Archives Month Open House Features Local History Author

A photograph of Leslie Stringfellow shortly before his death.

A sample of the automatic writing produced for the Stringfellows using a planchette.

The Stringfellow house on Washington Avenue in Fayetteville circa 1910. (Photo by Burch Grabill.)

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Stephen J. Chism, reference librarian at the university of Arkansas and author of the book The Afterlife of Leslie Stringfellow.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – October is American Archives Month, and the University Libraries’ special collections department is commemorating the month by hosting an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in special collections, Mullins Library Room 130.

Titled “Celebrating the Arkansas Experience: Archives Month 2009,” the event will include refreshments and a reception at 3 p.m., an overview of the past year from Tom W. Dillard, the head of special collections, at 3:30 p.m., an overview and snippet of the documentary film “Finders Keepers: The Arkansas Diamond Legacy” presented by filmmaker Brian Petty, and a lecture on a spooky topic just in time for Halloween. In “How a Library Newsletter Changed My Life: Special Collections and My Research for The Afterlife of Leslie Stringfellow,” Stephen J. Chism, local author and a reference librarian at the University of Arkansas Libraries, describes his republication of a little-known book of local history contained in special collections that recounts a family’s experiences in talking with the dead.

In The Afterlife of Leslie Stringfellow: A Nineteenth-Century Southern Family's Experiences with Spiritualism, Chism provides a reprinting of "Leslie’s Letters to His Mother" (Fayetteville, Arkansas: Democrat Publishing Co., 1926), one of the many unusual treasures of local history preserved in special collections. Chism notes, "During my research I found that there were only eleven libraries that owned the unusual book Alice Stringfellow had published in 1926 concerning her son's purported afterlife. These included the libraries of Yale, Notre Dame, Duke University ... and the Special Collections Department at the University of Arkansas Libraries."

The book recounts the unusual story of the Stringfellow family, who after the unexpected death of their only son, Leslie, in 1886, turned to spiritualism for comfort. "Leslie’s Letters" recounts their experiences with "automatic writing," a form of communication with the dead through the use of a planchette, an instrument that holds a pencil or pen above the surface of a piece of paper on which the letters of the alphabet are printed. The letters themselves (as allegedly written by Leslie through the planchette) are a fascinating introduction to the vision of the afterlife held by 19th century spiritualists. In 1911, the family moved to Fayetteville, Ark., where the Stringfellows built the house at 329 Washington Ave. as an exact copy of their previous home.

Tom W. Dillard, head of special collections, said, “Archives Month is a celebration that gives every Arkansan an opportunity to reflect on how we came to be as a people — and the importance of the archival collections that document that historical process. Without historical records Arkansans would have no identity, no sense of the past, no realization of the contributions and sacrifices that went into building our state over the past 200 years."

American Archives Month is a collaborative effort by professional organizations around the nation to raise awareness of the value of archival materials and to encourage persons and organizations to preserve records of enduring historical value. The special collections department of the University of Arkansas Libraries was created in 1967 to foster research and writing in the history and culture of Arkansas and the surrounding region. It is an archival repository of more than 13,500 linear feet of documents in the Manuscripts Collection, more than 28,000 cataloged titles in the Arkansas Collection and the Rare Books Collection, and more than 150,000 photographs, broadsides and maps.

The event is free and open to the public; no registration is required. For more information, including directions and parking information, call 479-575-5577.