Kimberly Mitchell

Jennifer Wiseman grew up in Mountain Home, splitting her childhood between town and country life. From her Arkansas upbringing, Wiseman went to MIT, Harvard, and then NASA, where she now leads a team supporting the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dr. Margaret Pittman was a pioneering scientist from Arkansas. She assisted in the cholera vaccine and the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. Her work has saved many lives, and her legacy as an Arkansas scientist lives on.

In the pavement business, failed pavement is normally a problem at best, and a disaster in the worst scenario that could cause injury and financial damage as well. However, we admit there’s more than one way to look at failed pavement, and many artists have creatively taken to the streets to turn potholes, fractures, and sidewalks into works of art.
From Potholes to Mosaics
(Ememem photos from ememem.flacking on Instagram)
Since 2016, a French street artist known as Ememem has brought the art...

Arkansas holds a lot of history, and part of that history belongs to the American Indians who lived in the state both prior to statehood and after the territory joined the United States. In Arkansas, like many other states, American Indian history has not always been well preserved or presented in an accessible manner. In the early 1980s, two professors at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) endeavored to collect and preserve the literary history of American Indians, and their ef...

In country music, not many musicians have left such an impression on the industry and fans as Johnny Cash. The singer was as authentic as he was troubled. Throughout his life, the Man in Black continued to do what he felt he was created and called by God to do: write and sing.
Johnny Cash was born J.R. Cash February 26, 1932, to parents Ray and Carrie Cash. J.R. was the fourth of seven Cash children. He was particularly close to his brother Jack, who was born third. The Cashes moved from King...

If you’ve ever had a question about Arkansas, whether it’s about history, famous Arkansans or little-known facts, the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas is the most comprehensive online resource about the state.
In 2002, Tom Dillard, the curator for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System, recognized the need for an online encyclopedia about the state. Dillard and deputy curator Tim Nutt began exploring how to create an online reso...

By Kimberly Mitchell
When Jason Held graduated with his Ph.D in Aerospace and Mechatronics from the University of Sydney in Australia, he knew he wanted to found a company in the space industry. He just wasn’t sure what that company would do, yet. In 2008, the space industry in Australia was virtually non-existent, and the chances of creating a viable company looked bleak. That didn’t stop the former US Army Major for USSTRATCOM (Space Command). With a foothold in both the U.S. and Australia,...

Fall brings colorful leaves, crisp days, chilly nights and a hint of spookiness in the air. With Halloween just around the corner, thoughts turn to Arkansas’s eerie places, and few are as mysterious as cemeteries. Arkansas has some interesting cemeteries that serve as the final resting place for governors, soldiers, and many others.
Conway Cemetery State Park
Photo of Walnut Hill Conway Cemetery State Park courtesy of the Arkansas Department of Heritage, Parks and Tourism.
Conway Cemetery in ...

There are stories in my family about my great-grandfather running afoul of the law when Arkansas was a wild place to live and the United States as a whole was wrestling with calls for prohibiting the sale of alcohol. Campaigns for prohibition were common in the 1800s, and in Arkansas, the push for limiting or completely outlawing the sale of alcohol was steady, but the state didn’t pass a prohibition law until 1915. Moonshining was already common, as my great-grandfather Joe Ross could attest...

Off of winding Arkansas Highway 23 in Madison County lies tiny Brashears Cemetery. A series of stone coffins are scattered among tombstones and memorials that line the open field. Though lichen covers the lids of these aboveground crypts, and their shapes are reminiscent of the Egyptian sarcophagi of ancient kings buried in pyramids, you’ll find no mummies inside. In fact, these stone coffins never held bodies at all.
Photo by Marcus O. Bst via Flickr
No gravestones accompany the stone coffin...

When twelve-year-old twins Penelope and Quintus Grey Reyes are sent to Mexico to spend the summer with their grandparents, Pen creates a website advertising their services as international agents of intrigue. A mysterious client hires them. The assignment? To locate the Codex Cardona – a rare 15th century painted book.