For Constance and Ada: Snail Methods of Queer Archival Praxis

Legacies & Lunch June 2025

Constance Mitchell and Ada Jane Harvey, life partners and pioneering educators at the University of Central Arkansas, left behind an archival legacy of queer companionship, intellectual leadership, and student activism during the interwar years.

Constance Mitchell (1888-1976) taught English and library science courses at Arkansas State Normal School (now the University of Central Arkansas) for over three decades. Her partner Dr. Ada Jane Harvey (1890-1980) taught French, Spanish, German, and Latin, creating immersive learning experiences for students. Described as “constant companions,” the two co-owned a car named Nicolette and a house, where they resided together for over fifty years. While memory of their impact on campus has been largely erased over time, they were architects of women-centered learning communities at our institution as its first archivist-librarian (Constance), first professor of world languages (Ada), and sponsors of student enrichment organizations, including the women’s Hiking Club, women’s basketball team, French Club, and Spanish Circle. Seizing upon The Scroll, the student-authored yearbook, as a primary bibliographic source, we reach back across a century to recover the history of our foremothers’ challenges, accomplishments, lives, and love during the interwar period (1919-1939). We theorize this work as “snail methods” to archival praxis. Operating from a precarious geopolitical position as queer women in Arkansas, we identify traces of our community’s shine in archival residue that might appear sheer to others–student voices in oral history, queerly coded literary references, yearbook photo captions only legible with the aid of magnifying glasses, comically bad poetry, and cheeky homosocial group portraits in scrapbook collages.

Phoenix Smithey is the first woman-identified Head of Special Collections and University Archivist at UCA since Constance Mitchell. Dr. Adele Okoli is Associate Professor of French and Academic Coordinator of the Living Learning Community in EDGE (Exploration, Discovery, and Global Engagement) at UCA. 

Legacies & Lunch is a hybrid program offering participants the opportunity to attend either in person or virtually via Zoom. To participate in person, join us at - NEW LOCATION - UA Little Rock Downtown (333 President Clinton Ave). Parking is available in the surface lot or the CALS Parking Deck which you can access from Rock Street. Parking will be validated. Bring your lunch; we will provide drinks and cookies. To participate virtually, register for the webinar using the button above. This program will be live-streamed to YouTube and the recording will be available immediately following the event.

Legacies & Lunch is a free monthly program of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies about Arkansas-related topics.

Past Legacies & Lunch Events