Six years after Central Arkansas Library System Director Bobby Roberts and UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson climbed through dusty junk in the Farrell & Schaer Building and envisioned a new partnership in history and research, they celebrated the fruition of the dream on Monday, March 23 – the opening of the new Arkansas Studies Institute.

The new landmark on President Clinton Avenue in the Little Rock River Market connects the past with the future in the renovation of the 19th century Bowman & Porbeck Building and the 20th century Geyer & Adams warehouse with the addition of a 21^st century sleek copper façade manuscripts repository.

The institute is a joint venture between UALR and CALS. The partnership brings together elements of the UALR Ottenheimer Library Archives and Special Collections and CALS’ Butler Center for Arkansas Studies – 10 million manuscripts and 46,000 books and other material relating to Arkansas history, politics, and culture.

“UALR is proud to have a presence in the Little Rock River Market as a partner with CALS in the Arkansas Studies Institute,” Anderson said. “The ASI will bring together in one place a remarkable and extraordinary collection of source materials for the study of the politics, history, and culture of Arkansas.  By providing greater access to the wealth of materials contained in the Ottenheimer Library Archives and Special Collections, it is my hope that the institute will generate new momentum for research and increased understanding of our state’s history.”

The UALR Archives and Special Collections manuscript and photograph collections include materials on women’s history, 19th century Arkansas and the Trans-Mississippi West, political cartoon collections, legal papers relating to two decades of prison reform, and the papers of five 20th century Arkansas governors – Carl Bailey, Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, Frank White, and Jim Guy Tucker.  The papers of the late Lt. Gov. Win Paul Rockefeller and former congressman and former UA System president Ray Thornton also held by UALR will be at the new institute.

In addition to UALR’s manuscripts and photograph collections, the new institute will also house the UALR Planning and Policy Forum, renamed the UALR Urban Planning and Policy Forum.

Established in 1992 by a $2.5 million, 10-year Donaghey Foundation grant, the program has addressed urban design needs of Central Arkansas and its small towns. Working with over 600 students and 250 clients, it has produced 200 community plans, including several that have contributed to the renaissance of downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock.

Its new mission, evolving from its original goal of better planning and urban design for Central Arkansas, builds on the premise that informed discussion among civic leaders and planners, and more broadly the public. It will help central Arkansas make and communicate planning policy for its existing environment. The Urban Planning and Policy Forum will address issues of urbanism in the central Arkansas metropolitan environment, researching, planning and spreading a shared vision for our metropolitan area, as it emerges through the participation of civic leaders, public and private.

When UALR and CALS announced the partnership, former President Bill Clinton said he would house the official papers from his years as governor of Arkansas at the new center, which he hoped would be a catalyst for understanding.

“Our young people … have more information than ever before, but I don’t know if they have more understanding,” Clinton, the 42nd president and 42nd governor of Arkansas said at the 2003 partnership announcement. “There is a lot of information and a lot of argument (in public discourse), but not enough explanation and not enough honest effort to evaluate the consequences of various policy choices. And I hope a lot of that will come out of this (collaboration).”