In Focus: Student Film Curators Jenna Healy and Manny Santoya

Meet The Mind of Nolan film series curators, Jenna Healy and Manny Santoya A student-curated film series, funded by the Friends of SMU Libraries and in partnership with the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection at Hamon Arts Library, continues with a screening of The Dark Knight on April 10 at the Angelika Film Center….Continue Reading In Focus: Student Film Curators Jenna Healy and Manny Santoya

SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: March 2025

Prisoners Released from San Juan de Ulua, ca. 1914, DeGolyer Library, SMU.

In March 2025, SMU Libraries uploaded 322 items into SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include: 18 programs, 1976-2007, from SMU’s annual literary festival were added to the SMU Campus Memories digital collection. These programs list a schedule of events and have short biographies of the many significant poets, novelists, and other literary figures who visited…Continue Reading SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: March 2025

SMU Literary Festival celebrates 50 years

Literary Festival 2010

  SMU’s celebration of the written word organized by students and SMU Program Council began in 1975. Former SMU English professor Jack Myers recalls the early years in his  essay, “Personal recollections of the SMU Literary Festival: 1975-1995,” which was published in From High on the Hilltop: Marshall Terry’s History of SMU. Jack Myers writes:…Continue Reading SMU Literary Festival celebrates 50 years

Jacob Lawrence and Art as Storyteller

Detail of Jacob Lawrence Migration panel 23

In 1996, SMU honored one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century, Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000), with the Algur H. Meadows for Excellence in the Arts Award. The prize and week-long campus events highlighted his prolific and extensive career as a painter, muralist and storyteller. Jacob Lawrence started his artistic career by painting a…Continue Reading Jacob Lawrence and Art as Storyteller

Setting the Stage for a John Arnone Exhibit at Hamon

Join us at the Hamon Arts Library to raise the curtain on “I AM THE SPACE WHERE I AM with John Arnone,” an exhibition celebrating the illustrious career of Tony Award Winning Set Designer and SMU alumnus, John Arnone. Offering a behind-the-scenes look at the decades of creativity sparked by Arnone where his versatile designs…Continue Reading Setting the Stage for a John Arnone Exhibit at Hamon

Picture This: How Students Helped Curate Fondren Library’s Artwork

Close up of postcard with a butterfly motif

You step out of the second-floor elevator in Fondren Library to claim a window nook. As you turn left to examine the available space, you notice large black frames hanging on the walls, outlining prints of colorful postcards. The postcards are from the George W. Cook collection in DeGolyer Library and highlight Dallas architecture and…Continue Reading Picture This: How Students Helped Curate Fondren Library’s Artwork

Wynton Marsalis: Sounding the Trumpet for the Arts

Photo of five musicians on a stage.

In our continuing series on recipients of the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts at SMU, we feel the need to laissez les bons temps rouler into Mardi Gras and post about one of New Orleans’ most famous musicians, Wynton Marsalis. Marsalis was the recipient of the Meadows Award in 1997, and…Continue Reading Wynton Marsalis: Sounding the Trumpet for the Arts

SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: February 2025

Hot Springs of Gardiner's River, Yellowstone National Park, 1876, DeGolyer Library, SMU.

In February 2025, SMU Libraries uploaded 250 items into SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include: The new Rees-Jones Collection Highlights digital collection, which includes: 5 color aquatints, 1839-1841, from Karl Bodmer’s Travels in the Interior of North America, showing landscape scenes and imagery often relating to Indigenous peoples. 3 color lithographs, 1851, by Carl Nebel…Continue Reading SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: February 2025

Love Your Libraries on SMU Giving Day

SMU Giving Day is March 11 Mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 11, when SMU Libraries will be participating in Giving Day, the University’s annual one-day giving challenge. Supporters can give to a variety of causes at the University, including the initiatives of SMU Libraries. This year, the Libraries will be promoting three initiatives: Student…Continue Reading Love Your Libraries on SMU Giving Day

Welcoming Our Newest Archivist and Cataloger

Congratulations to Christina Wood and Meg Wang! The archivist and cataloger for the Rees-Jones Library of the American West have been named. The individual who will fulfill the archivist role for the new library on the Hilltop is DeGolyer’s own Christina Wood, and Meg Wang will serve as the cataloger of the Rees-Jones Collection. Christina…Continue Reading Welcoming Our Newest Archivist and Cataloger