Whayne Honored by Arkansas Historical Association

Photo Submitted

Jeannie Whayne, University of Arkansas. Photo by Russell Cothren, University of Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Jeannie M. Whayne, professor of history at the University of Arkansas, was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 73^rd annual conference of the Arkansas Historical Association.

Whayne received her award “for outstanding contributions to Arkansas history as a scholar, teacher and advocate” at the association’s awards banquet, held Friday at Historic Washington State Park in Hempstead County.

Whayne joined the U of A faculty in 1990. She has edited, authored, and co-authored nine books, including Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agriculture in the New South, which won the Arkansas Historical Association’s J.G. Ragsdale Book Award in Arkansas History in 2012. The Agricultural History Society has named her a “Fellow of the Society” in honor of her scholarly achievements and her service to agricultural history.

She has served on numerous committees of the Southern Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians and is past president of the Conference of Historical Journals, an affiliate of the American Historical Association. She was editor of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly for 13 years.

In addition to Whayne, two doctoral students in the U of A department of history received awards at the association’s banquet.

Kelly Houston Jones received the Violet B. Gingles Award “for her outstanding contribution to Arkansas history” in her essay “Chattels, Pioneers, and Sojourners for Freedom: Arkansas’s Bonded Travelers.” The award came with a certificate and $500.

Rebecca Howard received the Charles O. Durnett Award “for her outstanding contribution to Arkansas’s Civil War history” with her essay “No Country for Old Men: Patriarchs, Slaves and the Guerrilla War in Northwest Arkansas.” The award came with a certificate and $250.

The association also honored the University of Arkansas Press and its former director at the banquet. The Press, the university’s book publishing division, received the association’s Diamond Award for its “extraordinary service in promoting the writing and telling of Arkansas history.”

Larry Malley, who retired as the director of the press in December, received an award of merit “for his leadership of the University of Arkansas Press through a golden age in the publishing of Arkansas history.”

Also at the conference, Timothy G. Nutt, head of the special collections department of the University Libraries, was re-elected to a second term as president of the Arkansas Historical Association. Patrick Williams, associate professor of history at the U of A, serves as secretary-treasurer of the association.

The mission of the Arkansas Historical Association is to promote the preservation, writing, publishing, teaching and understanding of Arkansas state history through the publication of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly as well as other activities.