Henri de Tonti on Arkansas: An Evening With Professor Linda Jones

LeeAnna Ta Thao

From left: Joshua Youngblood and professor Linda Jones take a look at Special Collections' latest rare book, a first printing of Henri de Tonti's "Dernières Découvertes."

The University Libraries Special Collections Division recently acquired a 1697 first edition, first printing of Henri de Tonti's Dernières Découvertes, also known as Discoveries of La Salle. Linda Jones, professor and chair of the World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department in Fulbright College, will discuss the acquisition and provide context for the book at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, in Mullins Library room 453. This event is open to the public and offered at no cost to attendees.  

The book — a relic of America's colonialist origins — documents early French contact with the Indigenous peoples of what would become known as Arkansas and that place's entrance into the written record and broader global consciousness. 

"Dernières Découvertes is a textual construction born from the entanglement of relationships, letters or handwritten reports as developed by de Tonti, La Salle and others surrounding the exploration of Louisiana, including the Arkansas River," Jones said.  

Jones' work has focused on French colonization and culture in what would eventually become the state of Arkansas, and she is currently teaching an upper-level history course on the French colonial period in the Mississippi Valley.  

"Although we have had a first English translation and later reprints available before, this represents an important addition to our Colonial America and Mississippi Valley holdings in Special Collections," said Joshua Youngblood, rare book librarian. "It is a beautiful and important copy that we are eager to share with the great state of Arkansas more publicly."  

Dernières Découvertes will be on site along with other significant volumes from the Rare Books Collection.