Fort Smith Museum of History

Fort Smith Museum of History strives to preserve approximately 40,000 artifacts chronicling the city’s history as well as care for the 1907 Atkinson-Williams Warehouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which houses the museum. 

Permanent exhibits include the first-floor timeline that carries the visitor through growth and development of the city that grew around the 1817 military fort.  The William O. Darby Memorial Room tells the story of the founder of Darby’s Rangers in World War II, today’s Army Rangers. William Orlando Darby was born in Fort Smith in 1910, graduated from Fort Smith High School and attended West Point. 

The Boyd Gallery offers temporary exhibitions utilizing the museum’s vast artifact collection, as well as traveling exhibitions. 

The second floor offers furnishings from the court of Judge Isaac C. Parker; an exhibit on the history of the building, Progress in a Small Frontier Town; an excellent collection of 19th century woodworking tools; On the Air, an interactive display depicting the region’s broadcast history; and an exhibit on African-American history in Fort Smith.