Little Rock
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city, capital of the State of Arkansas, and county-seat of sas ziver, St. Pulaski co.; on the Arkansas river, St. Southern, the nd the Rock Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, the St. Louis Southwestern and the Rock es S. W. of Island railroads; 125 miles S. W. of and jobbing s cotton-seed Memphis. It is the trade and jobbing ond sanchine center of the State; and has cotton-seed oil mills, gas works, railroad machine al College of shops, cooperage shops, etc. It is the risi Universeat of the Law and Medical College of Hols for Deaf Arkansas, Arkansas Industrial University, and the Arkansas Schools for Deaf College and Mutes and the Blind, Little Rock University, Arkansas Female College, and It contains Philander Smith College. It contains the State capitol, State Library, St. John's Military College, high schools, and convents; and has gas; electric light and street railroad plants; waterworks, many daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. The city was settled in 1814; made the capital of the territory in 1820; and was held by the Confederates during the greater part of the Civil War. Pop. (1910) 45,941; (1920) 65,142. LIU-KIU (lyö-kyö') ISLANDS, a group of 55 (mostly small) islands which form an integral part of the empire of Japan, extending at irregular intervals S. W. from Kyushu in Japan toward Formosa, and constituting the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa; length 80 miles, average breadth 12 to 15 miles; area, 1,863 square miles; pop. about 502,000. The only two islands of considerable size are Oshima and Okinawa. The people closely resemble the Japanese and are evidently of the same descent. gar is largely grown, the sago palm Sugar is cultivated, and rice, millet, cotton, tobacco, indigo and tea are raised, with a variety of fruits. The food of the people is largely sweet potatoes, fish and pork. Capital of province, Naba; pop. about 48,000. These islands were conquered by the Prince of Satsuma in 1609, and long paid him an annual tribute.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the city had just passed 65,142 people and was described as a cotton-seed oil and railroad machine-shop town; today the population is roughly 200,000, with a metropolitan area of about three-quarters of a million, and the economy runs on state government, medicine (the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) and finance rather than cooperage and jobbing. The single event that made Little Rock world-famous came in 1957, long after this entry: nine Black students were blocked from Central High School until President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort them in, and the school is now a National Historic Site. Of the colleges listed, Little Rock University became the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1969, and Philander Smith survives; Arkansas Industrial University is now simply the University of Arkansas, at Fayetteville. The Clinton Presidential Center, opened on the Arkansas riverfront in 2004, has since given the city a second national landmark.
Written for this edition, 2026.