Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Passport 16 page plus fold-out cover & ink stamp art 2011 - An ACWS Commission program to promote ArkansasŐ Civil War-related sites by encouraging visitors to travel to them and have this passport booklet, designed and illustrated by Oxley Art, stamped both in the book proper and the fold out stamping area. Once they have all 23 site stamps they would be able to detach and redeem the stamped, fold-out self mailer for a ACWS commemorative coin or patch. The booklet is full of information about the stamping sites (physical & GPS addresses, contact info, etc.), associated sites of interest in the area, Civil War historical timeline and more. Includes insights into the Civil War by accomplished Civil War historian & author Mark Christ (Department of Arkansas Heritage), whom along with Arkansas State Parks' Laura Miller (Chief of Interpretation & Cultural Resources) were the project directors.

The overall look of the booklet connotes a weathered, leather bound passport with antique paper pages. The imaging on the pages reflect the printing processes used in the latter part of the 19th century. All this was an effort to invoke emotional feel of the rough life of the Civil War participants, 150 years ago. Instead of using photos of the sites (which in some cases could not do the history of the site justice), Oxley Art proposed that each site have it's own "icon" designed. A combination of period typography and graphics, loosely based on the ACWSC's existing logographic, the icons give a dynamic quality to the site and condense the historic narrative to more easily manageable visual element for the booklet's small convenient size.

The overall layout functions on many levels. All the sites are grouped into five regions. Each region is additionally designated a standard ink pad color. Ink stamps were created by distilling the full color, site icons to a one color version and to a size that would accommodate the fold out stamping area.

The booklet's folded size is 4.25" x 5.5", and the back cover barrel-folds the open size to 16.75" x 5.5". The 16 page plus cover booklet was expertly printed and bound by The University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Printing Services using soy based ink, plus aqueous coating (cover only) on white, C1S, white, 80 pt. cover and white, uncoated, 80 lb. text.

You can follow the 5 year Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial at www.arkansascivilwar150.com or the ACWS Facebook page.