Locate Arkansas Images with New Photo Index

Photo Submitted

Patsy Watkins, professor of journalism at the University of Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University Libraries’ special collections department compiled an online inventory of Arkansas photograph collections. The Inventory of Arkansas Photograph Collections allows users to search statewide citations by subject, collection or archive. A citation is a reference to an actual photograph, which may or may not be accessible online. The inventory allows researchers to search the citations and contact the institutions that hold the photographs for more information. It contains citations to photograph collections held by Arkansas state and regional repositories, archives, and libraries and can be accessed at the Arkansas Photograph Collections online.

Professor Patsy Watkins of the Walter J. Lemke department of journalism at the University of Arkansas, created a database to identify institutions with photograph collections in order to increase awareness of the resources available to researchers, generate interest in research, and celebrate the rich cultural heritage and local history of Arkansas. The project was further developed by the Libraries’ faculty and staff, including Andrea Cantrell (retired), Beth Juhl, Arthur Morgan, Tom Dillard (retired), and Timothy G. Nutt.

“Several years ago I was researching a group of 100 snapshots of federal rehabilitation relief clients taken in the Ozark hills of Boone and Newton counties in 1935. They had turned up in the attic of a Prairie Grove woman, who had given them to the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. I wanted to find any other photos from that period and place that might be in Arkansas photo collections,” explains Watkins. “I just assumed there would be a database of Arkansas historical photo collections and it would be easy to find what I wanted. When I learned there wasn’t, I was amazed.”

Throughout her research, Watkins discovered that digitizing images is expensive and labor intensive. The index provides an organizational system for photograph collections to make them searchable and accessible. For instance, a search on the subject “religion” produces a list of 21 collections in nine repositories, and includes such information as the number of photographs and dates covered in the collection, the photographers, and the link to digital collections. Even though the number of scanned images varies by repository, the index makes the breadth and depth of their collections better understood.

The special collections department continually seeks photographs and other materials that document the state’s physical, social and cultural history. Readers should contact Tim Nutt, department head, if they have materials they wish to donate. For more information, contact special collections at 479-575-5577 or specoll@uark.edu.