Month: December 2020

The CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is excited to offer a new database of fire insurance maps to our patrons. The database, Fire Insurance Maps online, or FIMo, allows patrons to view, annotate, and download images from full-color Sanborn fire insurance maps for Arkansas. The following are some highlights of FIMo’s more innovative features.

I have spent nearly two decades in some capacity or another engaged in matters of Arkansas history and heritage, and while I have absorbed a wealth of scholarship, and produced some of my own, there is one question about the collective soul of Arkansans whose answer continues to elude me:

Why don’t we take ourselves more seriously?

On Saturday, I had the privilege of addressing the Dunbar Historic Neighborhood Association’s annual community festival. Last year, the festival took place in the Sue Cowan Williams Library parking lot, but this year, for obvious reasons, it was held virtually. As part of the “Dunbar Historic Moments” portion of the program, I presented a very brief overview of Herbert Denton Jr.

Three lesson plans tools that teachers and students will find helpful in assessing historical materials are described in this document. Teachers can easily adapt one, two, or all three of these tools into a class activity or three class unit by having students complete the tasks as a class or in groups.

Lesson Plan

Courtesy of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Grade Level: 5-8 Middle School;

The Arkansas Post National Memorial and Arkansas Post Museum preserve the remains of the original European and Native American settlements on the Arkansas River, as well as the Civil War battle that was fought at the post.

More here: https://www.nps.gov/arpo/learn/education/index.htm

The education staff at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site offers several lesson plans and curriculum materials for use in your classroom.

Link: https://www.nps.gov/chsc/learn/education/lessonplansandteacherguides.htm

President Bill Clinton’s education began from a pretty young age, due to the care and help of his grandmother Edith Cassidy. The rangers at President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site would like to help you learn more about Bill’s childhood, as well as the National Park Service.

Link: https://www.nps.gov/wicl/learn/kidsyouth/beajuniorranger.htm

Native Americans, Outlaws, Westward Expansion, or the Justice System – Fort Smith National Historic Site brings history to life. We are in the process of updating our education programs in alignment with the Common Core. The new programs will offer more opportunities for students to be actively involved in the learning process.

Hot Springs National Park has created two trunks containing reproductions of items taken on expeditions such as the 1804-05 Dunbar-Hunter Expedition, along with furs of a few animals that were being trapped here at that time.

Link: https://www.nps.gov/hosp/learn/education/travellingtrunks.htm

Pea Ridge National Military Park now offers Traveling Trunks for educators to rent for two weeks. These trunks, one Union and one Confederate, contain reproduction items worn and carried by the common soldier during the early years of the American Civil War.

Pea Ridge National Military Park offers a variety of options for teachers and students studying the Civil War and the Battle of Pea Ridge.