CUL Digital Collections Update: January 2017

In January 2017, SMU’s Central University Libraries uploaded 383 items into CUL Digital Collections.

Highlights include:

155 items from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection as part of the TexTreasures FY2017 grant program, sponsored by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Highlights include tickets and passes to the State Fair of Texas, ca. 1903-1934. Also uploaded are trade cards from various Dallas businesses, ca. 1876-1904, as well as a court summons, a lodge summons, certificates of registry for sheep and horses, a Texas Electric Railway commuter book, business receipts, and two copies of History of Garrett, Texas, the Early Years (1871-1894).

One unique item is a brochure from the S. S. Miramar Rental Library. After an act of vandalism to her home in late 1942, Cosette Faust Newton opened the S. S. Miramar Library in Oak Lawn and operated it until 1948. Faust Newton was an SMU English professor (ca. 1917-1919) who arrived on campus as the only woman with a Ph.D. (from Harvard) at a time when there were only five male faculty members with doctorates. She married the newly hired SMU physician, Frank Newton. In 1918, she purchased property at 4005 Miramar in Highland Park and then had an ongoing battle with the city and her neighbors over her erection of a mock yacht (the U. S. Miramar) in her backyard.

Several photographs were taken in Houston Heights, Houston, Texas. Per the Texas State Historical Association handbook, Houston Heights, one of the first planned communities in Texas, was divided into residential and industrial sections. Several of the Houston Heights photographs include images from the Houston Heights Natatorium, illustrating bathing costumes from this era. The majority of items are portrait photographs that document men, women, and children posing in various locations throughout the city of Houston.

21 videos from WFAA Newsfilm, 1960-1978. The videos contain news clips and a- and b-roll footage from the Dallas ABC Television station covering November 1971. One interesting segment from the November 15, 1971 video [10:56] reveals that in 1971 it was against the law for a woman hairdresser to cut a man’s hair in a beauty salon for a fee. It could only be performed at no charge, usually for a friend. However, a barber had no such restrictions should a woman walk into his barber shop for a haircut. If a man preferred going to a beauty shop where hairdressers had more expertise in styling the longer male hairstyles of the 1970s, he could not pay for those services. The female hairdresser being interviewed pointed out that a hairdresser’s license required 1,500 hours of training, while a barber’s license only required about 1,200 hours.

11 issues of the SMU News Digest, 1949-1951, a publication created by Southern Methodist University’s Office of Information and University Publications for “Friends of SMU” from 1938 to 1954. The digest was a free publication available by subscription originally targeted to parents of SMU students, but it later evolved into an occasional newsletter touting SMU’s successes.

16 Texas railroad negatives from the Everett L. DeGolyer Jr. Collection of United States Railroad Photographs. Highlights include railroad stations for the Texas and Pacific Railway.

9 letters from the Stanley Marcus Papers. These letters, primarily written by Stanley Marcus, relate to the visit of Coco Chanel to Dallas for the Neiman Marcus 50^th Anniversary celebration and her selection for the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion.

150 images from Octavio Medellin Art Work and Papers, including photographs of artwork by Medellin School of Sculpture students, DMFA school students, apprentices David Hickman and Tomas Bustos, and a Medellin School of Sculpture Art Show from 1980. For his glass works, Mr. Hickman used Mr. Medellin’s stained glass formulas and kiln. Pieces by Medellin that are new to the digital collection are The Torso of Christ; a plaster maquette for a proposed North Lake College sculpture that was never made; a blue granite relief sculpture called Repose; and a photograph of Octavio Medellin with his wood carving, El Ahorcado (The Hanged One), at the opening reception for the Latin American Spirit Exhibition, in El Paso, Texas.

20 engineering drawings from the Collection of Baldwin Locomotive Works records. These erecting card and detail drawings of steam locomotives were created for or purchased by a variety of railroad companies and/or individuals.