Project of the Year Nomination Form
Historic Arkansas Museum
1. Historic Arkansas Museum, formerly known as The Territorial Restoration, is located in downtown Little Rock at 200 East Third Street. The museum is one of the state’s foremost museums with a focus on Arkansas history during the territorial era of the 1800’s. History is brought to life through period buildings, programs, exhibits and authentic gardens. The Parker Westbrook vegetable garden is located along Second Street.
Trudy Goolsby, a volunteer at the museum since 1996 and a Master Gardener, realized the importance of the heritage garden. Through her advocacy the museum became an official Master Gardener project in 2003.
The vision of the museum is to recreate as close as possible, the Brownlee kitchen garden and the Parker Westbrook Farmstead as it would have looked to the Brownlee family in 1848. Heirloom and native plants are grown and cultivated in the gardens year round. To this end, our group of dedicated gardener’s, strive to uphold the museum’s goal by seed collecting, seed preservation and companion planting. All of the pioneer methods help control pests and maintain historical integrity. With this in mind, our main focus is to educate and provide valuable learning experiences for visitors to the museum.
The target audience includes school children, visitors, tourists, garden clubs and Master Gardeners, and all those interested in learning about the day in the life of families in the mid 19th century.
We work in close partnership with the Executive Director and Curator of the museum, the Director of Volunteers and the Facilities Manager, all of whom have supported us helped us appreciate the importance of living history.
2. During 2016, there were 18 Pulaski County Master Gardeners logging 1174 volunteer hours at Historic Arkansas Museum.
3. The Historic Arkansas Museum Project is a year round public demonstration garden, whose mission is to cultivate heirloom and native plants that were typically grown in Arkansas during the mid 19th century. The planting and harvesting of seasonal crops is an educational, hands on experience for numerous school groups and visitors. We explain the growing of many varieties of plants, including those grown by Thomas Jefferson, using historical methods. Cotton, amaranth and sesame are crops that many people have never seen. School children harvest the produce and learn the value of fresh vegetables and herbs and are taught these fundamentals by the Master Gardeners. Many have never seen vegetables growing and are astounded when digging potatoes and carrots. Another of our goals is having a year round garden insuring that there is always something to be harvested.
4. The project encompasses blackberries, native plants, cottage garden flowers and heirloom roses and vegetables. The Projects success is evaluated by the 45,000 visitors and 7800 children that visit annually. The commitment and dedication of members makes the project serve as a role-model and inspiration for those visiting. They learn from the total experience. This knowledge serves as a living history.
Bill Worthen, retired director, said, “The heart of the museum’s mission is to educate in an interesting way the gardens tell a fascinating story. Most people think that exhibits are objects behind glass, but the Master Gardeners have made our gardens into living exhibits, which give our visitors fresh insight into the garden as an integral part of an antebellum household. They have given us a way to make the plants and the dirt tell a story.”
Submitted by Chris Lalande Chair Historic Arkansas Museum, 9-25-17
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