Peg Newton Smith (1915–2003)

Peg Newton Smith was a longtime leader in the field of Arkansas history and historic preservation. In addition to being a founder of the Arkansas Museums Association, she was instrumental in the founding of the Quapaw Quarter Association, a historic preservation group in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Smith was also a longtime member of the board of directors of the Mount Holly Cemetery Association, which oversees Little Rock’s historic burial ground. She served as a resource for historians as well as students and teachers. Her roots in Arkansas run so deep that two of the state’s counties—Newton and Hempstead—are named for her ancestors.

Peggy Blair Newton was born in Little Rock on February 10, 1915, to Thomas Willoughby Newton III and Evlyn Hempstead Newton. She and her brother, Robert Allen Newton, were the grandchildren of attorney Fay Hempstead, an author and poet whose books focused on Arkansas history and politics.

Newton graduated from Mount St. Mary Academy in 1933 and attended Little Rock Junior College (now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock). In 1938, she married future Arkansas Supreme Court justice George Rose Smith, who also came from one of the state’s prominent families.

For sixty-two years, Peg Smith served as a volunteer at the Arkansas Territorial Restoration (which later became the Historic Arkansas Museum—HAM), which opened in 1941 as the first state-supported history museum in Arkansas. On the museum’s first day, Smith was there as a volunteer, dressed in period garb. Smith would go on to serve as its commission chair from 1978 to 1983, and was named chair emerita of the commission in 2002.

Smith served for decades on the board of directors of the Mount Holly Cemetery Association, often giving tours of the cemetery for school groups. One of the stops would be at the gravesite of her grandfather, Fay Hempstead, who had served as a charter member of Mount Holly’s cemetery commission when it was formed in 1877.

While Smith was devoted to the state’s past, she was also interested in both the present and the future of Arkansas. She helped to create the Museum Store at what is now HAM, which is filled with Arkansas crafts. She also spearheaded the creation of a gallery at HAM that is devoted to contemporary Arkansas artists in order to help support the state’s artistic community. In keeping with that spirit, in 2010 the Historic Arkansas Museum unveiled a commissioned sculpture in Smith’s honor that was inspired by her personality. Called pARTy for Peg, the exuberant sculpture by Alice Guffey Miller of Monticello (Drew County) depicts four couples dancing to a lively tune by an Arkansas fiddle player.

Among many other organizations, Smith was active in the Arkansas Bicentennial Commission, Arkansas Museums Association, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies (part of the Central Arkansas Library System), Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas (now Preserve Arkansas), Holy Souls Catholic Church, Junior League of Little Rock, Little Rock Community Concert Association, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, and Pulaski County Historical Society. She was also active in Little Rock’s Aesthetic Club, one of the oldest women’s clubs west of the Mississippi River, with one of its founders in 1883 being Smith’s grandmother Gertrude Hempstead.

Smith was appointed to the first review committee of the State Historic Preservation Program and was one of the two first Arkansans named to the board of advisors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In addition, Smith was the first woman elected to the board of Downtown Little Rock Unlimited Progress (later called the Downtown Partnership).

Among her many honors and recognitions include being named the 1967 Greater Little Rock Woman of the Year by the Arkansas Democrat, recipient of the Shield of the Trojan award from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Alumni Association in 1979, being named a Fellow of the Museum of Science and History in 1981, and being HAM’s Candlelight Gala Honoree in 1994. In 2003, she became the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arkansas Museums Association.

Both the Arkansas Museums Association and the Quapaw Quarter Association named significant annual awards for Smith in recognition of her tireless efforts in historical preservation. Since 1980, the Peg Smith Award from the Quapaw Quarter Association has been given to recognize members of that group for outstanding volunteer work. The Peg Newton Smith Lifetime Achievement Award was established in 2003 by the Arkansas Museums Association to recognize long-term contributions to the preservation of Arkansas heritage. One of its earliest recipients was Smith’s close friend Mary Fletcher Worthen.

Smith died in Little Rock on July 20, 2003. She is buried at Mount Holly Cemetery in the Newton family plot, and the inscription on her gravestone reads: “She loved Little Rock and its history.”

For additional information:
Benenati, Katherine. “Smith Was an Arkansas Treasure.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 13, 2010. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/apr/13/smith-was-arkansas-treasure-20100413/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

“Party For Peg.” Historic Arkansas Museum. https://www.arkansasheritage.com/historic-arkansas-museum/exhibits/permanent-exhibits/party-for-peg (accessed November 7, 2025).

Peg Smith Materials. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Finding aid online at https://cdm15728.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/findingaids/search/searchterm/MSS.99.13 (accessed November 7, 2025).

“Sculpture Vulture: pARTy for Peg at HAM.” Little Rock Culture Vulture, January 29, 2012. https://lrculturevulture.com/2012/01/29/sculpture-vulture-party-for-peg-at-ham/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

Worthen, Bill. “LR Women Making History—Peg Newton Smith.” Little Rock Culture Vulture, March 7, 2018. https://lrculturevulture.com/2018/03/07/lr-women-making-history-peg-newton-smith/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

Nancy Hendricks
Garland County Historical Society