The exhibit Sam Dellinger & the Raiders of the Lost Arkansas honors the man who was Arkansas's first archeologist, first anthropologist, and the father of the University of Arkansas Museum. Visit this exhibit to learn about prehistoric Arkansas and the Arkansas Indian history uncovered by Sam Dellinger.
"Imagine my chagrin when I visited such museums as the Peabody at Harvard; the National at Washington, D.C.; the University of Michigan; or the Heye Museum of the American Indian at New York and found that their finest and most valuable Indian displays had been sent from Arkansas," Dellinger told an interviewer in 1930. "Specimens are there that can never be found again in our state. They are sold to the big museums for a nominal sum. They are not a crop of cotton or corn that can be grown again. When they leave the state, they are gone forever. In many instances they were simply collected by expeditions of the sort that are sent into more backward...countries."
In his quest to protect Arkansas's heritage, Dellinger amassed nearly 8,000 prehistoric Arkansas artifacts, one of the finest collections of Southeastern North American antiquities anywhere. The best of these are on display in the exhibit. The Old State House Museum has also borrowed Arkansas objects from some of the institutions Dellinger mentioned. These are shown here for the first time in our state.
Also learn about the Mexican and American War at the exhibit Try Us: Arkansas and the U.S.-Mexican War.
| Sam Dellinger & the Raiders of the Lost Arkansas Brochure |
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Next: "An Enduring Image: Arkansas's Old State House" »
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