard, Johnny Hart 2000 (Box 1)
·         Bath House Row, Hot Springs 1888 (Box 2)
·         "Buffalo River Country" cartoon by George Fisher, Arkansas Gazette 1980 (Box 2)
·         Cambiata Singers in concert at Arkansas Burger Company poster undated (Box 3)
·         Clyde Beatty's Cole Bros. Circus at Union County Fairgrounds poster undated (Box 3)
·         Dixie Quartet of Arkansas newspaper cutout undated (Box 1)
·         Drew Smyly memorabilia photos, signed, mounted on cardboard undated (Box 3)
·         Fifty-Seventh General Assembly of Arkansas State Senate 1949 (Box 3)
·         First National Bank of Fort Smith illustrate poster with calendar 1986 (Box 3)
·         "Garrison Avenue, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1926" by John Bell, Jr. 1991 (Box 3)
·         Hinderliter House color card undated (Box 1)
·         Historic Pulaski County illustrations undated (Box 2)
·         Hope Watermelon Festival illustrated poster 1992 (Box 2)
·         "Honest Pack Association" strawberry label undated (Box 1)
·         Homestead Act Certificate, Harrison, Arkansas circa 1898 (Box 2)
·         Hubert Castle International Circus at Fort Smith Shrine Club poster undated (Box 3)
·         Illustrated calendar on cardboard 1956 (Box 2)
·         Inauguration Day 1993 stamped envelope from Hope, Arkansas 1993 (Box 1)
·         Lobby cards, Palace Theater, Greenwood, Arkansas 1963-1964 (Box 1)
·         Union County Court House, El Dorado, Arkansas, postcard 1944 (Box 1)
·         Little Rock Zoo color card undated (Box 1)
·         Official Centennial Celebration Arkansas State Highway Map undated (Box 3)
·         Plaza Hotel Courts, Camden, Arkansas postcard undated (Box 1)
·         "There's No Place Like Little Rock" card undated (Box 1)
·         Program for Arkansas County Bicentennial 1976 (Box 1)
·         Photos 1945-2003 (Box 1)
o    PH.BurgerCompany.01: Unidentified town during flood, black and white photo, 10" x 8" undated
o    PH.BurgerCompany.02: West Main Street, Batesville, Ark. 10" x 8" c. 1945
o    PH.BurgerCompany.03: Miss Fisher’s 2nd Grade Class, Warren Dupree Elementary, Jacksonville, AR, black and white photo, 10" x 8" 1966-1967
o    PH.BurgerCompany.04: “AR Burger Co. Crew Class of 2003, Cole Cawthron, Robert Bemberg, Matt Moore, Mason McBroom, Chase Carter” 2003
o    PH.BurgerCompany.05: Aaron Walter “Arkansas Burger Company Crew” senior photo mounted on cardboard, 12cm x 17cm 2003
·         "The Attack on Arkansas Post" illustration 1894 (Box 2)
·         "The Mountain Home of General Albert Pike in Montgomery County, Arkansas" undated (Box 3)
·         Vinyl record, "Arkansas Tech Junior High Music Camp 1980 Session 1" 1980 (Box 2)
·         Vinyl record, "Hogwild" by Tom Cook, All Star Records [two copies] 1983 (Box 2)

·         50th Anniversary U of A football 1954 SWC Champions poster 2004 (Box 3)

Friday, February 16, 2018

SARA Celebrates 40 Years



The Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA), a branch of the Arkansas State Archives (ASA), will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Saturday, March 3 at SARA, 201 AR-195, Washington.

Speakers at the celebration will include Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst, SARA Foundation President Gary Walker and Keenan Williams of the Hempstead County Historical Society.

Refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.


Thursday, February 15, 2018

Holiday Closing

The Arkansas State Archives will be closed on Monday, February 19, in observance of President's Day.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Wednesday's Wonderful Collection - Forty-Sixth Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, Company D muster roll MS.000828

Approximately 179,000 African Americans served in the Union Army during the Civil War, making up ten percent of the total army, yet little documentation of their service exists. This muster roll gives a history of the 46th Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, Company D, and lists all of the soldiers who made up its ranks. The unit, made up of African Americans from Helena, Arkansas, was formed in 1863 as the 1st Regiment Arkansas Infantry (African Descent) and later renamed the 46th Regiment. This regiment was one of the first African American regiments formed in the Mississippi Delta. The unit spent much of 1863 in Louisiana before moving to Mississippi and then to Memphis. After the war, the unit was stationed in southern Texas, where it guarded the United States/Mexico border, preventing Confederates from avoiding surrender by fleeing into Mexico. The unit was disbanded in 1866.
This collection holds one 1865 muster roll for the Forty-Sixth Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry, Company D.
  • Muster Roll

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Wednesday Wonderful Collection - Pinnacle Mountain State Park slides and photograph collection, MS.000823

Pinnacle Mountain State Park, located in Pulaski County, Arkansas, was commissioned by the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas State Parks in 1971-1972 and was approved by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1973. In 1977, 2,356 acres were designated as Pinnacle Mountain State Park, forming Arkansas’s first state park to be adjacent to a major city. Pinnacle Mountain’s elevation reaches over 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River Valley and is over 750 feet from the floodplain. Pinnacle Mountain is the second highest natural point in Pulaski County, Arkansas following Shinall Mountain. Park visitors can climb the mountain’s peak, a common attraction, and activity for visitors since the 1800s, via hiking trails. Pinnacle Mountain State Park also offers visitors picnic areas, pavilions, and a visitor’s center that overlooks the Arkansas River.
This collection is comprised of approximately 5,400 slides depicting Pinnacle Mountain, its wildlife, natural environment, as well as state park workers performing presentations, maintenance, and hiking tours. Also included are papers corresponding to slide groups, a number of photographs, and accompanying negative 35mm strips.
·         Categories 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 (Box 1)
·         Categories 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 (Box 2)
·         Categories 23, 24, and 25 (Box 3)
·         Category 41 (Box 4)
·         Categories 36, 41, and 42 (Box 5)
·         Categories 2 – 52 (Box 6)
·         Categories 2 – 50 (Box 7)
·         A Day for the Park 1983 September 24; Hunter Education 1980; Maintenance (Residential) 1984; Project Instream 1980; Park Construction 1975 – 76; Unlabeled (Box 8)
·         Unlabeled (Box 9)
·         Photographs, negatives, slide file system categories key, and accompanying information for slides
o    Photographs and accompanying negatives (Box 10)
o    Slide File System Categories Key (Box 10)
o    Educational Images Representative Aquatic Insects Slides #452 (Box 10)
o    50th Anniversary Presentation Script (Box 10)
o    Hunter Education slides information, Hubbard Scientific slides information, miscellaneous notes (Box 10)

o    Pinnacle Mountain State Park brochures (Box 10)