Arkansas/Arkansaw is opening at the Old State House Museum.

The Old State House Museum's exhibit, Arkansas/Arkansaw: A State and Its Reputation, sheds light on the evolution of Arkansas’s hillbilly image. The exhibit reveals the early development of a dual image, with Arkansawyers being portrayed as coarse, illiterate, and violent backwoodsmen on one hand, while also lifted up as noble frontiersmen -- independent, honest and humble.

Brooks Blevins, curator of the exhibit, is professor of Ozark studies at Missouri State University. He is the author of Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies and Good Ol’ Boys Defined a State and Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image, published by the University of Arkansas Press ($29.95).

The exhibit opens today (April 2) and continues through March 4, 2012. Admission is free. Blevins' book is available in the museum's gift shop.