Old State House Museum Collections Blog

 
   Next week, the collections and exhibit staff of the Old State House Museum will be taking down our recent temporary exhibit, A Circus Hitched to a Tornado: Arkansas Politics in the 20th Century.  As such, this week and weekend will be that last chance to get to see the exhibit. Here's some information from the museum's webpage concerning the exhibit.

     Over the years, Arkansas elections have been full of drama, excitement and even scandal. And while campaigns more often revolved around personalities than policies, the choices that voters made over the years profoundly shaped our history and public persona. Our state’s political legacy is powerfully demonstrated in the Old State House Museum’s exhibit, A Circus Hitched to a Tornado: Arkansas Politics in the 20th Century, at the Old State House Museum through October 25, 2009. The title is taken from a Saturday Evening Post reporter’s description of Hattie Caraway’s whirlwind canvass of the state with powerful Louisiana politician Huey Long for her U.S. Senate campaign in 1932.
    A Circus Hitched to a Tornado: Arkansas Politics in the 20th Century showcases many items from the Old State House Museum’s extensive collection of Arkansas political memorabilia including vintage campaign buttons and signage, photographs, clothing, and the personal effects of many of the state’s most notable politicians. The exhibit divides the state’s political history into several distinct eras, and examines 20th century Arkansas politics by focusing on the state’s most important politicians and the elections that cemented their place in history.

In it's place, the museum will be installing an exhibit called Arkansas/Arkansaw, which will investigate the state's reputation culturally.  More information and images of the takedown will follow in the near future.

As a follow-up to a post a few weeks ago, in which we featured a 1903 World's Fair Clock, I thought I would post some scans of photographs from our collection.  In the Collections in :60 Seconds video of the clock, a series of photographs are used depicting the Arkansas exhibits at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.  Those photographs are scans reproduced in a book from the time period.  As a bonus, if you will, the Old State House Museum has the original large format prints of the photographs in our collection.  Below are the scans.  Click the images to view an enlarged version.

This segment of the Old State House Museum Collections in :60 Seconds discusses the Edmund Joy Collection.  Edmund Joy was a Union officer during the Civil War and spent roughly two years stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas.   Joy was a lawyer, a businessman, and a good friend of General Frederick Steele.  The Old State House museum houses the Joy Collection, which contains letters, his diaries, photographs, and even Joy's uniform.  This episode is a very brief look at the Joy Collection, and as such, I'd be remiss if I didn't provide more information.  To look at more of the Joy Collection on our online collection website, eMuseum, click the links below:

eMuseum - 1996.003 - Joy accession
eMuseum - 1998.004 and 1998.049 - Joy accession

For those of you that would prefer to read a more detailed biography, here is an excerpt from History of Iowa by Benjamin F. Gue:

        EDMUND L. JOY was born at Albany, New York, October 1, 1835, and was educated at Anthony's Classical Institute, Albany Academy and the University of Rochester. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857 and immediately thereafter removed to Iowa, making his home at Keokuk where he entered upon practice. Later he settled in Ottumwa where he was chosen city attorney in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he was active in raising troops and upon the organization of the Thirty-sixth Regiment of Iowa Volunteers he was elected captain of Company B. He participated in the campaigns in Tennessee, the siege of Vicksburg and the Yazoo Pass expedition, taking part in the engagement at Fort Pemberton. At the Battle of Helena he commanded the left wing of the regiment and was in the Little Rock campaign. In 1864 he was appointed by President Lincoln Judge Advocate, with the rank of major, and assigned to the Seventh Army Corps, serving in the Department of Arkansas. He assisted in the organization of the judicial system of the State under reconstruction and aided in the reestablishment of the State government after the close of the war, under a new Constitution. After retiring from the service he removed to Newark, New Jersey, where he served in the Legislature of that State in 1871-2. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880and in 1884-5 he was a Government director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company by appointment of President Arthur. Mr. Joy died at Newark, New Jersey, February 14, 1892.

The video above is an experimental segment that I've dubbed, "Collections in :60 Seconds."  The topic of this particular segment is a clock currently on exhibit at the Old State House Museum.  (Photographs are from the Old State House Museum Collection, the Eighth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Mines, Manufacturers and Agriculture, and NewWoodWorker.com.)  

The large standing clock was one of the decorations in the Arkansas Building at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The inlaid design features 50,000 pieces of 27 varieties of Arkansas hardwoods applied to a base of southern pine.  The clock was made by Charles Becker of Little Rock.  Becker, a graduate of Yale University, was born in Illinois, but was listed in the Little Rock census of 1890 as a painter and cabinet maker.  Click here for more information on Charles Becker.

Back in 2002, the Old State House Museum displayed a temporary exhibit on Arkansas's role in the 1904 fair entitled "Meet Me in St. Louis."  To see the other 109 objects the museum has in it's collection concerning the fair, click here to navigate to our eMuseum page.

We've officially begun recording our first podcast. The OSH Collections podcast, in an attempt to increase accessibility, will focus on some of the more interesting objects in our collection. While it can be awkward to step in front of the mic, I think we are off to a good start and should have something ready to post soon. As a teaser, our first topic is going to be the University of Arkansas Medical School's use of the Old State House building between 1911 and 1935. Can't wait to let everyone hear what we have been working on!  In the mean time, feel free to brush up on your Old State House and Medical School history at the following links: