Historic Arkansas Museum, formerly known as Arkansas Territorial Restoration, is a historic site museum located in the heart of downtown Little Rock. On its grounds are some of the oldest buildings in the state, on their original sites: the 1830s Hinderliter Grog Shop, the 1840s McVicar and Brownlee Houses, and the 1820s Arkansas Gazette print shop are joined by the transplanted Plum Bayou Log House, an 1830s plantation house from Scott, Arkansas. These carefully restored and furnished buildings preserve Arkansas's heritage and reveal an important truth about the state's most exciting period that the rough-and-ready frontier territory and fledgling state also had its touches of elegance and refinement.
Each day the museum offers expertly guided tours on the hour (except noon). The Living History program enlivens each tour with an actor portraying one of the original residents of the houses, or a composite historical character. The newest addition to the Living History program is the use of younger actors, portraying children of the past.
Each year the museum serves over 50,000 schoolchildren, tourists, and Arkansans with guided tours, special events, history exhibits, and publications. In the Log House program during the school year, and Pioneer Day Camp in the summer, scores of children learn to spin and weave, dip candles, and cook cornbread on a hearth.
The museum's education staff travels the state reaching schoolchildren who cannot make the journey to Little Rock. The Living History program emphasizes African American history, presenting characters such as Luther, the slave who secretly learned to read and write, and Wallace Andrews, one of the state's first African American preachers.
Historic Arkansas also serves the state as its primary collector of items representing frontier Arkansas. The museum's research program produced the first comprehensive study of Arkansas's early artists and artisans, which now guides the museum's collection policy. As a result, the museum houses a great collection of nineteenth-century Arkansas-made and -used treasures. Quilts, bowie knives, clothing, dolls, furniture, and paintings are but a few of the types of artifacts the museum cares for. In fact, the museum's collection storage space became overcrowded and was badly in need of expansion. Parts of the collection were being warehoused in the outbuildings of the historic houses, which could better be used for touring and teaching.
In 1996 the museum embarked on a major expansion to provide not only more storage space, but also multiple exhibit halls where the state's treasures can be on view for all to see. The first phase of this expansion was finished in the spring of 1997, which added storage space and offices. The final phase of expansion began in December 1998, adding exhibit halls, a theatre, entrance atrium, educational facilities and more. The completed facility, totaling over 51,000 square feet, opened April 28, 2001.
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Each day the museum offers expertly guided tours on the hour (except noon). The Living History program enlivens each tour with an actor portraying one of the original residents of the houses, or a composite historical character. The newest addition to the Living History program is the use of younger actors, portraying children of the past.
Each year the museum serves over 50,000 schoolchildren, tourists, and Arkansans with guided tours, special events, history exhibits, and publications. In the Log House program during the school year, and Pioneer Day Camp in the summer, scores of children learn to spin and weave, dip candles, and cook cornbread on a hearth.
The museum's education staff travels the state reaching schoolchildren who cannot make the journey to Little Rock. The Living History program emphasizes African American history, presenting characters such as Luther, the slave who secretly learned to read and write, and Wallace Andrews, one of the state's first African American preachers.
Historic Arkansas also serves the state as its primary collector of items representing frontier Arkansas. The museum's research program produced the first comprehensive study of Arkansas's early artists and artisans, which now guides the museum's collection policy. As a result, the museum houses a great collection of nineteenth-century Arkansas-made and -used treasures. Quilts, bowie knives, clothing, dolls, furniture, and paintings are but a few of the types of artifacts the museum cares for. In fact, the museum's collection storage space became overcrowded and was badly in need of expansion. Parts of the collection were being warehoused in the outbuildings of the historic houses, which could better be used for touring and teaching.
In 1996 the museum embarked on a major expansion to provide not only more storage space, but also multiple exhibit halls where the state's treasures can be on view for all to see. The first phase of this expansion was finished in the spring of 1997, which added storage space and offices. The final phase of expansion began in December 1998, adding exhibit halls, a theatre, entrance atrium, educational facilities and more. The completed facility, totaling over 51,000 square feet, opened April 28, 2001.
Visit our website, click here.
