What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/945438
"NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] made a concerted effort in the last couple of years to make sure these kind of documents can make it out to other places and make them more accessible," Senn says, "which isn't easy considering their age and how fragile they are." They may be the most historically significant, but they're not the only items on display in the exhibit. There's also a portrait of Napoleon and his death mask, both on loan from the Tennessee State Museum's Tennessee Historical Society Collection. They rest on a wall and in a case just a few short feet from the document bearing his signature. Another case displays eating utensils, an 18th-century 3 livre banknote and an 1807 book by Lewis and Clark, from the Historic Arkansas Museum and the Arkansas State Archives. On another wall, there's a case and panels dedicated to a lesser- known part of the Louisiana Purchase story, but a part that's highly significant to Arkansas. The Lewis and Clark Expedition is well-known and well-documented. The epic trek from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean has captured the attention of historians, naturalists and adventurers for more than 200 years. But their trip wasn't the only expedition sent out by President Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson sent multiple parties out to create detailed scientific reports on and maps of the vast new territory. Zebulon Pike explored the Rocky Mountain and southwest regions. Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis traveled the Red River. And William Dunbar and George Hunter were sent to what is now Arkansas and Louisiana to explore the Ouachita and "the boiling springs." Lewis and Clark covered nearly 8,000 miles over the course of about three years. Dunbar and Hunter's journey took a little over three months. But they turned in the first and most detailed scientific report on the Ouachita River Valley, its inhabitants, plant and animal life. The exhibit has several items from the Hunter-Dunbar Expedition. There's a compass, a pair of spectacles and Dunbar's handwritten journal, all on loan from Ouachita Baptist University. At the center's front entrance, a keelboat looks right at home in the center's fountain. The Aux Arc, on loan from the Early Arkansaw Reenactors Association, is a 40-foot replica of the boat used in the Dunbar- Hunter expedition. "The fact that we actually have local history with the Hunter- Dunbar [expedition] is great for people to learn about," Sims says. "That we have this type of history in our own backyard." The exhibit's information panels are extensive, giving the history of the Louisiana Purchase and explaining its importance to Arkansas and to the country as a whole. It is a small but eclectic collection and, to the best of everyone's knowledge, the various pieces have never been together in the same room before. "I can't think why they would have ever been in the same place," Senn says. "The NARA doesn't [loan] their most important documents a whole lot." Tennille says: "It's not just the [Louisiana] Purchase, though that's super-cool. It's the death mask. It's a nice, very unique grouping that probably will not be together again." That leaves a narrow window for people to see all the pieces of the puzzle together. And, since this is an in-house exhibit, Little Rock is the only place to see it. Sims says, "It's a great place to set your eyes on something most people actually travel hundreds of miles away to see." FEBRUARY 25-MARCH 3, 2018 WHAT'S UP! 41 FAQ 'The Great Exhibition' WHEN — 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday through March 4 WHERE — Clinton Pres- idential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock COST — $6-$10 INFO — 501-374-4242 Courtesy Photos William Dunbar and George Hunter were sent to what is now Arkansas and Louisiana to explore the Ouachita and "the boiling springs" after the Louisiana Purchase. Dunbar's glasses (above) are part of an exhibit currently open at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. Documents from the Louisiana Purchase are on display (below) at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.