FedEx Corp. of Memphis, Tenn., said Thursday that it is giving $100,000 to the University of Arkansas Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.
“Thanks to the generosity of FedEx, the Pryor Center will be able to add to its growing collection of Arkansas oral and visual history,” Chancellor G. David Gearhart said in a news release. “The Pryor Center has recorded thousands of hours of interviews and yet is still just scratching the surface in terms of the amount of state history it will save and share.”
Established in 1999, the Pryor Center has recorded and collected hundreds of stories told by the people who lived and influenced Arkansas history. The interviews are a resource for historians, researchers, teachers, students, documentary filmmakers and anyone else who wants to know more about Arkansas history.
The center is investing in a mobile interviewing and editing facility called the Arkansas Story Bus, which the UA says will allow the center to demonstrate oral history methods and technical processes in schools. The bus will also allow representatives from the center to visit communities and partner with local historical organizations across the state.
Former U.S. Sen. David Pryor and his wife Barbara helped found the center to collect and preserve Arkansas heritage and share it with Arkansans and the rest of the world. Randy Dixon is the center’s director.
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