Folklore & Folklife

Arkansans versus Arkansawyers
The name for residents of Arkansas has long been a subject of controversy. A fundamental premise of Arkansas c...
Hand-blown glass bluebird display on thin shelves outdoors with forest and mountains in background
Arkansas Bluebird of Happiness
aka: Bluebird of Happiness
The original Arkansas Bluebird of Happiness was created by Leo Ward...
Fingers holding a bottle cap "Riley's"
Arkansas Brewing Company
Arkansas Brewing Company (originally Riley-Lyon Inc.) was a short-lived brewery in the 1980s based in Little R...
Two white men smiling with books on table in front of them
Arkansas Cornbread Festival
The Arkansas Cornbread Festival, an annual celebration of Southern culinary heritage, was inaugurated in 2011...
Old white man playing a fiddle on stage with old white woman and white guitarists
Arkansas Folk Festival
The annual Arkansas Folk Festival takes place on the third weekend in April in Mountain View (Stone County). H...
Two-story building with "Jones' Bar-B-Q Diner" sign
Arkansas Food Hall of Fame
The Arkansas Food Hall of Fame was established by the Department of Arkansas Heritage (DAH) in 2017, with the ...
Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance
The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is a nonprofit collaborative network of more than 400 hunger relief organi...
Pistol vase metal can table and quilt design on black background with red yellow and white text
Arkansas Made [Books]
The Arkansas Made books are a two-volume set researched and written by two leaders of the Arkansas Territorial...
Two-story wooden building with brick chimney
Folkloric Relocations of the Arkansas State Capital
There are a few staples of local history and folklore in the state of Arkansas repeated widely throughout nume...
Print of white man violinist on horse dancing partner women children dogs outside cabin door sign "whisky"
Arkansas Traveler
A tune, a dialogue, and a painting from the mid-nineteenth century, the Arkansas Traveler became a catch-all p...
White girl and boy photographed by woman in front of sign "Welcome to Arkansas Land of Opportunity"
Arkansas's Image
Two defining forces have shaped Arkansas’s image. First, physical geography placed the Mississippi River flo...
African-American woman smiling in collared top
Eliza Jane Ashley (1917–2020)
Eliza Jane Burnett Dodson Ashley spent more than thirty years as the cook in the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion...
Rows of uncovered wooden vats with wooden walking path in between them
Atkins Pickle Company
Atkins Pickle Company was the major industry in the town of Atkins (Pope County) for more than fifty years, an...
White man with bushy beard wearing glasses and plaid shirt speaking at lectern
Back-to-the-Land Movement
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, nearly one million people throughout the United States left urbanized a...
Single story white concrete block restaurant building "Joe's Bar-B-Q"
Barbecue
Barbecue (both the cooking technique and the social institution) was introduced into the Arkansas Territory an...
Two young white women in white dresses standing against building with wooden siding
Ella Barham (Murder of)
The 1912 murder of eighteen-year-old Ella Barham in Boone County was one of the most gruesome events to occur ...
African-American woman with baskets filled with cotton
Basketry
Basket making is the process of interlacing short flexible fibers to form a container using a process of coili...
White woman sitting in chair painting on framed canvas
Helen Long Bittick (1918–1985)
Helen Marie Long Bittick was an artist of the “primitive folk style,” meaning that she had no academic art...
Two young white men in suits with knives in hand
James Black (1800–1872)
James Black, popularly known as the maker of the bowie knife, was one of the early pioneers of Arkansas and se...
African-American man in suit sitting on a bench playing guitar
Blues Music
The origins of the blues are murky, but the state of Arkansas seems to have hosted the music and its creators ...
Large knife leaning on wooden wagon wheel in grass
Bowie Knife
The bowie knife, made popular in the 1830s, has evolved into a specific form in current use. The bowie knife w...
Ripe red tomato on green vines with leaves in pot
Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival
The Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival celebrates the pink tomato industry in southeastern Arkansas. Origina...
Metal "Beer of Arkansas" building with three garage bays and blue awning with parking lot
Breweries
Beer brewing in Arkansas dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. Documentation on early beer brewing in Arka...
"Bruce is sentenced" newspaper clipping
William Harvey (Harve) Bruce (1847–1907)
Harve Bruce was a moonshiner who resided on Oak Mountain in Van Buren County. Pursued by local and federal a...
Brick building with oval shaped windows with cars in parking lot and hanging "Little Italy" sign on two lane street
Bruno’s Little Italy
Bruno’s Little Italy in Little Rock (Pulaski County) is one of the most well-known restaurants in central Ar...
"Federal Court Counterfeiting case of Henry Breese nearing an end" newspaper clipping
Bullfrog Valley Gang
The Bullfrog Valley Gang was a notorious counterfeiting ring that operated in the wilderness of Pope County du...
Irene Jones Carlisle (1908–2006)
Originally from Texas, Irene Carlisle lived much of her life in Fayetteville (Washington County), where she be...
Headline "Mutilated Stock May Indicate Witchcraft in NW Arkansas"
Cattle Mutilations
Although accounts of livestock mutilations date back as far as the seventeenth century globally, the reports f...
Hand holding up a plastic bucket with spice shaker on top of it in bar
Cavender’s All-Purpose Greek Seasoning
Lester “Spike” Cavender of Harrison (Boone County) created Cavender’s All-Purpose Greek Seasoning with h...
Lamb chop with caviar and pesto on dinner plate
Caviar
Arkansas caviar, which is distributed nationally, consists of eggs from certain freshwater fish caught in the...
Plants and tree in garden with multistory building with covered porch in the background
Chateau Aux Arc Vineyards and Winery
One of several new vineyards in Arkansas, Chateau Aux Arc of Altus (Franklin County) promotes itself as the la...
Dipping a chip in a blue bowl of cheese dip on a red plate
Cheese Dip
Cheese dip is considered to be an important part of Arkansas’s food culture. Not only is cheese dip more pop...