Month: August 2019

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then we would need more than three million words to describe the contents of the CALS Butler Center’s Pulaski County Photograph Collection (BC.PHO.2.A). This collection was started back when the Butler Center was founded in 1997, and it now includes more than 3,100 items.

These photographs represent an important historical record of our area—from buildings that no longer exist to photos that show how
people used to live.

The Woodrow T. Little Collection (BC.MSS.14.83), donated to the CALS Butler Center by Little’s daughter, Janice Smith, is a relatively small collection that contains a wealth of information and images. It tells about Little himself, as well as about his friend, Jesse Garner Reynolds, and about the organization they both worked for, Colonial Baking Company.

The Arkansas River flood of 2019 was being described as “historic” before a single levee was breached or structure flooded. Recognizing the impact the flooding would have on the region, CALS Roberts Library staff decided to try to find a way to preserve community documentation of the flood before the headlines stopped.

Before the water reached its crest in Little Rock,

By David Stricklin, Director of the CALS Roberts Library

Summertime is lively here. The livin’ may be easy, as the song says, but it’s certainly not slow. You can see in this issue of the eBanner our recent work with teachers, new releases of archival materials, our presence in art and music,

We need photographs, documents, videos, maps, and audio clips to help make the CALS EOA the most comprehensive and engaging resource on Arkansas history. If you have photos or other media, please contact CALS EOA Media Editor Mike Keckhaver.

The CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas is a changing, evolving resource. This fact will, I hope, become even more evident as we approach the centennial of the Elaine Massacre of 1919. The Elaine Massacre was one of the entries with which we launched the CALS EOA back in 2006, but since then, we have added not only numerous entries that provide a broader context for the violence that happened in Phillips County—such as our entries on race riots and the “Red Scare”

• Visit us in person in the Roberts Library at CALS Library Square (100 Rock St. in downtown Little Rock) to view art in our four exhibition galleries—and shop in our retail gallery for art, jewelry, and other items made by Arkansas artists and artisans.
• Head to the research room in the CALS Roberts Library (second floor) for genealogy and other research,

This feature of our Butler Banner invites readers to click their way into our many and varied digital resources.

Featured this time is a three-minute video that came to the CALS Butler Center as part of our Home Movies Collection.

The film footage (now digitized) very likely shows the wreckage following the crash of a B-47 bomber that had taken off on the morning of March 31,

In this year’s one-day summer seminar, “Tools for Teaching and Learning Difficult History: Racial Violence in Arkansas, the 1919 Elaine Massacre and a Century of Lynching, 1836–1936,” educators received support and guidance for the challenging but crucial task of teaching history such as the Elaine Massacre. Noted historians shared primary documents that connect racial violence in Arkansas to larger issues in U.S.