News and Events

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.

4/13/2017:The Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives (NEARA) in Powhatan, a branch of the Arkansas State Archives, has been awarded the “More Than Home” award by Five Rivers Historic Preservation, Inc. The “More Than Home” award will be presented to NEARA on April 20 at a reception during the Arkansas Historical Association conference.

4/12/2017:On Monday, April 17th, there will be filming in the Arkansas State Archives research room. Mangan Holcomb will be filming a TV spot and a web video for the State Archives from 8:30 a.m. until after 5:00. The research room will remain open.

4/6/2017:The Arkansas State Archives and the Arkansas Genealogical Society will host a symposium at the WPA Gymnasium in Historic Washington State Park from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 6th. The symposium's theme, “In the Genealogical Trenches: Tracing Your Wartime Ancestry,” will feature speakers Mark Christ, Mike Polston, Peggy Lloyd and State Archives staff member Mary Dunn.

3/15/2017:The Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA) and the SARA Foundation will host a lecture and book signing at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 15, 2017, at the 1914 Schoolhouse in Historic Washington State Park. Gary Pinkerton, author of Trammel's Trace: The First Road to Texas from the North, will present the history of Trammel's Trace, the first road from the United States into the northern boundaries of Spanish Texas.

3/3/2017:The Arkansas History Commission will hold its quarterly meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 9, 2017, in the conference room of the Arkansas State Archives. This meeting is open to the public.

2/28/2017:The Arkansas State Archives will hold the second lecture in its series, Pen to Podium: Arkansas Historical Writers' Lecture Series, on Tues., Mar. 28 from 7 - 8 p.m. at Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. Elizabeth Hill will present, A Splendid Piece of Work: Arkansas's Early Home Demonstration Clubs, in recognition of Women's History Month. Before the lecture, a reception sponsored by the Friends of the Arkansas State Archives will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the atrium of the museum.

2/27/2017:The Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives (NEARA) will be celebrating its sixth year anniversary with an open house from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Fri., March 3, 2017, at the Male and Female Academy in Powhatan, Lawrence County, Arkansas.

2/17/2017:On February 19, the Arkansas State Archives is launching "You Fought Prejudice and Won: Japanese American Internment Camps in Arkansas," an online digital collection of materials related to Japanese American internment camps in Arkansas. The launch coincides with the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the west coast in February 1942 and led to the creation of internment camps across the country's interior during WWII.

2/7/2017:The Black History Commission of Arkansas will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9 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.

1/25/2017:The Arkansas State Archives holds monthly state records workshops focusing on the Arkansas General Records Retention Schedule, care and preservation considerations for both physical and electronic records, the process of transferring state records to the state archives, and other services offered by the Arkansas State Archives.

1/13/2017:The Arkansas State Archives will be closed on Monday, January 16th, 2017, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.

1/9/2017:The Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas State Archives will be hosting a symposium on Sat., Feb. 4, at its sister agency, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst announced today. The symposium’s theme, “Black Political Engagement in Arkansas,” will feature speakers Dr. John Graves, Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, Elmer Beard, and Dr. R.J. Hampton.

1/6/2017:Due to inclement weather across much of the state, Governor Asa Hutchinson has closed state offices for non-essential personnel, including the Arkansas State Archives, for Friday, January 6, 2017.

1/3/2017:With numerous seminars and workshops, as well as a new, four-part lecture series, there is a whole lineup of exciting upcoming events from the Arkansas State Archives!

12/30/2016:The Arkansas State Archives will be closed on Monday, January 2nd, 2017, in observance of New Year's Day. The archives will reopen on Tuesday, January 3rd, at 8:00am.

12/19/2016:The Arkansas State Archives, in conjunction with its sister agency Historic Arkansas Museum, is launching a series of book lectures in 2017. The lecture series, Pen to Podium: Arkansas Historical Writers' Lecture Series, will be held quarterly and will feature Arkansas authors Ken Barnes, Elizabeth Hill, Brooks Blevins, and Erik Wright, Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst announced today.

12/1/2016:The Arkansas History Commission will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thursday, December 8, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. 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.

11/28/2016:On November 10, the Arkansas State Archives was named to Family Tree Magazine’s list of the 75 Best State Websites for Genealogy in 2016. Each year, the magazine honors the best websites across the country specializing in genealogical research. This is the second time the State Archives has been honored with this designation.

11/21/2016:The Arkansas State Archives and its regional branch archives will be closed Thursday, November 24th through Saturday, November 26th in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday. The main archives will resume regular business hours on Monday, November 28th, and the regional archives will resume regular business hours on Tuesday, November 29th.

11/10/2016:The quarterly meeting of the Black History Commission of Arkansas is scheduled to be held on Monday, November 14th, 2016, at noon, in the Arkansas State Archives conference room at One Capitol Mall, Room 2B-215.

11/9/2016:The Arkansas State Archives and its two branches, NEARA and SARA, will be closed Friday, November 11th in observance of Veterans Day. All locations will reopen with regular hours on Saturday, November 12.

10/5/2016:The Arkansas State Archives will be hosting a symposium from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 29, at the North Little Rock Heritage Center in North Little Rock. The symposium’s theme, “Using Archival Records to Preserve Historic Structures,” will feature speakers Rachel Silva, Callie Williams, Sandra Taylor Smith, and Ann Clements and will focus on using archival records for research in historic preservation.

9/28/2016:On Wed., Sept. 21, 2016, Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued a proclamation to the Arkansas State Archives declaring October to be Arkansas Archives Month. In the proclamation, Gov. Hutchinson declares that "Arkansas Archives Month celebrates the significance of Arkansas's historical records, illuminates the many ways these records enrich our lives, and recognizes those who maintain them.”

9/7/2016:The Arkansas History Commission will hold a regular, quarterly meeting on Thursday, September 8, 2016, at 10:00 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.

8/23/2016:On Aug. 5, Dr. Lisa Speer, director of the Arkansas State Archives and state historian, was elected to the Council of State Archivists’ (CoSA) Board of Directors, a term lasting three years. She will also serve as co-chair of the Program Committee for the 2017 CoSA-NAGARA Annual Meeting in Boise and is a member of the CoSA Education and Training Committee.

8/15/2016:The Arkansas State Archives will be hosting its third annual Arkansas foodways symposium from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute in Little Rock. The symposium’s theme, “Southern Fried Schnitzel: German Food and Culture in Arkansas,” will feature presentations by Shirley Schuette, Leah Lambert, Kathleen Condray, Tim Nutt, and State Archives staff member Terra Titsworth.

7/27/2016:The Arkansas State Archives will host a free, half-day symposium from 9 a.m. until noon at Historic Arkansas Museum on Saturday, Aug. 27. The symposium’s theme, “Arkansas’s Homerun: Major League Training in Hot Springs,” will feature the screening of Larry Foley’s documentary, “The First Boys of Spring,” and a presentation by Don Duren, who will be speaking about his book, “Boiling Out at the Springs: A History of Major League Baseball Training at Hot Springs, Arkansas.”