History Collection

NEW! Explore the Museum’s collections online! 

The history collection includes approximately 25,000 objects with an emphasis on historic objects from Arkansas.

Within the textile collection, mid-19th century quilts, coverlets, and linens are embraced. Many of the textiles represent the Ozark traditional crafts of spinning and weaving, including baskets by the nationally-recognized craftsman George Gibson. The Museum also holds one of the largest American pressed glass collections in the southeastern United States with more than 3,000 pieces. The collection contains representative samples of common North American glassware in use from the late 1870s to 1915. The ceramics collection includes examples of Niloak, an Arkansas art pottery, fine china, and European porcelain figurines.

Most recently, the Museum has begun to focus especially on 3D UA memorabilia, such as clothing or architectural features from renovated campus buildings.

Research Publications

Providing researchers access to the collections has long been an important responsibility for Museum staff. For transparency of collection usage and to give back knowledge accumulated over years, especially in relation to indigneous cultural materials, we have compiled a list of publications produced as a result of research conducted at the Museum. View it here. For organization purposes, the list is divided between two tabs located at the bottom – Cultural and Natural.

While we strive to collect publications from all researchers who have utilized the collections, this list is not complete and will continue to grow over time. If you know of additional publications that should be added or have questions about the list, please contact us.