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Class Ring

by | Artifact of the Month, Clothing and Accessories, Education

Donated by Ada Lee Shook

This ring belonged to Frances Slaughter. She was born in Goshen (Washington County) in 1905 to John Lionel (“Lona”) and Ada Bevers Slaughter. The family moved to Springdale in 1914 and from there to Fayetteville in 1921, where Frances graduated from high school in 1922.

Frances kept a diary during her senior year. On Friday, May 19, 1922, she wrote of graduation day:

Frances Slaughter, circa 1922. Carl Smith, photographer/Ada Lee Shook Collection (S-98-85-965)

I got up at 8 A.M. and went to the Ozark [Theater] to practice. I got real mad at Mary Dale Sellers. I pressed my dress, made sandwiches and everything. I went to the Commencement exercises and after that to Thelma’s bunkin [bunking] party. We started to go on a night gown parade but saw a drunk man. We went to sleep about 3 A.M.

In the fall of 1922 Frances Slaughter entered the University of Arkansas. There she met William Carl Smith, whom she married in 1926. The Smiths had one daughter, Ada Lee, born in 1928.

Artifact of the Month Archive

Linen Suit

by | Artifact of the Month, Clothing and Accessories

Donated by Victoria McKinney

This linen outfit with its ruffled collar is a variation of the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, a popular style of the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the book Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1886), the  main character wore black velvet knee pants and jacket over a lace-collared blouse. The style was popular until about 1920.

Evan Lewis Martin wore this suit as a child. The son of Henry and Bette Hannah Martin of Pea Ridge (Benton County), he died at the age of 12 in 1910. In his obituary, the Rogers (Arkansas) Democrat noted that Evan “loved music and was a fine singer for a child.”

Artifact of the Month Archive
Little Lord Fauntleroy linen suit, circa 1910

Donated by Victoria McKinney

This linen outfit with its ruffled collar is a variation of the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, a popular style of the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the book Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1886), the  main character wore black velvet knee pants and jacket over a lace-collared blouse. The style was popular until about 1920.

Evan Lewis Martin wore this suit as a child. The son of Henry and Bette Hannah Martin of Pea Ridge (Benton County), he died at the age of 12 in 1910. In his obituary, the Rogers (Arkansas) Democrat noted that Evan “loved music and was a fine singer for a child.”

Artifact of the Month Archive

Orval Faubus’s Hat

by | Artifact of the Month, Clothing and Accessories, Politics and Government

Gov. Orval Faubus (in dark suit) at the Springdale Savings and Loan Association dedication, June 11, 1960. Howard Clark, photographer/Caroline Price Clark Collection (S-2001-82-375)

Donated by James McNally

This circa 1960 hat was made for Gov. Orval Faubus by Harry Rolnick, co-owner and designer of Resistol Hats. Rolnick and E.R. Byer founded Byer-Rolnick Company in Dallas in 1927. Byer-Rolnick specialized in Western and dress hats branded Resistol for “resist all weather.” Resistol hats quickly became famous for their trademarked “Self-Conforming Band” and “Kitten Finish” (a method of processing felt which produced a softer texture than conventionally-made felt).

Artifact of the Month Archive

Gov. Orval Faubus (in dark suit) at the Springdale Savings and Loan Association dedication, June 11, 1960. Howard Clark, photographer/Caroline Price Clark Collection (S-2001-82-375)

Donated by James McNally

This circa 1960 hat was made for Gov. Orval Faubus by Harry Rolnick, co-owner and designer of Resistol Hats. Rolnick and E.R. Byer founded Byer-Rolnick Company in Dallas in 1927. Byer-Rolnick specialized in Western and dress hats branded Resistol for “resist all weather.” Resistol hats quickly became famous for their trademarked “Self-Conforming Band” and “Kitten Finish” (a method of processing felt which produced a softer texture than conventionally-made felt).

Artifact of the Month Archive

Beret

by | Artifact of the Month, Clothing and Accessories

Vera Key, 1920s. Bingham, photographer/Ada Lee Shook Collection (S-87-325-72)

Donated by Ada Lee Shook

Vera Key (1893-1987) was a civic leader in Rogers, Arkansas. Born at War Eagle (Benton County) and raised in Rogers, she served in the Army Nurses Corps in World War I and later worked as a nurse for noted author and humorist Tom Morgan of Rogers.

A descendant of two pioneer families of Benton County, the Blackburns and the Keys, Vera Key devoted her later years to historic preservation projects. She was active in the effort to establish Pea Ridge as a national military park and was the first chairperson of the commission that founded the Rogers Historical Museum.

Vera Key acquired many hats over the years, which would have been natural for a woman of her era involved in civic organizations. Several of her hats, including this one, came from the Lazarus Department Store in Cincinnati, Ohio. This circa 1945 simple olive green wool beret was made all the more distinctive with the addition of the cicada insect pin. A blue bead hat pin held the hat in place.

Artifact of the Month Archive

Apron

by | Artifact of the Month, Clothing and Accessories, Military and Homefront

Donated by Naomi Bickford

While in Europe as a soldier during World War I, Nathan Bickford sent his wife, Naomi, this apron. Nathan Bickford served with Company G, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division during the war. He was awarded a sharpshooters badge, a World War I victory medal and a purple heart with oak leaf clusters for injuries suffered in France.

The Bickfords lived in Missouri, Kansas, and Tennessee before coming to Northwest Arkansas in the 1940s, where Nathan Bickford was an attorney in Gravette and Springdale.

Artifact of the Month Archive

Derby Hat

by | Artifact of the Month, Clothing and Accessories

Donated by Dorothy Morsani

This derby belonged to Memo Morsani of Tontitown (Washington County). The inner lining sports a stamp (below) from Price Clothing Company in Fayetteville.

Richard Dominic “Memo” Morsani (1889-1951) was born in Orvinio, Italy. Memo, his father Emidio, and brother Camillo were among the first families who came with Father Pietro Bandini to settle Tontitown in 1898. Memo was well-known in the region for his beautiful singing voice. After serving with the U. S. Army during World War I, he returned to Tontitown, became a nursery agent in the local fruit industry, and married Rose Bastianelli (another of Tontitown’s founding citizens) in 1926.

Tontitown get-together, circa 1920. Memo Morsani is on the back row, holding a tuba. Lavinia Zulpo Collection (S-2003-2-1191)

Artifact of the Month Archive