Arkansas Constitution 150th Anniversary

On the eve of its 150^th birthday, specimen pages of the original 1874 Constitution will travel to communities across the state during the Arkansas State Archives’ Constitution Road Trip in September and October 2024. The exhibit will let visitors come face to face with handwritten pages of the foundation of Arkansas’s legal and governmental system and learn more about Arkansas’s five constitutions.

Constitutions, federal and state alike, establish fundamental principles that prescribe the nature, functions and limits of government. Arkansas has adopted five constitutions since 1836. Each coincided with a change in the state’s political status: statehood in 1836, joining the Confederate States of America during the Civil War in 1861, returning to the Union near the end of the Civil War in 1864, Reconstruction in 1868 and reaction to Reconstruction in 1874. The 1874 document, amended over 100 times, remains the foundation of the Arkansas code. The Arkansas State Archives preserves the original engrossed copies of all five constitutions on behalf of the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office.

Five institutions in the four corners and the heart of the state will host the Constitution Road Trip: Powhatan Historic State Park, Historic Washington State Park, the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena and the Old State House Museum in Little Rock. The tour will conclude with “The Arkansas Constitution at 150” symposium October 12 at 10 a.m. at the Old State House Museum in Little Rock (registration required). The symposium will bring together historians, political figures and law experts to discuss the history of the Arkansas Constitution and efforts in the 20^th century to update the constitution.