These selections include photographs, as well as images of artifacts, books, and documents.
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Arkansas State Capitol building agreement
Six-page contract between the Arkansas State Capitol Commission and the construction firm Caldwell and Drake. Dated August 14, 1903, the contract is signed by George Caldwell (representing Caldwell and Drake), the five Arkansas State Capitol Commissioners. Capitol architect, George Mann, and Secretary of the Capitol Commission, Lehman Kay, also signed the contract as witnesses. It is printed on carbon paper with a smaller, green front cover and a blue back cover. There are markings on each page that identify edits, additions, and sections of the contract. There is also writing on the back cover that labels it.
Clauses in the contract state that the building was to be constructed using Batesville marble and Arkansas granite; construction was to be completed by December 23, 1905; and the cost of construction was to be $947,846. The Capitol was not completed until 1915 at a cost of $2.2 million dollars and, because of difficulty cutting the marble out of the quarry in Batesville, additional stone from Indiana and Alabama were needed to complete construction. A scandal involving Caldwell and Drake bribing Arkansas legislators in 1905 and repeated concerns about the firm's quality of construction of the building damaged its reputation. The Arkansas General Assembly dismissed Caldwell and Drake as contractors (as well as architect George Mann) in 1909. -
Fort Smith cyclone
This is a selection of pages from a photographic booklet detailing the January 11, 1898, tornado that hit Fort Smith. The photographs show the destruction caused by the tornado.
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Arkansas: The Central State of the Fair Southwest
This promotional literature of Arkansas notes "Climate unsurpassed. Soil fruitful. Products rich and varied. Timber and building materials plentiful and excellent. Free schools... A land of peace and plenty, of happy homes and profitable investment."
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Jeffie Hibler diary
This is a small diary that includes many clippings of newsworthy events, recipes, poems, and other inspirational or motivational materials collected by Miss Jeffie Hibler. It also includes several pages of accounts for boarding people in the home.
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The Colored Industrial Institute
Selected pages and illustration from a prospectus for the Colored Industrial Institute of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
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Three Victorian Era smiles
Black and white photograph of three unidentified women, 2 older and 1 younger, smiling and posed together while wearing corsages.
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Letter from W.W. Mansfield to his son, Walter
This is a letter from William W. Mansfield to his son, Walter, written while Mansfield was staying in Little Rock, compiling the laws and statutes of the state of Arkansas that had been passed in 1883. The work, usually referred to as Mansfield's Digest, was published in 1884. In this letter, W.W. Mansfield tells his son about a new invention called the telephone, and says how he wishes the family had one in their home so he could call and talk to his children. He misses his family very much and wishes he were home so he could go fishing with Walter.
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Photograph of Main Street in Little Rock
Black and white photograph of Main Street in Little Rock, circa 1880.
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Program from banquet honoring Ulysses S. Grant
A fabric program from a banquet honoring Ulysses S. Grant during his 1880 visit to Little Rock. The program lists all of the toasts given in Grant's honor and the replies to the toasts given.
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Virginia Gray letter
This "letter" was written by Virginia L. Gray from Little Rock, Arkansas, to her brother Raymond C. Davis of Cushing, Maine. It was written over period of two years, from November 1872 to August 1874. Evidence suggests that the serial letter was not mailed sequentially, but kept together and mailed as one. This collection contests of three bound volumes in gilt-edged brown crushed morocco.
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Taylor Kirkpatric and Sarah Bishop marriage license
An early example of a simple marriage license form customized for the minister who filled in the date, names and ages of the groom and bride and signed his name. The use of forms emerged after the Civil War. Licenses prior to the Civil War were usually just handwritten slips of paper submitted to the County Clerk for filing. Some of the earliest forms in Hempstead County were used for the marriages of the recently emancipated former slaves. This change emerged in the late 1860s. In the early years after the end of slavery marriage licenses for African-Americans were filed in a separate marriage book as the license indicates.
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Voter registration of John S. Turner
Voter registration of John S. Turner in Springhill Precinct, Hempstead County, Arkansas in 1867.
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Arkansas Treasury Warrants printing plates
The State of Arkansas used these printing blocks to print paper currency during the Civil War. In response to the scarcity of money, the Arkansas state legislature passed a law requiring creditors to accept state war bonds as payment of debts. The State of Arkansas issued Arkansas Treasury Warrants in denominations of $1, $2, $3, $5, and $10 during the Civil War. The currency was printed on blue, white, or gray paper. Usually the back of the currency was stamped "Arkansas Treasury Warrant," but due to the scarcity of paper some bills were printed on the back of old forms with writing on them or whatever paper could be found.
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Civil War Mementos carved by Richard Jesse Bailey
Private Richard Jesse Bailey, a musician in the regimental band of Company H, 3rd Regiment, Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A., carved these mementos during and after the Civil War.
The "Dixie Drinking Cup" was carved from a coconut shell as a memento of the Battle of Gaines Mill, Virginia, on June 27, 1862. The carving on the coconut reads "R.J. B. 3RD-ARK-REGT-INF-A.N.V. GAINES MILL VA. JUNE-1862." The other two sides read "DIXIE-DRINKING CUP." and "ASK FOR THE LIVING WATER." In between the words are geometric carvings. The bottom is carved in a checkered board style. The top is carved with a six pointed flower.
Dated July 1862, the spoon is a memento from Drewry's Bluff on the James River in Virginia. The carving on the top of the spoon reads "July 1862 Jesse." The back reads "3rd -ARK-REGT-INF-HOODS-TEXAS BRIG. LONGESTREETS - CORPS - A.N.V." Around the handle is carved a banner that reads "DREWRYS_BLUFF_ JAMES RIVER _ VIRGINIA." Linear and dot patterns are carved between the words.
The wood block was from the famous apple tree at Appomattox, Virginia, where General Lee and General Grant supposedly met. After General Lee's surrender, Private Bailey took a piece of the tree and was paroled at Appomattox on April 12, 1865. The front carving reads "FROM APPLE TREE APPOMATTOX C.M.-VA-1865." The back carving reads "WHERE GENERALS R. E. LEE. - AND- U. S. GRANT MET APRIL 9." The sides of the block read "3rd ARK REGT INF. TEXAS BRIGADE." -
George Thomas Mays and Brother, "Pinky" in Civil War Uniforms
Ambrotype portrait of George Thomas Mays and his brother, "Pinky" in their Civil War uniforms. The ambrotype is in a full case.
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Arkansas State Militia belt plate
Omer Weaver owned this extremely rare Arkansas State Militia belt plate. The Arkansas State Militia belt plate was used by several Arkansas troops at the being of the Civil War. Less than half a dozen of these belt plates are known to exist today. The belt plate has the seal of the state of Arkansas cast on it. The Arkansas buckle was made of a thin brass stamping, to which puppy foot style hooks were attached for fixing the plate to a belt, and the brass stamping was then filled with lead.
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Ann "Nannie" Jane Conway Sevier Turner and Daughter
Ambrotype portrait of Ann "Nannie" Jane Conway Sevier Turner and her daughter in a half case.
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Edward Payson Washbourne self portrait
Edward Payson Washbourne (1831-1860), an Arkansas antebellum artist, painted this self-portrait. Washbourne is best known for his painting, The Arkansas Traveler, which depicts an encounter between a wealthy traveler and a family of squatters in Arkansas. The Arkansas Traveler painting became a popular print and was widely distributed as a Currier and Ives lithograph.
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Specification for construction of log cabin
This is a draft of specifications for a log house to be built by A.C. Childers, as administrator of the estate of John Wells. George McGhehey, judge of the probate court of Lawrence County, approved it.
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Stockdale-Lytle-Williamson marriage license
This document contains an unusual amount of detail including the parents of the bride as well as the age and place of residence of the groom. The bride was Mrs. Elizabeth A. Lytle, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Pryor of Spring Hill, Arkansas. She was about 30. The groom was thirty-year-old Fletcher S. Stockdale of Calhoun County, Texas. The Presbyterian minister Samuel W. Williamson (1795-1882) specified that he was an Old School Presbyterian. The Old School Presbyterians believed ministers should be well-educated and pulled back from the practice of camp meetings.
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Wild Sports in the Far West, cover and title page
This book records fascinating vignettes of life in Arkansas and numerous tales of hunting expeditions.
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Letter from Edward Washburn to Abbe Washburn Langford
Correspondence from Edward Washburn during the Mexican War to his sister, Abbe Washburn Langford on June 12, 1846. Abbe lived in Bentonville, Benton County, Arkansas. Edward gave her an artist's rendering of an officer at the flag pole after the American flag was hoisted up the pole.
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Tarpley/Dixon marriage license by John D. Trimble, JP.
Handwritten marriage license prepared for recording by John D. Trimble and filed for record on February 13th, 1844, by S. T. Sanders, Clerk, for a fee of 50 cents.
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Jacob and Clary Mading marriage license
This is the handwritten proof of a marriage by Justice of the Peace William Clark for Jacob Mading and Clary or Clara Mading. It was sent to the County Clerk for recording and is dated July 2, 1843. Forms for marriage licenses would not become prevalent until the years after the Civil War. It is one of only two marriage licenses for Free Persons of Color in the antebellum marriage records of Hempstead County, Arkansas.