Fort Smith Historical Society

30/10/2024

Friday at The Bricks from 3:00 until 7:00.

24/10/2024

24/10/2024

23/10/2024

Fort Smith Historical Society presents ….

Fort Smith Museum of History Downtown Fort Smith

10/10/2024

13/09/2024

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10/09/2024

10/09/2024

10/09/2024

10/09/2024

10/09/2024

19/09/2023

ONE. 🍁 MONTH. 🍁 AWAY. 🍁

This year's RAM Fall Family has been announced and you better 'be-leaf' it's full of fun! Join us Saturday, October 7, 11 am – 3 pm for lunch, music, and local artists’ wares on the patio, as well as make-and-take Fall crafts in the RAM Studio. Art scavenger hunts with prizes will also be held in all three galleries.

22/02/2021

Black History Month Celebration

19/02/2021

February 19, 1950-Dedications ceremonies are held for Howard Elementary School at North 7th and M Street.

From the Fort Smith Historical Society, "The Journal", April 1985. Click on link for more information.https://uafslibrary.com/fshsj/09-01_Complete_Issue.pdf (p. 11)

GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD
"Although General Oliver Otis Howard was not a resident of Fort Smith, Howard School was named for this great promoter of education for Negroes who was influential in the building of the school. General Howard, both a soldier and educator, was born at Leeds, Maine, November 8, 1830. A graduate of Bowdoin College in 1850 and the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1854, he taught mathematics at the Academy until 1861. He later served as superintendent of this Academy (1880-1882). At the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a Colonel of the Third Maine Volunteers and commanded troops in many important engagements. By 1863, he had been promoted to the rank of Major General of Volunteers, and in 1864 commanded the right wing of General William T. Sherman's "March to the Sea". After the war, he served as Director of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (commonly known as the "Freedmen's Bureau"). During this time, funds were received from this Bureau to help build Howard School. General Howard was responsible for the establishment of Howard University, where he served as President from 1869-1872, and founded Lincoln Memorial University in 1895. He died at Burlington, Vermont, October 26, 1909, leaving behind him the legacy of schools for the education of generations to come."

The original Howard Elementary school was established in 1870.

(Southwest Times Record, This Week in Fort Smith History. Photo: Howard 1950, courtesy of Hiram Justice).

19/02/2021

Tuskegee Airmen

🇺🇲A Salute to the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen

Escape kits" being distributed to fighter pilots at Ramitelli Air Base, Italy (March, 1945). The Ramitelli airfield was home base for the Fifteenth Air Foces 332nd Fighter Group, the 'Tuskegee Airmen'. They used the airfield until the end of the war, and served with distinction in their red tailed P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs.

Photo shows (seated): Theodore G. Lumpkin, Jr. Standing (left to right): Joseph L. "Joe" Chineworth, Memphis, TN, Class 44-E; Robert C. Robinson, Asheville, NC, Class 44-G; Driskell B. Ponder, Chicago, IL, Class 43-I; Robert W. Williams, Ottumwa, IA, Class 44-E. Ramitelli, Italy, March, 1945. 332nd Fighter Group.



Original description and photograph sourced by: US Signal Corps Archive