WALNUT RIDGE — Grant Smith, a senior history major at Williams Baptist College, spent his summer vacation reading through hundreds of Lawrence County World War II records. Smith volunteered as a summer intern at the Wings of Honor Museum in Walnut Ridge, where he worked with original documents from the 1940s and contributed to future exhibits for the World War II museum, as well as its website.
Smith also gained valuable experience in the behind-the-scenes work of local museums.
“I have really enjoyed my time at the Wings of Honor Museum, and I plan to continue volunteering throughout this fall semester,” Smith said.
The WBC senior and Walnut Ridge native, who plans to teach social studies at an Arkansas high school after graduation, helped catalogue and digitize the museum’s primary sources from the war years in Arkansas.
Smith’s internship marks a continued partnership between the WBC History Department and the Wings of Honor Museum. Beginning in 2010, Daniel Spillman of the Williams history faculty and Harold Johnson, head of the museum’s board of directors, have found creative opportunities for collaboration between WBC history students and the museum.
Since then, Williams students have researched and created numerous temporary exhibits at the museum.
This fall, more than 20 undergraduates in Spillman’s Arkansas history class are assisting with various museum projects.