It’s the time of year when people
think about what has passed and plan their new year. Historically, that
contemplation often included religious faith.
The
Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives has about 220 Bible school study cards,
which were used as lesson supplements for children's Sunday school classes. The
bulk of these cards date from 1922 to 1934. Each card shows an image to
illustrate a lesson and a Bible verse. The card has a simple explanation or
story on the back.
Attending
Sunday school was common in early 1900s Arkansas. About 80 percent of the
state's population identified as Baptist or Methodist.
The Louise
Smith Parrish donated the card collection to Powhatan Historic State Park. In
2011, the Arkansas State Parks gave the cards to NEARA as part of a larger
donation on northeast Arkansas history.
To see the
collection, visit NEARA from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 11
Seventh St. in Powhatan.
In other
news, the deadline to apply for the NEARA Award for Exemplary Archival Research is Feb. 1. The winner earns $1,000!
For more information, visit http://arkansashistoricalassociation.org/?page_id=19.
We, also, are accepting volunteers
every day! Come by and we will teach you how to handle archival materials and
make those records more accessible to the public. You can help us preserve our
heritage!
Currently, volunteers are unfolding
and processing court case files from the Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County Court
Records Collection. The goal is to have the cases searchable in our database
within the next year.
For more information about
volunteering, contact NEARA at northeast.archives@arkansas.gov
or 870-878-6521.
