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WANTED: ARKANSAS’S FIRST FAMILIES
August 7, 2007
LITTLE ROCK--The Old State House Museum is expanding the current First Families of Arkansas exhibit, slated to reopen to visitors in winter 2008. The exhibit features personal artifacts from Arkansas’s governors and their families. Some of the artifacts presently on view in the exhibit include Betty Bumpers’s wedding dress, Governor Jim Guy Tucker’s desk, Governor Sid McMath’s WWII helmet, and a cane belonging to Governor Joe T. Robinson. A second component to the exhibit is the collection of gowns of Arkansas’s first ladies. In June the museum added the inaugural gown of the current First Lady, Ginger Beebe, to this popular collection.
The Old State House Museum wishes to add other fascinating artifacts to the upcoming exhibit to better tell the stories of the first families and their impact on Arkansas history. “We realize that members of the governors’ families might best help the museum’s efforts,” explains the Old State House Museum’s director, Bill Gatewood. The museum hopes that friends and family members of Arkansas governors will consider donating artifacts, including photographs, for the new and improved First Families exhibit. For instance, the current exhibition includes political buttons that belonged to Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, and an ashtray from Governor Carl Bailey’s office. Even everyday objects, such as these, help to paint a true portrait of the lives and times of Arkansas’s first families.
“We are interested in collecting items that help illustrate the governors’ political and personal lives,” continues Gatewood. “Our collection includes dresses from Anna Tucker (daughter of Governor Jim Guy Tucker) and Chelsea Clinton. Our goal is to build a collection that represents these families, who played such a large role in Arkansas history.”
The donated artifacts will be carefully documented, maintained, and exhibited according to best practices in the museum profession. The Old State House Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
For more information or to arrange a donation, please contact Jo Ellen Maack, Curator of Collections, at (501) 324-8637, or at Joellen@arkansasheritage.org
About the Old State House Museum
The Old State House Museum hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Guided tours are available seven days a week; please call in advance for group tour reservations at 501.324.9865.
The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and shares the goal of all seven Department of Arkansas Heritage agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. The agencies are Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and the Old State House Museum.
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