The Center for Arkansas History and Culture
Located in downtown Little Rock, the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture is housed in the Bobby L. Roberts Library, the state’s largest facility dedicated to the study of Arkansas history and culture. Through its connection to the university, the archives benefit from the rigorous scholarship of our faculty, creating a valuable resource for students, researchers, stakeholders, and the general public.
The Bobby L. Roberts Library represents a partnership between the Central Arkansas Library System and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, through which the two institutions have made more than 10 million documents and photographs on Arkansas history available for public use.
Mission
The UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture collects, keeps safe, and makes available Arkansas History that connects people to each other and their shared experiences.
About this Project
"As Much as the Water: How Steamboats Shaped Arkansas" began as a discussion between the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) and The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas (ASC). The two organizations wanted to create a small archival exhibit featuring materials used in a 1983 exhibition of Frederick T. Anderson's art. As planning progressed, we began to see connections to other areas of study in the university, and as we talked with other scholars at UA Little Rock, it was clear that steamboats held a mythos for people that surpassed what could be presented in a small exhibit.
The exhibit presented here offers a broad range of content and perspectives from a variety of disciplines. The scholars whose work is featured here offer critical perspectives on the impact steamboats had on Arkansas and its culture. That impact shaped the state in indelible ways, truly as much as the rivers these boats traversed did.
Project Contributors
Lead Partners
UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture
The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
Contributing Partners
Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum
Sequoyah National Research Center at UA Little Rock
UA Little Rock Department of Art
UA Little Rock Department of History
UA Little Rock Department of Music
UA Little Rock Office of Communications
UA Little Rock Ottenheimer Library
Special Thanks
Kaye Lundgren
Archival Assistant
Center for Arkansas History and Culture
Kimberly Kaczenski
Assistant Director
Center for Arkansas History and Culture
Laura Amrhein
Social Historian
Little Rock, Arkansas
Deborah Baldwin
Associate Provost, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Jessica Erwin
Graduate Assistant
Center for Arkansas History and Culture
Chad Garrett
Director of Digital Projects and Initiatives
Center for Arkansas History and Culture
Allison Hiblong
Graduate Assistant
Leslie C. "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy
Archeologist for Arkansas Archeological Survey
Stationed at Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain
Courtney Taylor
Arts and Sciences Center for Southeast Arkansas
Stanley James
Teacher
eSTEM Public Charter School
Shannon Lausch
Archivist
Carol Macheak
Librarian
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Brandie Mikesell
Archivist
Carl H. Moneyhon
Professor of History
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Tom Richeson
UA Little Rock Music Department
Karen Russ
Librarian
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Lindsay Scott
Maritime Archeologist
Lenore Shouts
Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas
The Bobby L. Roberts Library combines the archival holdings of two institutions, UA Little Rock and the Central Arkansas Library System, under one roof.
To help make the researcher's experience efficient and fulfilling, the two institutions have created a single research portal that provides all of the information you need to plan your visit to the archive, including the ability to submit questions and requests.
Visit the portal at arstudies.org.
Through the research portal, you can search all holdings available in the Bobby L. Roberts Library, regardless of whether they are maintained by the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture or the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.
Visit the portal at https://arstudies.com.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
