Special Collections Highlights Work of Arkansas Photographer Don House

The University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections Division is happy to announce the opening of the Don House Papers, a wealthy assortment documenting the life and work of the Arkansas-based photographer identified for his evocative portraits, landscapes and documentation of Ozarks life.

Select pictures from the gathering can be on show throughout the Archives Month Open House, set for 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, on Level 1 of Mullins Library.

This newly processed assortment presents perception into House’s decades-long profession as a photographer, author and energetic member of Arkansas’ arts group. Materials embrace photographic prints, negatives, correspondence, publications, enterprise data, journals and promotional objects reflecting each his artistic course of {and professional} life.

House’s portraits seize a variety of Arkansans, together with musicians and bands reminiscent of Jed Clampit, Trout Fishing in America and Still on the Hill; U of A figures reminiscent of Randall Woods, Bill Schwab, Yvette Murphy Erby and Ellen Gilchrist; and artists reminiscent of Ken Smith, Russell Cothren, Bill Flanagan, Daniel Kasztelan, and Hank and JoAnn Kaminsky.

His pictures have appeared in quite a few publications, together with Forbes, Arkansas Times, Edible Ozarkansas, Rural Heritage, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vogue Germany and Whitefish Review. In addition to his images, House has authored or co-authored 5 books, amongst them Buffalo Creek Chronicles: Diary of a Cattle Ranch on the Southern Plains (2002), Not a Good Sign (2010), Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas (2021), Letters to Dan: A Philosophical Guide to the Ozarks (2023) and the kids’s guide Otto’s Great Adventure (2004). His books are additionally accessible via Special Collections. 

“Just as Don’s photography has captured people from all walks of life, I think there’s something in this collection for any visitor to Special Collections,” stated Katrina Windon, head of the Collections Management and Processing Unit. “Several highlights from the collection will be on display at our Archives Month Open House event later this month, which we invite everyone to attend. But I hope researchers will come back to delve further into everything the collection has to offer, because it’s not just a collection of Don’s own photography, … it’s also a story of the Ozarks arts community that he’s been such an integral part of.”

House expressed his gratitude for the collaboration with the Libraries. “Working with Katrina Windon and the staff of Special Collections has been one of the most enjoyable and important endeavors of my career,” he stated. “The work they do is crucial, and not just simply as a dry record of historical facts and figures. Katrina and her colleagues capture the very essence, the soul of the region I love and call home, and lay it out for future generations to study and understand. I am honored to work with them.”