The newest state capitol exhibit is, Arkansas in 1860: On the Eve of Conflict.
The tale of a pivotal year in Arkansas’s history is told through images and artifacts depicting life in pre-Civil War Arkansas. The exhibit highlights the topics of transportation, society, plantation agriculture, and the politics of 1860, as well as the profound transformations within these areas of a state on the brink of secession.
Arkansas in 1860: On the Eve of Conflict includes personal effects of Omer Rose Weaver, a young man-about-town of 1860 Little Rock, along with the intriguing story of “The Family,” Arkansas’s first political dynasty. Weaver moved freely in Arkansas’s social circles, and one of his fancy vests is featured near a copy of a $15.00 invoice for a similar vest. The cost of the vest was equivalent to a month’s wages for a working man of the day.
The exhibit contains artifacts and documents from the collections of the Arkansas History Commission, as well as materials loaned by several state parks, Arkansas State University and private individuals.
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The State Capitol exhibit, Helping People Help the Land, which highlights the 75-year history of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Arkansas.
In 1935, after years of crippling multi-state droughts, the federal government took a bold step for resource stewardship by creating the Soil Conservation Service, a new agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its mission was to help farmers, ranchers and other private landowners care for their most fundamental asset and resource: soil and what covered it. Renamed the Natural Resources Conservation Service in 1994, the agency marks its 75th anniversary in 2010.
Helping People Help the Land, created by the Little Rock office of the NRCS in cooperation with the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office, offers Capitol visitors a glimpse of NRCS projects and programs in Arkansas. Historic photographs and “tools of the trade” document the creation of Lake Bennett (named for the Service’s first director) in Faulkner County and other early undertakings, while more recent images highlight current projects across Arkansas, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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The State Capitol exhibit, Our Uncovered Past, provides an overview of conservation, research, and interpretive efforts of the Arkansas Archeological Survey over the preceding decade.
Presented in collaboration with the Survey, a division of the University of Arkansas System, the exhibit prominently features the results of the Survey’s partnership with units of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, including Davidsonville Historic State Park. Located on the Black River in northeast Arkansas, near Pocahontas, Davidsonville was Arkansas’s first county seat and its establishment in 1815 made it one of the earliest European settlements in what would become Arkansas. The exhibit offers a sampling of Davidsonville artifacts, including buttons, lead balls, animal remains, and fragments of an early Dutch oven, the humble iron pot later designated the state’s official historic cooking vessel.
Our Uncovered Past also spotlights the survey’s longest-running partnership: the Arkansas Archeological Society, which observes its 50th anniversary in 2010. Since 1964, the Society has collaborated with the University of Arkansas Museum and the Arkansas Archeological survey to provide opportunities for members to learn the techniques of professional archeology in classroom and field. In 2007 and 2008, the Society’s Summer Training Program excavated the Jones Mill site near Malvern. On view are some of their finds, including stone tools, projectile points, and stone sinkers used to weigh down nets once used to harvest the fish of the nearby Ouachita River.
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The newest State Capitol exhibit, Arkansas Folk, features the folk culture of the Ozark highlands of Northern Arkansas as preserved by the Ozark Folk Center.
Located near Mountain View in Stone County, the Ozark Folk Center was established in 1973 to preserve the traditional arts, trades, and the popular culture of the hill country. This exhibit -- which includes handicrafts and musical instruments along with photographs, videos and music -- highlights the rich legacy of the Ozark Folk Center and its research collections, now part of the state archives.
A collaboration between the History Commission and the Secretary of State’s office, the exhibit affords Capitol visitors a sampler of Ozark folk life, as well as glimpses of the History Commission’s other holdings related to Arkansans’ traditional crafts and ways of life.
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The newest State Capitol exhibit, Natural, National: The National Parks and Arkansas, which salutes the National Park Service and its six Arkansas properties.
The exhibit, prepared in collaboration with National Park Service sites within Arkansas and the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), features photographs and artifacts which evoke the different themes of the parks. Distinctive items include a paper collapsible drinking cup advertising Hot Springs's Buckstaff Baths, a flattened musket ball and a broken bayonet from Pea Ridge National Battlefield and an assortment of archaeological finds from Fort Smith National Historic Site, including regimental buttons and a tiny lead dog figurine.
The Public Broadcasting System and its Arkansas affiliate AETN will premiere National Parks: America's Best Idea, a six-episode documentary tracing the history of America's preservation of its most beautiful and hallowed places. Directed by Ken Burns, the documentary details the growth of America's long-standing love of the parks and the actions of individuals and groups, as well as local and state governments, to set aside areas dedicated to "the benefit and the enjoyment of the people." To compliment the series, AETN has developed its Parks Initiative, a program encouraging Arkansans to "get outside" and explore not just our national parks, but also the wide range of Arkansas State Parks and other recreation areas.
Capitol visitors may pick up an AETN "Parks Passport" at the Information Desk; collecting stamps from all six national parks and selected state parks qualify the bearer for prizes. Over the next several months, AETN will sponsor a photography competition to collect Arkansans' best images of the state's parks. |
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The newest State Capitol exhibit, Lines on the Land, celebrates both the art and science of land surveying as practiced in Arkansas for almost 200 years.
The exhibit features images from the archives of the National Geodetic Survey’s archives, plus a generous selection of surveyors’ equipment, both vintage and modern. Lines on the Land demonstrates that while the profession’s tools and, to some degree, techniques have changed, its emphasis on accuracy and precision has remained constant.
The exhibit coincides with the rededication of the state’s Zero Milestone, a marker installed on the Capitol’s east Promenade in 1932 to promote state highway construction. The milestone was removed several years ago after an act of vandalism. The state’s surveyors relocated it, with the consent of the Secretary of State’s office, to the grounds of the Arkansas Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors across from the Capitol grounds.
Lines on the Land has been prepared with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Geodetic Survey, the U.S. Department of Transportation/ Federal Highway Administration, the Pulaski County Public Works Department, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture/State Land Surveyor’s Office and private collectors. |
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