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Arkansas History Commission Gives Historic Arkansas to Libraries in State
3/15/2009
The Arkansas History Commission has given almost 1000 copies of “Historic Arkansas,” by John L. Ferguson and J. H. Atkinson, to libraries in the state.
“Historic Arkansas,” which was authorized by the General Assemblies of 1963 and 1965, was published in 1966 as a textbook for eighth, ninth, and tenth grade students. It was the standard textbook in many Arkansas schools for many years. Through a collaborative effort between the State Archives, Arkansas State Library, and the Arkansas Department of Education, 135 libraries across Arkansas copies of the book. The recipients included school, government, public, and academic libraries.
Dr. Ferguson, State Historian from 1960-2005, and Mr. Atkinson, former chairman of the Arkansas History Commission, produced not a revision of older textbooks, but a wholly new work, researched whenever possible from original sources. As the authors stated in their introduction, “The book has been designed to give the student a wealth of information about Arkansas, and to arouse…a deeper attachment to the state…To this end, many illustrations, maps and study aids have been included.”
The book has ten units, with an emphasis on geography, as well as the events of our state’s history. Each chapter was to be the basis of one assignment, with study aids for vocabulary, identification of important individuals, geography of key areas in the lesson, and a section entitled “To test your reading,” to measure the student’s understanding each lesson. The edition donated to Arkansas libraries is the third printing of “Historic Arkansas” (1983).