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The American Presidential Theater: An Affectionate Look Back At Squeakers, Controversies and Close Calls. The Constitution of 1789 created a three- legged structure of government for the new United States of America; one of its most controversial aspects was the provision for a chief executive for the nation. The first president, George Washington, was effectively elected by popular acclaim. His successors, however, have had to campaign for the office and the result has been a tradition of partisan theater. Many presidential contests have been down-and-dirty mud fests, and the combination of the popular vote with the workings of the seemingly-mysterious electoral college system has ensured close races and disputed results. Collages of vintage political cartoons commemorate a dozen of the nation’s most contentious and controversial presidential contests; these range from the elevation of Thomas Jefferson in 1800 to the protracted recounting dramas of 2000. Pious or perplexed quotations from various inhabitants of the Oval Office plus reproductions of campaign materials and seldom-kind caricatures testify to the wide range of emotions the Presidency has inspired. The American presidency was, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, a “splendid misery”; to Theodore Roosevelt, a “bully pulpit; to Lyndon Johnson put it, “The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.” The American Presidential Theater reminds visitors that while technology has changed and issues have risen and fallen since 1800, many elements of presidential campaigns-overstatement, character assassination, boundless confidence, celebration, ridicule and in the end, for the winner, gloating-have been present since the beginning. Indeed, they may be part of the theater the public expects.
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Arkansas State Parks: Seventy Five years of Making Memories: In recognition of the Arkansas State Park’s 75th Birthday the exhibit is both a salute to the vision that created the earliest parks and an invitation to visit the 52 parks and museums that comprise Arkansas state parks system. Artifacts, including samples of prehistoric ceramics, vintage tourist literature and a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - made rustic ottoman, and vivid photographs interpret the wide variety of parks and their recreation opportunities. In 1933, on Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton, the CCC began construction at Petit Jean, Arkansas’s first state park. Today, Petit Jean State Park, Mount Nebo State Park, Crowley’s Ridge State Park, Devil’s Den State Park and Lake Catherine State Park endure as legacies to the craftsmanship and conservation achievements of the civilian “Tree Army” of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The hallmark of Arkansas’s state park system is its diversity: mountain and lake parks, recreational destinations, places of natural beauty and of historical significance are preserved within the system.
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The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center: A Mission, A Dream, A Museum. The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center takes its name from a fraternal order, founded in Little Rock in 1882.The Mosaic Templars of America provided both social outlets and practical benefits in the form of financial support and life insurance to African Americans within Arkansas and across the United States. The founders’ vision prospered enough so that in 1912 the Mosaic Templars commissioned a major building at the intersection of Broadway and West Ninth Street in downtown Little Rock to serve as their National Temple, or headquarters. Even after the Templars disbanded in the 1930s, the old National Temple building remained a major anchor of the African American business district located along West Ninth Street. In 2004 the building was purchased by the Department of Arkansas Heritage to serve as a cultural center interpreting the story of African American life and businesses in Arkansas from 1870 to the present. Fire destroyed the headquarters building in March 2005 but did not extinguish the vision: a new facility closely resembling the original structure will open to the public in Summer 2008 as a state-of-the-art facility with a mission: to build the cultural connections between Arkansans past and present, and to preserve and tell the stories of Arkansas’s African American life and enterprise. The Capitol exhibit highlighted the center’s collections, including works by artist and entrepreneur Isaac Scott Hathaway, as well as the intertwined histories of the Mosaic Templars and Ninth Street.
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