About Us
Photo Exhibit Features the Cotton Belt
(Posted: February 22, 2002) (Printable Version)
"Down Along the Cotton Belt, St. Louis to Tyler, Texas," the first exhibit to hang in the new campus center at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, is a collection of 44 black-and-white photographs by J.P. Bell of Fort Smith.
The exhibit, on display through April 2, documents life and railroading along the former Cotton Belt line, now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. This series of prints traces in a geographical narrative the Cotton Belt Railroad across the heart of the State of Arkansas from Paragould to Pine Bluff to Texarkana.
A star of this photographic essay is the restored steam engine, No. 819, which Bell said was originally built in the Cotton Belt shops in Pine Bluff in the late 1940s.
"After setting dormant in a Pine Bluff city park, the locomotive was pulled back into the shops of its birthplace in the early 1980s and restored to mainline running condition," he said. "The renovated No. 819 powered a number of excursions to Tyler, Texas, and one trip to St. Louis in the early 1990s."
Bell’s photographs show the people, architecture and landscape which form the backdrop for the drama of steam railroading along the old Cotton Belt mainline. This series of photographs was originally done as a photo essay for "Trains" magazine. Printed portions of the manuscript throughout the exhibit give explanation to the pictures in the show.
"My love of railroads and railroad history came about from a move to Northern California at the age of 10 when we rode the Sante Fe railroad to San Francisco," Bell said. "I was at an impressionable age and became fascinated with railroading."
Bell, a native of Fort Smith and a graduate of Northside High School, is an emergency room physician at Sparks Regional Medical Center. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he studied zoology and then received his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. He and his wife also spent two years working on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.
Bell returned to his hometown in 1982. He maintains an active traditional black-and-white darkroom and prints color photography by computer manipulation. His work has appeared in "Railfan and Railroad," "Locomotive and Railway Preservation," "River," and "Active Years" magazine. Further information on his work is available at www.jpbellphotography.com.
The exhibit area, located on the west end of the first floor of the campus center at UA Fort Smith, encompasses wall space outside the ballroom. Exhibit hours are 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Additional exhibit information is available by calling 788-7300.
| Article by: Sondra LaMar, Director of Public Information | |
| Photo(s) by: J.P. Bell, James P. Bell Photography |
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