CUL Digital Collections Update: December 2013

In December 2013, SMU Central University Libraries (CUL) uploaded 488 items into our CONTENTdm collections. CUL now has 35,699 published items.

Highlights include:

172 non-oil related Texas negatives, ca. 1930s-1940s, by Robert Yarnall Richie as part of the TexTreasures FY2014 grant. Companies depicted include Houston Pipe Line Company, American Airlines, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Pepperrell Manurfacturing Co., and Engineering Labs Inc. Also uploaded were 25 negatives of Randolph Air Base, San Antonio, during World War II.

11 stereoviews from the New French Cook series, 1902, from the Banks McLaurin, Jr. Stereograph Collection

Camera of the Southwest, 1904, Through the Southwest along the Santa Fe, ca. 1906, The California Limited: Thirteenth Season, 1907-1908, Roads to Yesterday: Along the Indian-detour, ca. 1920, The Koshare Tours fascinating motor trips from Albuquerque to Mountains and Mesas …, ca. 1922, and They Know New Mexico, Intimate Sketches by Western Writers, 1928. These books and pamphlets, published by The Fred Harvey Co. and/or the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company, promoted tourism in the Southwest at the turn of the 20th century. Some of the items were annotated with historical context by Carrie Johnston, English PhD candidate, SMU, 2013, as part of a Digital Humanities project with Central University Libraries.

4 lithographs from the Martin Garretson Buffalo Prints, 1914, that depict the decline of the buffalo population due to hunting in the 1860s-1880s.

5-part story on torpedo boats that ran in Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal, 1884.

25 currency notes in the Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency, including treasury warrants that were issued for military and civil service. Included is a $1 treasury note from 1862 payable to Francis Richard Lubbock, governor of Texas at the time, for civil service work. This note is equivalent to $23.50 today.

Mountain Charley, or the Adventures of Mrs. E. J. Guerin, Who Was Thirteen Years in Male Attire. An Autobiography Comprising a Period of Thirteen Years Life in the States, California, and Pike’s Peak, 1861, by Elsa Jane Guerin

63 stereoviews from the Collection of Texas stereographs that show various locations in/around Texas, ca. 1880s-1930s, including Galveston (during the 1900 hurricane), San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, Brownsville, King’s Ranch, and more.

6 photographs from the Locomotive Builders’ Collection, primarily locomotives from the NE United States

185 pages from Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings, 1938, a photograph album by Octavio Medellin documenting his trip to Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, where he and studied the ancient Mayan art that greatly influenced his art work and sculpture throughout his career. The photographs in the album contain images of Medellin’s travels in Mexico, his family, the ruins at Chichén Itzá, people associated with the ancient Mayan sites, and his art and travel friends David and Kayla Slivka.