Instruments of Faith: The Life and Work of Ed Stilley

On exhibit February 4, 2019–January 11, 2020

Ed Stilley at his home in Hogscald Holler, 1997. Flip Putthoff, photographer. Courtesy Kelly Mullhollan.

Ed Stilley was born in 1930 in Carroll County, Arkansas, to Will and Sarah Stilley. He has lived most of his life near the Carroll County area known as “Hogscald Holler.”

In 1979 Stilley received a directive from God to build musical instruments and give them away to children. For the next twenty-five years, without any musical training, he made over 200 instruments. Each of the instruments was built with odds and ends from around his home near Hogscald, where he lived with his wife, Eliza, and their five children. Ed Stilley stopped making instruments in 2004, only because his hands could no longer do the work required to construct an instrument.

Instruments of Faith features more than twenty handmade Stilley instruments, all on loan to the museum from private collectors.

Join us for our Instruments of Faith exhibit celebration, Saturday, March 30!

Instruments of Faith: The Life and Work of Ed Stilley

On exhibit February 4, 2019–January 11, 2020

Ed Stilley at his home in Hogscald Holler, 1997. Flip Putthoff, photographer. Courtesy Kelly Mullhollan.

Ed Stilley was born in 1930 in Carroll County, Arkansas, to Will and Sarah Stilley. He has lived most of his life near the Carroll County area known as “Hogscald Holler.”

In 1979 Stilley received a directive from God to build musical instruments and give them away to children. For the next twenty-five years, without any musical training, he made over 200 instruments. Each of the instruments was built with odds and ends from around his home near Hogscald, where he lived with his wife, Eliza, and their five children. Ed Stilley stopped making instruments in 2004, only because his hands could no longer do the work required to construct an instrument.

Instruments of Faith features more than twenty handmade Stilley instruments, all on loan to the museum from private collectors.

Join us for our Instruments of Faith exhibit celebration, Saturday, March 30!

Burning Beatles records on Emma Avenue, Springdale, August 1966. The protest was part of a response by Christian groups (mainly in the South) to John Lennon’s remark that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” Charles Bickford, photographer. Springdale News Collection (SN-8-15-66)

Stand Up, Speak Out

On exhibit through May 18, 2019

From local issues to national and international matters, people in Northwest Arkansas have been standing up and speaking out since the late 1800s. Labor practices, civil rights, education, war, nuclear energy, and more have been on folks’ minds and in their hearts.

The bulk of the photos in this exhibit come from the archives of the Springdale News and the Northwest Arkansas Times, mid-1960s to mid-1990s. These collections offer a representative, but not a comprehensive, view of protests in our area.

Can you help the Shiloh Museum preserve local history? If you have images of protests from the nineteenth century to the present day from the counties from which we collect—Benton, Boone, Carroll, Madison, Newton, Washington—please contact our photo archivist, Marie Demeroukas. Thanks!

Burning Beatles records on Emma Avenue, Springdale, August 1966. The protest was part of a response by Christian groups (mainly in the South) to John Lennon’s remark that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” Charles Bickford, photographer. Springdale News Collection (SN-8-15-66)

Stand Up, Speak Out

On exhibit through May 18, 2019

From local issues to national and international matters, people in Northwest Arkansas have been standing up and speaking out since the late 1800s. Labor practices, civil rights, education, war, nuclear energy, and more have been on folks’ minds and in their hearts.

The bulk of the photos in this exhibit come from the archives of the Springdale News and the Northwest Arkansas Times, mid-1960s to mid-1990s. These collections offer a representative, but not a comprehensive, view of protests in our area.

Can you help the Shiloh Museum preserve local history? If you have images of protests from the nineteenth century to the present day from the counties from which we collect—Benton, Boone, Carroll, Madison, Newton, Washington—please contact our photo archivist, Marie Demeroukas. Thanks!