Old State House Museum Collections Blog

 
  With the sesquicentennial of the Civil War rapidly approaching, the Old State House Museum is gearing up for an ambitious slate of five exhibits over the next five years.  In preparation, the collections staff has been spending a significant amount of time scouring the collection for items related to Arkansas in the Civil War, researching their provenance, and improving the museum's knowledge of their history and former use.  Among these recently visited objects is a carpet bag from a U.S. Naval Surgeon.

 The carpet bag belonged to Martin L. Gerould of Canaan, New Hampshire.  On September 22, 1863, Gerould was appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon of the ironclad USS Eastport .  The Eastport was originally a Confederate vessel which was captured by Union forces and converted into an ironclad ram. The Eastport and Gerould would serve the next two years along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, patrolling and capturing supplies.

The interior of the flap on the bag contains the information which has enabled the museum to document this provenance.  Pictured below, the bag is stenciled in black ink, "Surg. M.L. Gerould, USN."

    The subject of this post is a mounted poster of Johnny Cash, who is of course an Arkansas native, looking disheveled and wildly brandishing a machine gun.  The image appears to be a promotional photograph for one of Cash’s film roles.  Cash appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout his career, and though it is uncertain which role the image pertains to, it may be from his 1961 gangster film “Five Minutes to Live.”  The museum acquired the poster as part of a collection displayed in our Sweet Sounds exhibit on Arkansas musicians.   The poster is signed, as pictured below, “Sincerely yours Goddard Lieberson!”

     Initially we believed the signature on the poster to be Johnny Cash signing with his character’s name, but upon further inspection, we were able learn more about Goddard Lieberson and the possible meaning of the inscription.  Apparently Lieberson was the president of Columbia Records, Cash’s record label.  Cash often had a strained relationship with Columbia and the inscription may have been a humorous message to Lieberson, given the context, rather than a signature by Lieberson himself.  None-the-less, this is merely speculation.   The true meaning and author of the inscription may never be known for certain.

Below are links regarding Cash’s film career and Lieberson:
Johnny Cash on IMDB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddard_Lieberson
Johnny Cash and Goddard Lieberson (Google Books biography)

  
    Amongst the collections of the Old State House Museum, we have dozens of Civil War era prints and magazines.  Harper’s Weekly was of course one the most popular circulated publications in the United States and the prints and engravings from it’s pages are often fantastic works of art and pieces of historical documentary evidence.  Many talented artists illustrated for the magazine, including Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer.  Homer worked illustrating and engraving for magazines for nearly 20 years, long before he became renowned as one of the great American painters.  The print from the museum’s collections pictured below is from the November 21, 1863 edition of Harper’s Weekly.  It is entitled “The War in the Southwest – Guerillas Hunting Union Men with Blood-hounds.”

     As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been spending time over the past few months working on the Old State House’s Civil War and Civil War Reunion Collection.  I’ve handled literally more than a thousand objects related to Arkansas in the Civil War and many, such as the subject of this post, deserve more attention.  The image above is a portion of an 1863 petition to Abraham Lincoln signed by officers of various Arkansas regiments supporting Isaac Murphy  as military governor of the state.  Of course, Murphy was eventually named as the eighth Governor of Arkansas, the lone member of the General Assembly to refuse to support secession from the Union.   The petition is signed by more than 160 Arkansas soldiers and includes a flattering account of Murphy’s loyalty to the Union.  Below is an image of the first page of the petition, as well as links for more information regarding Isaac Murphy and the petition on our eMuseum site.
                          eMuseum entry on the above petition with scans of each page

   Recently the Old State House Museum acquired a group of letters, 2010.003.01-03, dating from territorial Arkansas.  The documents, authored by Gov. John Pope, Chester Ashley, and a man named Aaron Goza, describe a land transaction between Goza and the State of Arkansas.  Goza purchased a portion of thousands of acres of land granted to the state by U.S. Congress in late 1832 to fund the construction of a state capitol.  The result of this project and the money that it generated was what is today known as the Old State House, the oldest surviving state capitol west of the Mississippi.
Below is an incomplete transcript and scan of the earliest of the three documents:

Little Rock A/ Dec. 28th 1832
To his Excellency
John Pope, Governor of the Territory of Arkansas

Sir
I hereby apply to [illegible]ane of you three hundred twenty acres of the inappropriated lands of the United States in the territory of Arkansas by virtue of the authority [illegible]fided to you by an act of Congress for the sale of ten sections of land appropriated by Congress to erect a public building at Little Rock for the use of the Territory of Arkansas, which land is yet unsurveyed is situated in township fourteen, South of range two West of fifth principal meridian. Tis the land that will be contained by the lines of the public surveys when made- designated by those surveys on the South half of section twenty four [this section crossed out] in the township & range [illegible] this said land including my present [illegible] &[illegible] lately purchased by me of Daniel W. Hampton and including no other involvement of any bonafide [illegible] & improved in the actual occupancy[illegible] of the same, the purchase to be made in conformity with your proclamation except that of with the right to pay the [illegible] of the money unpaid in three payments on the first days of March 1834, 1835, 1836.
Respectfully yours,
Aaron Goza

I am willing to select & sell to Mr. Aaron Goza the land described in the within application so far as it can be surveyed & approved by the Surveyor General he shall have all the little I am authorized to [illegible] by virtue of the act of Congress passed at the last session of Congress. Concerning the within mentioned ten sections of land granted to the People of the Territory for a Public Building at Little Rock, he can have it on the terms mentioned in his application & by proclamation reserving to myself the full right and privilege of reselling the said lands provided the monies shall not be paid within ninety days after the time limited for the payment of each several installments. Mr. Goza's payment to C. Ashley of the monies now to be paid stating[illegible] his benefit for same will be equivalent to a payment to myself.

Little Rock, Dec. 28th 1832.

John Pope

Click the images below to enlarge.

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.

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.