The Pryor Center was created in 1999 at the urging of former US Senator David H. Pryor and Barbara Pryor of Arkansas, who have long had an interest in Arkansas history. The Center's mission is to document the cultural heritage of Arkansans by collecting audio and video resources to share with scholars, students, and the public.
The center was developed under the leadership of Dr. Jeannie M. Whayne, who was the chair of the University of Arkansas Department of History. From 2007 to 2009, the center was administered by the University Libraries' Special Collections Department and from 2010 to 2017 by the Chancellor’s Office. Today the center is part of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and maintains close partnerships with Special Collections and other academic units across the university.
No advance permission is required for the use of Pryor Center materials in educational settings. Educators should directly link to Pryor Center materials, rather than hosting them on other sites.
Requests for reproductions of Pryor Center images, video, audio, or transcripts should be directed to
Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History
1 East Center Street
Suite 120
Fayetteville, AR 72701-5394
(479) 575-6829
pryorctr@uark.edu
Most reproductions of library material are provided to patrons solely for the personal study or research use of the individual patron. Permission to reproduce does not constitute permission to publish. Each patron requesting a reproduction assumes full responsibility for infringement of copyright for any subsequent use exceeding fair use.
Any commercial application or other wide distribution of copyrighted material (including posting to general access websites) is generally not fair use and requires the consent of copyright holders.
To request from the University of Arkansas permission to publish images from these collections, use the Permission of Use Form.
The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at https://pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.
The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students.
The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.
