The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott, Arkansas

In one little town on the Arkansas Delta, Ernest Hemingway penned pages of his major work, A Farewell To Arms, at the family home of his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer. Today students can explore the home & writing studio while learning about life in 1930s Arkansas.

The Pfeiffer family moved to Piggott in 1913, shortly after Pauline graduated high school. She met her future husband, Hemingway while working as an editor for Vouge Paris. They later married. Pauline’s family were prominent in Northeast Arkansas and owned more than 60,000 acres of land. During the 1930s they converted their barn into a studio to give Hemingway privacy for writing during their visits to Piggott. Portions of one of his most famous novels, A Farewell to Arms, and several short stories were written in this studio. Both the home and the barn studio were named to the National Historic Register in 1982. Visitors can explore the full home & barn and learn about Hemingway’s writing, travel, and influences, as well as the Pfeiffer family’s influence in their Arkansas community and lasting impact.

Student Exploration

Students visiting the museum can take a guided tour of both Hemingway’s studio & the Pheiffer home. Exploring the barn shows the area where Hemingway wrote sections of his novels as well as short stories. His short story collection, The Green Hills of Africa, was inspired by a trip to the continent while married to Pauline. Her uncle financed an African expedition for the couple to inspire Hemingway’s writing. The couple kept diaries of the experiences, and students can read sections from while viewing a timeline exhibit highlighting key points during their trip. The Pfeiffer house is filled with authentic furniture, photographs, books, quilts, and other items from the time period. The tour highlights the architecture and design of the home, information about some of the collected pieces (like a grand piano in the entry room and a large collection of hand-made quilts), and history of the Pfeiffer family and other Piggott residents who were living through the Great Depression era in Arkansas.

Curriculum Guide

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center offers educational programming to all ages! They offer focused tours on a variety of topics including

  • The life and writing of Ernest Hemingway.

  • The agricultural history of the Arkansas Delta region.

  • The history and lifestyle of the 1920s-1930s.

  • The Great Depression and New Deal.

  • The internationally prominent Pfeiffer family.

There is also a downloadable curriculum guide, tying together learning topics from U.S. & Arkansas History, Economics, & Geography. Learn more and download the curriculum here: https://hemingway.astate.edu/sample-curriculum-outlines/

Grant Funds Available

K-12 teachers, did you know there is grant funding available for field trips to historic Arkansas sites? The Arkansas Humanities Council provides Arkansas teachers funding for a variety of educational programs like field trips & class experiences! Learn more about AHC grants here: https://arkansashumanitiescouncil.org/grant-guidelines/grant-descriptions/

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Terra Aquia
Program Coordinator
Terra Aquia
Program Coordinator

Terra Aquia is the K12 Programs Coordinator at the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics at the University of Central Arkansas. She received her B.A. in History in 2016 and a Master of Arts in Teaching in 2022. In her role, she works with a variety of scholars to create interdisciplinary social studies educational content for K- 12 teachers & students in Arkansas. Her research focuses on best practices for interdisciplinary teaching and active-learning pedagogy.

Program Coordinator
Arkansas HistoryGuest User