LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Since 2009, the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History has been collecting artifacts to tell the story of Arkansas.
They’ve been in partnership with the Central Arkansas Library System.
Inside the storage area, there is an impressive collection of boxes upon boxes of Arkansas history.
Executive director Jess Porter says the history ranges from Congress to civil rights to the civil war and so on.
“We like to have anything to help tell the story of Arkansas,” said Porter.
The center gets its history through donations.
Lots of times, the donations they receive are old, and to be able to tell their story, the items need work to withstand their value.
Assistant director, Laura McClellan says they have multiple devices to do just that.
Like a floppy disk reader and software to transfer old cassette tapes or newscasts onto modern technology for the public to access.
McClellan says “if you want to find out about your ancestors, or if you want to learn about the future, this is the place to do it in Arkansas.”
The center is currently working on a project called Mapping Urban Fracture.
McClellan says this project will give a look at Little Rock and its changes over time.
She says this project is expected to be done by 2024 but the project of keeping Arkansas history alive is never done.
“We want people of not only Arkansas but people from all around the world to be able to come and see of come virtually to be able to understand more about Arkansas.”
All material is available to the public at UALR.edu.
To do so in person, you must make an appointment at least two full business days in advance so that the requested material can be ready for review.
