UALR’s Sequoyah National Research Center will officially open the James W. and Sallie E. Frazier Collection at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 24.

Mr. and Mrs. Frazier will be in attendance, and Mrs. Frazier will speak, relating the history of the collection and how it was assembled. SNRC Director Daniel F. Littlefield Jr. will address the value of the collection to historians.

There will be a reception, exhibits featuring some of the highlights of the Frazier Collection, and tours.

The Frazier Collection is a treasure trove of original source documents pertaining to Gideon Morgan, his extended family, and related families. Morgan was a prominent Cherokee politician in Indian Territory in the early days of Oklahoma statehood.

The documents, ranging in date from 1811 to 2010, include such pertinent information as Cherokee land allotment and citizenship records, as well as business records related to slavery, steamships, hotels, real estate, and publishing.

Also included in the collection are personal letters on politics and family life, records of teaching and education organizations, and journals coming from Tennessee, Arkansas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. Associated with the documents are hundreds of newspaper and magazine clippings, advertising, and other printed matter.

The families represented included the Morgans, Bells, Yeatmans, Erwins, Staplers, and Ivies. The collection includes more than 20 cubic feet of documents, along with artifacts including a Civil War era trunk, portraits, furniture, and basketry.

UALR’s Sequoyah National Research Center is dedicated to the collection and preservation of Native American expression in any form that it may take. Located on the extreme southern end of the UALR campus in the University Plaza, SNRC has served as an archive for Native America for more than 20 years.

For more information on the collection contact Tony Rose at trrose@ualr.edu or 501.569.8336.

Subscribe to E-News to see what’s happening at ‘UALR Now.’