A photograph long described as one of the earliest ever made in Arkansas may not have been taken in Arkansas at all.
The image shows a collection of log buildings, fences, and cleared ground beneath wooded hills. A large leafless tree stands in the foreground. The photograph is preserved in an elaborate gold-colored mat and case.
It has been identified as the original Dwight Mission near Russellville, Arkansas, supposedly photographed around 1845 by the painter and early photographer John Mix Stanley.
That identification would make the image historically significant. Photography had reached Arkansas only a few years earlier, and an outdoor view from 1845 would be exceptionally early…