Blog - Shiloh Museum of Ozark History

A blog about the history of the Ozarks and the people who have lived in the region from the earliest recorded history to today.

Ballot Box

This is believed to be one of the first ballot boxes used in Madison County. It was discovered in a barn on the east side of Huntsville.

Benjamin Harrison and Levi Morton distributed badges like this during their 1888 bid for the White House.

L. O. Stapleton of Springdale made this dulcimer for his daughter Linda in 1980. He dubbed the style “Ozarkian Weeping Heart.”

Benjamin H. Van Gundy (1892-1964) was a farmer and sometimes winemaker who lived in southeast Washington County.

The Springdale Police Department used this Dominator radar unit to catch drivers exceeding the speed limit in the mid-1960s.

From the mid-1800s into the 1930s, Indian clubs were a popular part of exercise routines in physical education classes.

John Preston Smith (1855-1941), a merchant in Farmington (Washington County), played this cornet in the 1880s with the town band.

This ceramic jug was used in the 1940s and 1950s by Dupree Deaver, a member of Springdale’s Skunk Hollar Hillbilly Band.

Grapes became a major crop in Northwest Arkansas in the early 1900s thanks to the Italian settlers of Tontitown (Washington County).

While in Europe as a soldier during World War I, Nathan Bickford sent his wife, Naomi, this apron.