News and Events

4/12/2018:The Arkansas State Archives, the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives, and the Arkansas Genealogical Society will be hosting a genealogy symposium from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at the 1914 Schoolhouse in Historic Washington State Park.

4/10/2018:At its March 8 quarterly meeting, the Arkansas History Commission elected Jason Hendren as chairman. A central part of his mission as chairman of the commission will be to increase awareness of the need for donation of historical artifacts and documents to the Arkansas State Archives, and the need for proper preservation and accessibility.

4/4/2018:Applications are being accepted until May 1 for the 2018 Tom and Dolores Bruce Historical Research Fellowship, a grant for scholars, teachers, graduate students, documentary producers and other researchers who are researching under-studied topics relating to Arkansas history. The award has a maximum cash value of $1,000.

3/28/2018:Author and journalist Evin Demirel will be the next speaker in the Arkansas State Archives’ (ASA) Pen to Podium lecture series, on Tuesday, April 17, from 6:30 – 8 p.m. in the Diamond Room at the Department of Arkansas Heritage (DAH), 1100 North Street, Little Rock.

2/21/2018:The Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA), a branch of the Arkansas State Archives (ASA), will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Saturday, March 3 at SARA, 201 AR-195, Washington. The event is free and open to the public.

1/5/2018:The Black History Commission of Arkansas (BHCA), an advisory board of the Arkansas State Archives (ASA), will sponsor a workshop, "African Americans in Arkansas's Rural History," on Saturday, February 3rd, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock.

1/3/2018:The Arkansas State Archives and its branch archives will close at 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 9th, for staff training. The archives will resume their normal business hours at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 10th.

12/20/2017:Author and journalist Janis Kearney will be the featured speaker at the first of the Arkansas State Archives’ (ASA) 2018 Pen to Podium lecture series on Tuesday, Jan. 23, from 7 – 8 p.m. in the Diamond Room at the Department of Arkansas Heritage (DAH), 1100 North Street, Little Rock.

12/18/2017:The Arkansas State Archives and its branch archives, the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives and the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives, will be closed on Saturday, December 23rd, Monday, December 25th, and Tuesday, December 26th in observance of the Christmas holiday. All archives locations will resume regular business hours on Wednesday, December 27th.

12/4/2017:The Arkansas History Commission will hold it quarterly meeting at 10 a.m., on Thursday, December 7, 2017. They will meet in the Arkansas State Archives conference room, located on the second floor of the Multi-Agency Complex at One Capitol Mall in Little Rock. This meeting is open to the public.

11/27/2017:The Black History Commission of Arkansas, charged with preserving the history of black Arkansans and promoting the teaching of black history in Arkansas’s schools, is administered by a seven-member board appointed by the Governor, and meets quarterly throughout the year. The commission recently announced the dates of its quarterly meetings to be held in 2018. These meetings are open to the public.

10/13/2017:The Black History Commission of Arkansas will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thurs., Nov. 2, 2017, at noon in the Arkansas State Archives conference room, located on the 2nd floor of the Multi-Agency Complex building at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas. This meeting is open to the public.

9/29/2017:The Arkansas State Archives will host a symposium on Saturday, October 28, at Old Pulaski County Courthouse at 400 W. 2nd St. in Little Rock from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. The symposium's theme, “Case Files and Conspiracies: True Crime and Lore in Arkansas,” will feature speakers Brooks Blevins, George Lankford, Tom Dillard, and State Archives staff member Brian Irby.

9/28/2017:In conjunction with American Archives Month, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has proclaimed October to be Arkansas Archives Month. Through educational programs, posters, and social media posts, archives use Archives Month to raise awareness about the importance of archives and the preservation of important records and historical material.

9/18/2017:The fourth and final lecture in the Pen to Podium: Arkansas Historical Writers' Lecture Series will be held from 7 - 8 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 17, at Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. The lecture will feature Erik Wright, who will present "Main Street Mayhem: Crime, Murder and Justice in Downtown Paragould."

9/9/2017:The Arkansas State Archives and the St. Francis County Historical Society are hosting an archives and special collections workshop from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday, September 23, at the Woodruff Electric Co-op Corporation building in Forrest City. The workshop will feature sessions on “Basic Tips for Managing Historical Collections,” “Responsible Preservation on a Budget,” and “Working with Special Formats.” The event is free but registration is required.

9/1/2017:The Arkansas State Archives will be closed on Monday, September 4th, in observance of Labor Day. The ASA research room will reopen and resume normal business hours at 8a.m. on Tuesday, September 5th.

8/31/2017:The Arkansas History Commission has canceled its regular quarterly meeting scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 7, 2017, at 10 a.m., and has rescheduled the meeting for Thurs., Sept. 21, 2017, at 10 a.m. They will meet in the Arkansas State Archives conference room, located on the second floor of the Multi-agency Complex at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas. This meeting is open to the public.

8/28/2017:The Arkansas State Archives and the St. Francis County Historical Society are hosting an archives and special collections workshop from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday, September 23, at the Woodruff Electric Co-op Corporation building in Forrest City.

8/24/2017:The Arkansas History Commission will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thursday, September 7th, 2017, at 10 a.m. in the Arkansas State Archives conference room, located on the second floor of the Multi-agency Complex at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas. This meeting is open to the public.

8/15/2017:The Arkansas State Archives will host its fourth annual Arkansas foodways symposium from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 16, at the north campus of UA Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. The symposium's theme, Fruit of the Vine: Arkansas's Italian Communities and Foodways, will feature presentations by Chris Dorer, Dr. Rebecca Howard, Regina Moyer and State Archives staff member Terra Titsworth.

8/2/2017:The Arkansas State Archives has been awarded a grant in the amount of $208,128 for the digitization of historic Arkansas newspapers through the National Endowment of the Humanities. The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant will allow 100,000 pages of historic Arkansas newspapers from the collections of the State Archives to be digitized and made available online for research.

7/28/2017:The Black History Commission of Arkansas will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2017, at noon in the Arkansas State Archives conference room, located on the 2nd floor of the Multi-Agency Complex at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas. This meeting is open to the public.

7/5/2017:The Arkansas State Archives and the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives will host a symposium on Sat., Aug. 5, from 10 a.m until 3 p.m. at the Male and Female Academy in Powhatan, Arkansas. The symposium’s theme, “Cultivating Life: Agricultural History in Northeast Arkansas,” will feature speakers Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, Dr. Brooks Blevins, Dr. Blake Perkins and Joan Gould.

6/29/2017:The Arkansas State Archives, as well as the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives and the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives will be closed on Tuesday, July 4th in observance of Independence Day. All locations will resume regular business hours at 8am on Wednesday, July 5th.

6/1/2017:The Arkansas History Commission will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thursday, June 8, 2017, at 10 a.m. in the Arkansas State Archives conference room, located on the second floor of the Multi-agency Complex at One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas. This meeting is open to the public.

5/18/2017:The Arkansas State Archives, in conjunction with the Historic Arkansas Museum, is hosting the third in a series of AR historical writers lectures on Tuesday, June 20th, from 7-8pm, featuring Brooks Blevins, presenting on "Back Yonder: An Ozark Chronicle," by Charles Wayman Hogue.

5/17/2017:The Arkansas State Archives, in partnership with the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), has digitized 24 Arkansas newspapers through a joint newspaper digitization project with Newspapers.com in order to provide more access to these resources.

5/12/2017:The Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas State Archives will be hosting a symposium on Sat., June 10, in Meeting Room 4A-400 on the fourth floor of the Multi Agency Complex Building behind the State Capitol, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst announced today. The symposium’s theme, “Jim Crow Goes to War: Race Relations in World War I Arkansas,” feature speakers, Carla Coleman, Dr. Brian Mitchell, Dr. Randy Findley, and Grif Stockley.

5/8/2017:The Arkansas State Archives and the Hot Spring County Historical Society are hosting an archives and special collections workshop, "Caring for Your Historical Collections," from 9 a.m. until noon on Sat., May 20 in the Great Room (A300) at the College of the Ouachitas in Malvern.