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I recently had a student of mine, from when I was doing some adjunct teaching at the University of Arkansas Clinton School for Public Service, contact me regarding the possibility of her going back to school, this time for a PhD. What could I tell her about the program I myself attended? I could tell her plenty,

This is the time of year for gathering receipts and documents to meet that looming tax deadline in April… The hustle and bustle of tax season is carved into the address recognized as 1400 S. Woodrow Street, west of Central High School National Historic Site in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is the modest home that was converted into a tax business by Turley Toombs,

The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 was one of the largest natural disasters to affect Arkansas, as well as the largest and most destructive flood in our nation’s history, inundating over 27,000 square miles. Arkansas was the hardest hit of the states: Of the seventy-five counties in Arkansas, thirty-six of them were under water.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the CALS Roberts Library recently digitized over 550 photographs from its Transportation Photograph Collection. Included in the collection are images of transportation-related subjects from areas in the state outside of Pulaski County. (The Pulaski County photos are in a different collection: Pulaski County Transportation Photograph Collection.)

The Transportation Photograph Collection contains photos and other images of trains and train stations,

It’s hard to tell when you’ve turned the corner from one historical epoch to another. In fact, the argument could be made that very rarely is the break from one period to another so clean. Sitting in front of my television on September 11, 2001, the world felt like it had suddenly tilted hard, that nothing would be the same.

Led by community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh, on December 12, 2022, several patrons gathered at the CALS Dee Brown Library to learn about how Arkansans have celebrated Christmas over the state’s history. With the help of kitchen programmer Justin Vess, the group also baked cookies using a 1923 sour cream cookie recipe from the collection of the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.

Back in November I went back to the Arkansas State Archives for my first visit in more than a year, needing to access some railroad commission records, as well as a newspaper from 1933. I had spent a lot of time there in the early 2000s, when I was working on my dissertation on “racial cleansing,” or the expulsion of African Americans from various communities across Arkansas.

An absolutely lovely discovery awaits you in Library Square!

The CALS Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square might be known for our excellent selection of gently read books at great prices, but we have much, much more, including unique local art, local authors’ books, and local snacks and sauces.

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,