Tag: Butler Banner Fall 2022

Another year is slipping out the door, and I’m proud of all that we at the CALS Roberts Library have to show for these past months.

The CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas is stronger than ever. Stay tuned for our countdown to our 7,000th entry added to the website. Much work has been done this past year on the site itself to make it more user friendly and accessible,

I started reading Stephen King in junior high school, but I didn’t get around to his 1978 book The Stand before he released an expanded version, with more than 400 additional pages, in 1990. I imagine many an author has been tempted to go back and revisit an earlier work and really spruce it up or return to life all those passages a more market-oriented editor insisted be left behind,

Natural Connections: Paintings by Emily Moll Wood and Laura Brainard Raborn

Through Saturday, January 28, 2023

Loft Gallery, CALS Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, Roberts Library

This exciting collection of paintings by Emily Moll Wood and Laura Brainard Raborn explores a visual dialogue with the natural world and nature’s deep connections to their own family histories.

On November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed ending the fighting between the Allied nations and Germany during World War I. Known at the time as the “Great War,” the conflict had consumed the world for four long years and brought unprecedented death and destruction. The following year, President Woodrow Wilson commemorated the first anniversary of Armistice Day with the following words:

“To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service,

I’ve been pondering matters of terminology quite a bit here lately—namely, the limits of our words to capture anything like reality.

This stems, in large part, from my own research into racial violence. There are fantastic debates among historians, sociologists, political scientists, and more about whether the term race riot is a useful descriptor that should continue to be employed.

A portrait photographer’s hardest challenge is persuading people to sit or stand still. That was even more true in the old days when camera shutter speeds were slower and the slightest twitch blurred the picture. The problem was compounded with babies, who are notoriously difficult to persuade to sit still.

One trick old-time photographers used when they were asked to make baby portraits was hiding the baby’s mother in the photograph.

“All right, we’re going to do a quick mic test first. Could you introduce yourself—name, pronouns, title—and give just a little greeting? Then I’ll play it back and start the intro.”

As they ran through the line, I turned in my chair to flick a switch. Outside the recording room, a bright red light cast its cheerful message in the hall: RECORDING.

Steven Wise: O…Is for Ozarks

On view through Saturday, October 29, 2022

Loft Gallery, CALS Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square, Roberts Library

O…Is for Ozarks is made up of large pictures inspired by artist and naturalist Steven Wise’s study of the Ozark Mountains. (Click to expand the images.)

Johnnie B. Pugh was born Johnnie Beatrice Newton to Moses and Odessa Newton in Snyder, Arkansas, on October 1, 1926. Pugh was a nurse, maid, community activist, political leader, and businesswoman. Unfortunately, I was unaware of Pugh, her major and minor contributions, or her personal and professional achievements until I decided to pursue a Master’s in Library and Information Science with a concentration in archival studies and wanted some practical experience in the profession.

The history community is like an ecosystem, with its various parts drawing energy and nutrition from other areas and, in turn, contributing energy and nutrition to other parts in ways that might not be immediately perceptible.

This is a reality that confronts me nearly every day. You see, the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas does not exist,