Category: News

Sep032013September 3, 2013November 22, 2016by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies: A History of the Jews in the Delta

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News
Lakeport Legacies: A History of the Jews in the Delta

Dr. Stuart Rockoff, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

Thursday, September 19
Refreshments @ 5:30 pm 
Program @ 6:00 pm

Space is limited. Please RSVP by phone:
870.265.6031

Join us for Dr. Rockoff’s overview of the history of the Jews in the Delta.



     Many people are shocked to find out that Jews have thrived in the “most southern place on earth.” Indeed, while Jews have always been a tiny minority of Arkansas and Mississippi’s population, they have forged communities and preserved their religious traditions for over 160 years. Jews flocked to the Delta as it emerged as the leading cotton producing region in the country in the late nineteenth century. Jewish merchants and their families opened stores in most every Delta market town.They have worked to assimilate into the culture of the Delta, but at the same time, they sought to preserve their religious traditions and formed cohesive social and religious communities that brought this dispersed population together. While recent decades have seen a steep decline in the Delta’s Jewish population. Jews still pray and socialize together, keeping the light of Judaism shining in the Mississippi River Delta in the 21st century.

This is a free event, but please RSVP. Space will be limited.

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last (usually) Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets at Lakeport Plantation — 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas. 

Another proud presentation of the:
Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
For more information on the ISJL – www.isjl.org

Aug082013August 8, 2013November 22, 2016by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies: Hernando de Soto’s Route through Arkansas: What’s the Evidence?

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News
Hernando de Soto’s Route through Arkansas: What’s the Evidence?

Thursday, August 22
Refreshments @ 5:30 pm 
Program @ 6:00 pm


Join us for a presentation by Dr. Jeff Mitchem on the archeological evidence for Hernando de Soto’s 16th Century Spanish expedition through Arkansas.

Layered glass chevron bead from Parkin Archeological State Park is evidence of the de Soto expedition.

Spanish explorer Hernando Soto and 600 men landed in Florida in May 1539 and entered what is now Arkansas on June 28, 1541. The expedition crossed the state and returned to the Mississippi River at Guachoya, near present day Lake Village, where de Soto died on May 31, 1542. The expedition’s archeological trail combined with four surviving narratives, provides an accurate reconstruction of de Soto’s route through Arkansas.

All are welcome to this Free Event.

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last (usually) Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets at Lakeport Plantation — 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas. 


Jul152013July 15, 2013November 22, 2016by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies — Film: When You Make a Good Crop

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Sunnyside Company Bond, ca 1910
Join us for a showing of the film When You Make a Good Crop: Italians in the Delta. Filmed in 1986, the 28 minute feature traces Italian heritage and beginnings in the 1890s as tenants and sharecroppers on Sunnyside plantation and their legacy in the Delta in the 1980s.
July 25, 2013 

Refreshments @ 5:30 pm 
Film @ 6:00 pm 


Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets at Lakeport Plantation — 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas. 


Jul012013July 1, 2013November 22, 20162Commentsby itswebteam

Lakeport Plantation’s Permanent Exhibits Win 2013 AASLH Award of Merit

Posted in News

            NASHVILLE, TN—June 2013—The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) proudly announces that the Lakeport Plantation is the recipient of an Award of Merit from the AASLH Leadership in History Awards for Lakeport’s Permanent Exhibits. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 68th year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history. 
In September 2012, permanent exhibits were installed at the Lakeport Plantation house near Lake Village, Arkansas along the Mississippi River. Lakeport, an Arkansas State University Heritage Site, is one of Arkansas’s premier historic structures and the state’s last antebellum plantation house along the Mississippi River. The interpretation tells a remarkable story of Delta laborers, families and the plantation cotton economy that built and sustained the Lakeport house in 1859 until its restoration between 2002-2007.
The achievement of Lakeport’s permanent exhibits is telling this unique Delta story and its plantation heritage while maintaining the historic integrity of the Lakeport house and weaving together the stories of planters, enslaved laborers, sharecroppers, farm laborers, craftsmen, and preservationists. Since the house had changed little since its 1859 construction, the goal was to treat the house as the major artifact.  To meet that goal, unobtrusive exhibits, designed in collaboration with Quatrefoil Associates of Laurel, Maryland, complement the restoration and preservation of original architecture and historic paint finishes. No interpretation is placed permanently on walls; instead minimalist-styled exhibits tell Lakeport’s stories Original furniture and smaller artifacts, displayed in vitrines, complement Lakeport’s interpretive themes throughout the house. Other innovative media engage visitors: projection of images, text and video onto walls; oral history kiosks, and soundscaping makes the house feel inhabited.
            This year, AASLH is proud to confer eighty-eight national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, books, and organizations. The winners represent the best in the field and provide leadership for the future of state and local history. Presentation of the awards will be made at a special banquet during the 2013 AASLH Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday, September 20. The banquet is supported by a generous contribution from the History Channel.
                The AASLH awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and
local history throughout the United States.  The AASLH Leadership in History Awards not only honor significant achievement in the field of state and local history, but also brings public recognition of the opportunities for small and large organizations, institutions, and programs to make contributions in this arena.  For more information about the Leadership in History Awards, contact AASLH at 615-320-3203, or go to www.aaslh.org.
The American Association for State and Local History is a not-for-profit professional organization of individuals and institutions working to preserve and promote history.  From its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, AASLH provides leadership, service, and support for its members who preserve and interpret state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful in American society.  AASLH publishes books, technical publications, a quarterly magazine, and monthly newsletter.  The association also sponsors regional and national training workshops and an annual meeting.

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Jun072013June 7, 2013February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Plantation Hosts African American Legislators Exhibit in June; Lakeport Legacies to Host Presentation on African American Legislator Exhibit

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News
Arkansas African American Legislators, 1868-1893, a traveling exhibit produced by the Arkansas History Commission and Black History Commission of Arkansas, will be displayed at the Lakeport Plantation during the month of June.
Arkansas African American Legislators, 1868-1893 tells the story of the eighty-five African Americans who served in the Arkansas General Assembly in the 19th century. After the Civil War, the Arkansas adopted a new constitution in 1868 and its provisions included the right to vote and hold public office for black males. African American lawyers, merchants, ministers, educators, farmers, and other professionals served in the Arkansas General Assembly. Photographs of forty-six of the eighty-five legislators are an integral part of the display.  Also featured is a complete listing of the legislators and a short history of post-Civil War and election law “reforms” that effectively ended African Americans election to legislative positions until the 1970s.
Green Hill Jones, Courtesy
Arkansas History Commission

Over a dozen black men represented southeast Arkansas and Chicot County during this time.  The men included James Mason, the mulatto son of Chicot County planter and slaveholder Elisha Worthington; Edward A. Fulton, a noted abolitionist from Illinois; George W. Bell, a former slave who worked as a college president and physician; and men like, Nathan Edwards, John Webb, and Green Hill Jones, who eked out their living as farm laborers into the early 20th century.

For Lakeport Legacies, Lakeport’s monthly history talk, Dr. Blake Wintory, assistant director of the Lakeport Plantation, will present his research on Arkansas’s African American Legislators. Dr. Wintory’s presentation on June 27 at 5:30 pm will highlight what is known about the black men who represented Chicot County from 1868 to 1893.
Nathan Edwards, Courtesy
Arkansas History Commission


For more information about the exhibit at the Lakeport Plantation, call Blake Wintory, 870-265-6031.  To schedule the exhibit in your institution call the Arkansas History Commission at 501.682.6900 or e-mail state.archives@arkansas.gov.


Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house.

 


May102013May 10, 2013February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies with LaRhonda Mangrum Recording the Cemeteries of Southeast Arkansas

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Join us for our first Lakeport Legacies!


Thursday, May 30, 2013 5:30 pm

History Written in Stone: Recording the Cemeteries of Southeast Arkansas with LaRhonda Mangrum
Hill Cemetery, Chicot County.
Courtesy LaRhonda Mangrum

Cemeteries are important landmarks for families and communities and essential resources for historians and genealogists. Some cemeteries are visible and well maintained, while many others have been forgotten or lost. On Thursday, May 30, at 5:30 pm LaRhonda Mangrum will discuss her work documenting cemeteries in southeast Arkansas for the Arkansas Gravestones Project. Mrs. Mangrum, a Chicot County native, is the coordinator for southeast Arkansas and the coordinator for Ashley, Chicot and Drew counties. The gravestone project’s mission is to “capture and archive digital images of our ancestors’ gravestones.” She has been gravin’ since 2011 and has documented over 100 cemeteries for the Arkansas Gravestones Project. For more information about the project visit the http://www.arkansasgravestones.org/.

Lakeport Legacies is a new monthly history talk held on the last Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month we’ll have a topic from the Delta region (AR, LA & MS). The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies will meet in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. For more information, call or email Blake Wintory – 870.265.6031.

The Lakeport Plantation is an Arkansas State University Heritage Site. Constructed ca. 1859, it is Arkansas’s only remaining antebellum plantation home along the Mississippi River. The plantation was donated to Arkansas State University in 2001 by the Sam Epstein Angel family. After more than five years of restoration, the plantation opened as a museum and educational center in September 2007 and new permanent exhibits were unveiled in September 2012.

Flyer.pdf


May072013May 7, 2013November 19, 2014by itswebteam

Summer Hours 2013

Posted in News

Saturday Summer Hours 2013

  • May 25 – July 27 (That’s 10 Saturdays!)
    • Open 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Lakeport will be closed 
  • Memorial Day
    • Monday, May, 27, 2013
  • 4th of July
    • Thursday, July 4, 2013
Regular Monday thru Friday Hours
  • Tours 
    • 10:00 am
    • 2:00 pm 





Apr082013April 8, 2013November 19, 2014by itswebteam

Japanese American Internment Commemoration ceremonies to be held April 16

Posted in News

 

Japanese American internment in Arkansas during World War II will be commemorated through two ceremonies in Desha County on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.
Events include dedication and opening of the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum at 1 p.m. in McGehee, sponsored by the McGehee Industrial Development Foundation, and a 3:30 p.m. unveiling of outdoor exhibits developed through Arkansas State University at the Rohwer Relocation Center.  Both projects were initiated through grants from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Program at the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.  
Actor George Takei, who portrayed Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu on the original Star Trek television series, will be a special guest at both events.  Takei was interned as a young boy with his family at Rohwer.  Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe also has been invited to make remarks.
In 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government forced Japanese American citizens to leave the West Coast, out of fears for national security.  They were imprisoned during the war at ten relocation centers, mostly in western states, with two in Arkansas – at Rohwer just north of McGehee and at Jerome just south of McGehee.  These towns were the temporary homes for more than 17,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans.
The new commemorative museum, housed in McGehee’s historic train depot at 100 South Railroad Street, will serve as the Jerome-Rohwer Interpretive and Visitor Center.  Opening ceremonies will be followed by a reception and tours of the featured exhibit, “Against Their Will:  The Japanese American Experience in World War II Arkansas,” until 3 p.m.
“Communicating with former internees and their children has been so meaningful and educational,” said Cindy Smith of McGehee, who is coordinating the day’s events and currently serves as chair of the Arkansas State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission.  “It is a pleasure for the city of McGehee to help preserve this history.”
The outdoor interpretive exhibits at the Rohwer site include a series of kiosks and wayside panels, with audio components narrated by Takei.   Researched by students in the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program at Arkansas State University and designed for the university by the 106 Group of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the exhibits provide a glimpse into the lives of Japanese Americans once interned there.  The exhibits will be maintained by Desha County.
“Arkansas State University is grateful to be a partner with so many others in these commemorative efforts,” said Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas Heritage Sites at ASU. “This is a painful chapter in our nation’s history that must not be forgotten.”
A National Historic Landmark, the Rohwer site today includes only the Japanese American cemetery and the remains of the camp’s hospital smokestack.  Preservation work at the cemetery is expected to begin later this spring under the leadership of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.  
Matching funds and support for the McGehee museum grant were provided by the McGehee Industrial Foundation, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Arkansas Department of Rural Services, Clearwater Paper Corporation, and the Joseph F. Wallace Trust.  The featured exhibit, created through the University of Arkansas-Little Rock Public History Program, is on loan from the Delta Cultural Center in Helena.
Matching grant funds for the Rohwer exhibits were provided by Arkansas State University, with support from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Desha County, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
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Jan152013January 15, 2013November 22, 2016by itswebteam

New Year’s Open House — January 26, 2013

Posted in event, News

Start 2013 with Lakeport Plantation’s new exhibits and hot cocoa. Come join us for our New Year’s Open House from 12 pm to 3 pm on Saturday January 26.

Built in 1859, Lakeport is the last antebellum plantation home along the Mississippi River in Arkansas. New exhibits installed throughout the house are based on years of restoration and research in family records, archives and oral histories. On display are artifacts found during restoration and original items donated back to Lakeport.

All are welcome to this free event.


Dec182012December 18, 2012January 9, 20181Commentby itswebteam

Gifts of 2012

Posted in donation, history, News

The Season of giving is the perfect time to reflect on the gifts Lakeport has received in 2012.

In April Lakeport received nineteen of the original balusters that had been removed and placed in Helen Epstein Kantor’s Greenville home ca 1950. Read more about the balusters in the post:  Balusters Return to Lakeport!

Balusters in Kantor house, 2008

In June Richard M. Johnson, brought Lakeport a number of goodies for a long-term loan. We received several books; Two books, from the 1830s, belonged to Richard’s great-grandfather Lycurgus L. Johnson; the remainder of the books belonged to Richard’s grandfather, Dr. Victor M. Johnson and included medical texts, a bee keeping manual, and literary volumes. Richard also brought Lakeport his grandmother Martha Johnson’s beaten biscuit maker, his grandfather’s bee foundation maker, and a cradle that was in use in the family from the 1870s into the 1970s. Richard also donated a love seat which needs restoration.

In September, during the opening of our exhibits, we received several donations.

Cat Johnson Pearsall, daughter of Robley Johnson, donated her father’s baby book, family newspaper clippings and her father’s final written memories of Lakeport. Inside her father’s baby book we found a lock of young Robley’s hair and his first photo from Thanksgiving Day 1908 in Greenville, Mississippi.

Victor & Martha Johnson with son Robley, Thanksgiving Day, 1908, Greenville, Miss.

The 1908 photo’s location in Greenville has proved a bit of a mystery. There seems to be an iconic rose window in the background that might be a church. Victor and Martha were introduced at the First Christian Church in Greenville, a church his sisters Linnie Johnson and Annie Johnson Starling founded. But the structure in the background doesn’t seem to resemble known images of the Christian Church (like this one at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History) or any other turn of the century church in Greenville.


Bill Gamble, a Greenville resident and a descendant of Lyne Starling, donated Lyne’s 1871 Yale Yearbook. The Starlings, led by William Starling, purchased Sunnyside Plantation in 1868. Lyne’s brother Charles also attended Yale that year and married Annie Johnson at Lakeport in 1878. You can read about their sister Lollie’s memories of Lakeport in the post Laura (Lollie) P. Starling (1854-1946).

On a related note: Ben & Phyllis Starling, residents of Botha, Alberta and descendants of Charles Starling, donated William Starling’s Civil War notebook and surveyor’s hand level (ca. 1863).

Finally, two portraits were shared with Lakeport.  One is a portrait of Sam Epstein, who bought Lakeport in 1927 from Victor Johnson. It is on loan to Lakeport from Lynda Festinger White, grand daughter of Mr. Epstein.

Sam Epstein, ca. 1940

Ed Warren, grand nephew of Frank H. Dantzler, Jr. donated the portrait of Mr. Dantzler’s mother, Julia Drake Dantzler. The portrait hung at Lakeport while Mr. Dantlzer managed Lakeport from 1927-1950 (Dantzler partly owned Lakeport between 1927-1940).

Julia Drake Dantzler, mother of Frank Dantzler, Jr., ca. 1880

Thank you to all the donors in 2012 and years past! Donations deepen our understanding of Lakeport’s history and create a richer experience for visitors.