Research Guides: Special Collections Instruction: Popular Subject Areas

Popular Subject Areas for Instruction

Examples of Past Instruction Offered:

ARCH 1015 Fundamental Design Skills

IDES 1045 Fundamental Design Methodology

LARC 2123 Special Topics

Examples of Instruction Types Offered:

Overview of the Arkansas Architectural Archive

An introduction to the archives describing procedures and including examples of representative primary source documents of interest. Students have the opportunity to learn how to access the repository's holdings and examine different architectural drawings and other original archival materials firsthand.

Course/Project Focused

There depth and variety of resources in the archive can support design and professional courses across the curriculum. The archivist will work with faculty members before the semester starts to identify the specific materials to support their specific pedagogical needs from the concrete to the abstract, rudimentary to advanced. Projects can be identified by type for precedent analyses. Materials representing every stage of the design process from concept to construction, by multiple practitioners, can be compared and contrasted. At a more granular level, specific building, interior, and site detail types can be used to help students better understand approaches to building and materiality.

Depending on course needs and other circumstances, in addition to virtual and in person class visits materials may be made available for students to research individual in the Special Collections Reading Room or scanned for remote use.

Faculty Guided Independent Study

With faculty guidance, individual students can use materials in the archive as a source for special projects both research and design focused in nature. The archivist is available to assist in the selection of materials of the appropriate media and content for the specific course outcomes.

Relevant Collections:

MC1373: Fay Jones Collection
Fay Jones (1935-2005), an Arkansas native, was an award winning architect, student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and recipient of the highest award for American Architects, the A.I.A. Gold metal. His most celebrated project was the distinctive Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He taught and served as first Dean at the University of Arkansas School of Architecture. The collection is a complete record of Jones’s teaching, his practice, his philosophy of architecture, and his skill as an artist.
MS St71 236: Edward Durell Stone Papers
Edward Durell Stone (1902-1978) was an internationally recognized architect who worked on projects such as the American Embassy in New Delhi, India, and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. The first accession of his papers includes collection includes drawings, photographs, and correspondence documenting Stone's career.
MC 340: Edward Durell Stone Papers Second Accession
The second accession of Edward Durell Stone's papers documents the professional and business operations of the architect
MC1512: Neil Hamill Park Papers
Neil Hamill Park (1904-1986) was one of the first professional Landscape Architects to practice in Arkansas. This collection includes photographs, catalogs, academic and professional drawings, records and correspondence.

Examples of Past Instruction Offered:

Special Collections frequently works with classes in the fine arts to provide hands-on instruction related to the history of printing, the use of archival materials in art, and to introduce students to our artists book collection.

ARTS 3403. Printmaking: Introduction

ARTS 449V. Special Problems in Prints

GDES 4323. Technology in Context

ARHS 4823. History of Graphic Design

Relevant Collections

Artists books
Special Collections' collection of artists books
Fayetteville Women's Library Archives (MC 1180)
This collection consists primarily of vertical files and periodicals. Most of the vertical files are on general subjects concerning women. Files were also kept on local and regional feminist or lesbian activities.
MC 1915.UA: Black Americans for Democracy Materials
This collection contains materials donated by the current Black Students Association, which was originally named the Black Americans for Democracy and began on the University of Arkansas campus in the late 1960s.
BAD Times digital collection
Includes twenty issues of newspapers published between 1971 and 1977 by the Black Americans for Democracy, a student organization founded at the University of Arkansas in the late 1960s.

Examples of Past Instruction Offered:

Special Collections frequently work with history teaching assistants and faculty on a wide variety of courses providing introductions to historical methods, use of primary sources, tailored research activities built around specific collections, and collaborative projects where students take the lead in curatorial analyses. There are 80 different libguides designed for specific history classes, which are modified to reflect primary sources, including those available in Special Collections, each semester.

HIST 3243: African American History Since 1877, https://uark.libguides.com/AfricanAmericanHistorySince1877.

HIST 3273: Agricultural History, https://uark.libguides.com/AgHistory.

HIST 4583: Arkansas in the Nation, https://uark.libguides.com/arkansashistory2.

HIST 4573: History of the New South, https://uark.libguides.com/newsouth.

HIST 4893: American Counterculture, https://uark.libguides.com/americancounterculture.

HIST 5023: Historical Methods, https://uark.libguides.com/HistMethods.

Relevant Collections

MC1412: Billy James Hargis Papers
This series includes topics related to domestic policy, including government and politics; liberal and left wing materials; conservative and right wing materials; materials related to education; materials related to social issues; and materials related to religion. Of particular interest to LGBTQ+ histories, the second section focuses on women’s issues and organizations, and the third section includes materials on families and the changing sexual morality of the 1960s and 1970s. Much potential for examinations of intersectionality.
MC204: Samuel C. Dellinger Papers
Samuel C. Dellinger (1892-1973) was professor of zoology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (chairman of the department 1922-1957), as well as "curator" (director) of the University Museum, 1925-1960. He was also involved in anthropology, a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and a conservation activist. This collection includes correspondence, financial records, examinations, lecture notes, articles, notebooks, clippings, and photographs.
MS F27 301 FAUBUS: Orval Eugene Faubus Papers
Orval Faubus was elected to six consecutive terms (1955-1967) as Governor of Arkansas, and attracted international attention for his controversial role in the Little Rock, Ark. Central High School racial desegregation crisis (1957-1959). Faubus also oversaw the state's response to several environmental issues. The collection includes records created, received, or collected by Faubus (1910-1978) or by staff members of the Arkansas gubernatorial office (1955 -1967).
MS F956 144: J. William Fulbright Papers
Fulbright was U.S. Representative 1943-1945, U.S. Senator 1945-1974, and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1959-1974. As Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Fulbright established the Fulbright international exchange program.
MC 1091: Neil Compton Personal and Professional Papers, 1912-1998
Includes variety of materials related to Dr. Compton's decades-long work as an environmental activist, including co-founding the Ozark Society and his work to preserve the Buffalo River.

Examples of Past Instruction Offered:

As teaching with primary sources becomes increasingly a part of common core standards, it is important that education students (especially pre-service teachers) learn how to search for, analyze, and integrate primary sources into their research and writing.Instructional partnerships between education faculty and archivists also offer opportunities to discuss the kind of systemic issues that primary sources focused on education can serve to exemplify. Special Collections offers hands-on instruction sessions tailored to class needs and assignments.

EDST 3223 American Educational History

CIED 3133 Integrated Social Studies for the K-6 Classroom

Relevant Collections

Southland College Digital Collection
This digital collection documents the lives of students and teachers and Southland College from 1876-1925.
BAD Times digital collection
This digital collection includes twenty issues of newspapers published between 1971 and 1977 by the Black Americans for Democracy, a student organization founded at the University of Arkansas in the late 1960s.
Miscellaneous Publications (MP), Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
This digital collection includes pamphlets, brochures, and booklets on topics related to home management, nutrition, and the environment, with women and children as the intended audience.
Rising Above: Rohwer Reconstructed
This digital project focuses on Japanese internment in Arkansas during WWII and offers a variety of resources, including digitized primary sources.
Little Rock Racial Integration Collection (MC 2495)
This collection includes ephemera and correspondence related to segregation and racial issues in Little Rock, Arkansas around the time of the Little Rock Crisis.
Jessie Angeline Evans Benham Papers (MC 2265)
The collection consists of materials, predominately correspondence and press coverage, regarding Jessie Angeline (Angie) Evans, with the bulk focusing on her support of school integration while student council president at Van Buren High School in Van Buren, Arkansas.