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Celebrate American Archives Month with Special Collections, Thursday, October 13th.

by | Oct 10, 2016 | Special Collections

Woman with canned vegetables, ca. 1933

The University Libraries is marking this special month with the opening of the Arkansas Agricultural Circulars digital collection which encompasses more than 400 digitized circulars spanning from 1914-1945.

Funded  by an award from the Center for Research Libraries  (CRL), the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN), and the Agricultural Information Center (AgNIC),the Arkansas Extension Circular digital collection will increase accessibility to the circulars and  provide a wonderful complement to the department’s related archival collections, including the University’s Cooperative Extension Service Records (MC1145) and the numerous collections from home demonstration clubs and county extension agents. The digital project was led by Agricultural Librarian and Principal Investigator, Necia Parker-Gibson with the assistance of a library team including Head of Cataloging and Technical Services, Deb Kulczak, Digital Services Librarian, Martha Parker, and interim Head of Special Collections, Angela Fritz.

 

African American woman in Mississippi County, Arkansas, who “canned 780 quarts of vegetables as a supply for family use.” From the Extension Service Annual Report (no. 335), page 44. Published by University of Arkansas Agricultural Extensions Service January 1935.
A boy working with the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service feeds the hogs he is raising for competition. From the 1940 University of Wisconsin thesis, A History of the Agricultural Extension Service in Arkansas by Mena Hogan, page 109. The original manuscript of the thesis is available in the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections.
Group eating watermelon, ca. 1915. From the Mablevale Home Demonstration Club Records (MC 1640), box 5, folder 1, image 57, Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries.
African American Home Demonstration Agents

The October 13th event will include opening remarks from Dr. Jeannie Whayne, Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Cherisse Jones Branch, Professor of History and Director of the ASTATE Digital Press at Arkansas State University, will discuss her innovative research in the presentation “‘Find a Way to Maintain the Home Demonstration and 4-H Work in this County’: African American Home Demonstration Agents in Arkansas, 1914-1965.”  Ms. Denna Clymer of Crowder College will present  “‘They Fought to Produce’: Rural Women and Farm Labor in World War II.”

Librarian Necia Parker-Gibson will also give an overview of the digitization project, and the public will be able to explore the digital collection at work stations set up in reading room. For more information about the Agricultural Extension Service Collection and American Archives Month festivities, please contact:

Angela Fritz, Interim Head of Special Collections
University Libraries
479-575-5576, fritz@uark.edu

Molly Boyd, Assistant to the Dean of Libraries
University Libraries
479-575-2962, mdboyd@uark.edu