By: Marcia Abramson
Arkansas was included with all or parts of 12 other states, including Louisiana, Missouri, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Minnesota. This purchase doubled the size of U.S. territory and removed all barriers to America's westward expansion and ended European control. After the War of 1812, settlement of this territory was encouraged with grants to the veterans of that war. Historians told me that just about 30 years after the purchase, Americans settled in what would become Arkansas and displaced the Quapaw, Osage and other native tribes from their ancestral homelands. I found the recent acquisition of what purports to be a 900-year-old canoe at the Historic Arkansas Museum a fascinating Native American find. The Old State House Museum, just about one block from the Peabody Little Rock Hotel, is another one of the dozen museums in this city that I found to be a treasure. It is closely related to the role in America's history of Bill Clinton, the President from Hope, Ark. President Clinton has said, "The Old State House embodies a reverence for the past and a hope for the future." It was completed in 1843 when Arkansas was still very much a wilderness on the edge of the American frontier. Little Rock was a mere collection of log cabins then. However, the citizens of Arkansas decided to build a magnificent building in the manner of ancient Greece as a symbol of democracy for their new government. It served the state for more than three generations, through war and peace. Before it became a museum, it became the University of Arkansas, Medical School. As Attorney General, Clinton fostered the creation of today's Old State House Museum and continued to use this site from his victory as governor in 1979 to his candidacy as president in 1991 to his last victorious campaign for that office in 1996.I saw Hillary Rodham Clinton's first inaugural ball gown as well as daughter Chelsea's dress on display here. There was one of Bill Clinton's saxophones and also on exhibit is a reproduction of the Oval Office, as it was decorated for Clinton. This exhibit also includes a replica of the Resolute Desk, given to the United States by Queen Victoria in 1880 and used by every president since Rutherford B. Hayes. I understand that this will serve as a precursor to the Clinton Library. Additionally, I learned that Arkansas was the birthplace of some other musicians of note like Johnny Cash, Scott Joplin, Louis Jordan, Glenn Campbell and Conway Twitty, whose works were also on display at the Old State House Museum. I also found the Art Center Museum to have some wonderful drawings by Picasso, Van Gogh, and Georgia O'Keefe as well as a Degas and Monet. Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, a national treasure, will be on display from April 23 through Aug. 22, 2004. The Arts Center also houses a delightful Children's Theater where I caught a few minutes of a charming performance of "The Little Mermaid." There is also the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. It seems that General Douglas MacArthur's father was in the military and stationed at the arsenal in Little Rock. The general was born in this military facility and lived here for the first six months of his life. The military history dates back to the 1840s when the first arsenal was built to house a munitions warehouse. It has exterior walls that are more than three-feet thick. Other politicians were influential in the cultural life of Little Rock. As a matter of fact, the cultural world of Arkansas owes a debt of gratitude to the republican Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, a grandson of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and brother of New York State's Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Winthrop Rockefeller settled in Arkansas when he was 41 years old. He was elected governor in 1963 and served two terms. During his residency in Arkansas, he established the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and made large contributions to the Arts Center and other cultural, health and education facilities. It was definitely a privilege for me to discover these wonderful museums during my recent visit to Little Rock through the Little Rock/Peabody Alliance for the Arts & Culture founded by Maureen Brigid Gonzalez with an assist by Denver Peacock. My next columns will deal with performances of the Little Rock Repertory Theater, Yo Yo Ma at the Little Rock Symphony and the Wildwood Park Programs.
Copyright © by Marcia AbramsonE-mail: mascribe@aol.com
