Libraries Collaborate With Compton Gardens on Neil Compton Exhibit and All-Day Event

Photo Submitted

Neil Compton, 1995, private collection of Ellen Compton. (Photograph by Ken Smith. Used by permission.)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University Libraries’ special collections department collaborated with the Compton Gardens and Conference Center on a new exhibit highlighting the life and work of Dr. Neil Compton. Compton was a Bentonville physician who founded the Ozark Society in 1962 to advocate for the preservation of the Buffalo River as a free-flowing, undammed river.

The exhibit will premiere to the public Saturday, Aug. 18, during an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of Compton’s birth, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Ozark Society and the 40th anniversary of the Buffalo River’s designation as a national river. The event, which is free to the public, will be held at the Compton Gardens and Conference Center at 312 N. Main St. in Bentonville from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Donald Wleklinski, University of Arkansas clinical instructor of nursing, will give a presentation at 11 a.m. on the positive effects of exposure to the outdoors on children and adults. At noon, Ellen Compton, special collections archivist and daughter of Dr. Compton, will present images of Compton’s early life in a show titled “Neil Compton: Native-Born Naturalist.” At 1 p.m. there will be a screening of the 1963 film by Compton titled Opportunity for Arkansas – Buffalo National River, which was recently restored through a grant received by the special collections department from the National Film Preservation Foundation. The Buffalo Flows, a film produced by University of Arkansas journalism professor Larry Foley, will be shown at 2 p.m. Kenneth L. Smith, University of Arkansas graduate and longtime conservationist, trail builder and author, will speak at 3 p.m. on “Remembering Neil.” Well-known musicians “Still on the Hill” will cap the day at 4 p.m. with a concert.

The Libraries’ special collections department holds the records of the Ozark Society (MS Oz1 219, 219A-I Ozark and MC 477), the Ozark Society Foundation (MC 1811), and the Neil Compton Papers (MC 1091). Recent acquisitions of Ozark Society and Ozark Society Foundation records were processed through a generous donation from the Ozark Society Foundation.