501-918-3025
calsfoundation@cals.org
calsfoundation@cals.org
Pulaski County: A Photographic Journey Back in Time
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then we would need millions of words to describe the contents of the CALS Butler Center’s Pulaski County Photograph Collection (BC.PHO.2.A). This collection was started when the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System 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 the people of Pulaski County used to live, work, and play. (Click on a photo in the gallery to view a larger image.)
Aerial view of Little Rock, circa 1970
Arkansas State Capitol under construction, 1910
Governor Bill Clinton inauguration, inaugural address, Little Rock, Jan. 15, 1985
Little Rock Senior High Concert Band circa 1905-1915
Main Street viaduct, East Second Street during 1927 flood
P.I.E. fraternity, Little Rock High School, 1944
Rose City Bakery Float, Little Rock, circa 1920
Safeway store, Little Rock, circa 1940
Streetcar, Markham St., Little Rock, circa 1925
Tuf-Nut Manufacturing Company, Interior, Little Rock, circa 1930s
Unidentified African American woman in Little Rock, undated
The overall collection is broken down into twenty-three topical sub-collections:
- Military Affairs
- Black History
- Education
- Buildings
- Streetscapes
- Landscape and Nature Scenes
- Business, Industry and Natural Resources
- Disasters
- Religion
- Gardens and Landscape Design
- Agriculture
- Historic Sites
- Sports and Recreation
- Tourism
- Pulaski County Parades, Celebrations and Fairs
- Commercial and Promotional
- Transportation
- Crime and Punishment
- Parks, Recreation Areas and Cemeteries
- Medicine and Science
- Arts and Culture
- Political
- Courthouse
The collection has something for everyone. If you thought the water was high along the Arkansas River during flooding in recent years, you should look at some of the images from the 1927 Flood in the Pulaski County Disasters collection. Interested in military history? The Pulaski County Military Affairs collection has more the 480 photographs in it. Want to know what Main Street looked like back way back when? Check out the Pulaski County Streetscapes collection. Of course, there are thousands of other Pulaski County images scattered in other Butler Center collections as well.
Accessing the Collection
You can view all of the photographs in this collection by visiting the Research Room on the second floor of the CALS Roberts Library. Photocopies of each picture are housed in notebooks in the Research Room, providing an easy way to browse everything in the collection while protecting the originals. Once you locate photos of interest, you can ask the staff to pull the originals.
We also provide online finding aids for all twenty-three sub-collections here.
More than 850 photos from the collection have been digitized, so you can see a sample of what’s available from the comfort of home. The online finding aids include links to the digital images in the descriptions, so you can click through that way. Or, you can use this link to access and download photos that have been digitized from this collection: Pulaski County photograph collections.
This collection will continue to grow as we acquire new items. If you have photographs that capture the history and spirit of Pulaski County, contact Brian Robertson, manager of the Research Services Division, at brianr@cals.org to discuss making a donation of your own or family photos.
