Dean B. Ellis Library Complex
320 University Loop West Circle
Jonesboro, Arkansas
870-972-2074

The Arkansas State University Museum, located on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro, holds significant historic, archaeological, and natural history collections about the state of Arkansas. The museum originated in 1933, opening under the name Arkansas State College Historical Museum as a creation of the Arkansas State College History Club. The fledgling museum was accorded prime space in the newly built Wilson Hall, where it mounted its first exhibits in four wooden cases. In 1948, the museum was incorporated under the name Arkansas State Museum and Historic Library. The museum came into national recognition in 1973, when it was accredited by the AAM. Through the years, the museum expanded and retracted within Wilson Hall and other campus locations and ultimately moved in 1980 to the Dean B. Ellis Library building where it currently resides.

Today, the ASU Museum presents 21,000 square feet of exhibits. Exhibitions begin with the rich fossil history of Arkansas and continue through the advent of humankind. A life-size skeleton of the mastodons that once roamed the area triggers the imagination to the time when Native American societies were emerging as the dominant culture. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries began the trickle that later became the beginnings of pioneer settlement in the 1800s. Notable permanent exhibits include the history of early American settlement in Arkansas (“Living Off the Land”), “Old Town Arkansas,” the Mary Stack Gallery of Decorative Arts, and the hands-on exhibit “Earthquake! Are you Ready?” Special gallery features are iPod tours of Old Town Arkansas in English and Spanish. A member of the Arkansas Discovery Network funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the ASU Museum hosts temporary hands-on children’s exhibits. The museum also produces student-curated exhibits as part of formal university classes taught by museum staff.

The ASU Museum has established, under the ASU banner, a system of four museums, or “Arkansas Heritage SITES,” of which the ASU Museum is the flagship entity. The three others are the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in Piggott (Clay County), the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza (Poinsett County), and Lakeport Plantation near Lake Village (Chicot County).

Visiting the Arkansas State University Museum
Monday - Saturday: 9 am - 5 pm
Open until 7 pm on Tuesdays
Closed on Sundays and major holidays.
There is no charge to visit the Arkansas State University Museum, although donations are welcome.