1930’s – Pickens Black

1930’s – Pickens Black

Born a slave in Alabama about 1861, Pickens Black Sr. moved to Arkansas as a teenager, worked on the railroad, and started buying land, eventually amassing more than 8,000 acres. Black and his sons ran a plantation that included a cotton gin, sawmill, and grain...
1939 – Jacksonport School Children

1939 – Jacksonport School Children

These schoolchildren of Jacksonport pictured in 1939 with their teachers, Charles and Thelma Warlow, are identified by last names only. They are, from left to right, (first row) Seymore, Gullett, unidentified, and Davis; (second row) Dyke, Turner, Wilson, Dunham,...
1930’s – Workers outside the Button Factory

1930’s – Workers outside the Button Factory

The workers outside one of the button factories in Newport ham it up for the camera, perhaps aware that they will soon appear on postcards that will travel all over country. They seem blissfully unaware that their industry is over harvesting the White River’s...
1936 – Shelling for Mussels

1936 – Shelling for Mussels

Robert Monroe rigged his flatboat with suspended hooks for harvesting mussel shells in the White River about 1936. Hooks were suspended from a pole and dragged along the bottom of the river. The work was tedious and usually beset by mosquitoes and the vagaries of the...
1930’s – Pearling at Newport

1930’s – Pearling at Newport

Newport had discovered a new source of wealth in the early 1900’s. Beautiful irregular freshwater pearls from the White River became a national and international sensation, bringing new riches to those who had the technology and the tenacity to harvest them....
1930’s – Sol Heinemann’s Hunt

1930’s – Sol Heinemann’s Hunt

These young men chose to memorialize their prodigious hunting by having a postcard printed carrying their images. Clearly, there were no state-imposed limits in those days. Signed by Sol Heinemann Jr. and W.A. Mayberry, the note reads, “147 quail, 2 dogs.”...