CUL Digital Collections Update: June 2017

In June 2017, SMU’s Central University Libraries uploaded 631 items into CUL Digital Collections.

Highlights include:

150 real photographic postcards, ca. 1900-1920, 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 Jackson Elvis “Jack” Hendricks’s photographs showing repairs underway on the M.K.&T line near Denison after a 1908 flood and Marcus Black’s photograph of Texas’s first college for African-American women, the Mary Allen Seminary. Also included are photographs by Walter H. Horne, Frank T. Jones, John Bethel Lasater, Karl Sloan Swafford, and many others. These images capture scenes from early 20th century Texas spanning the state from the beaches of Aransas Pass to the plains of Amarillo. Typical scenes are views of daily life and street views of cities showing homes, courthouses, churches, saloons, schools, railroad depots, and more. Outdoor scenes show city parks, caves, rivers, lakes, and bridges.

Other notable scenes include the 13th Cavalry on parade in El Paso, a street view of Electra showing the Texas Company Building prior to the company’s name change to Texaco Inc., and historic buildings such as the Paso Del Norte building, the Princess Louise Hotel, and the courthouses of Matagorda and Nueces counties. Two unique items are Wheat Harvest Time showing a crowd of men, horses, and wagons gathered on the main street of Canadian, Texas; and of historical significance is First Court, Colorado County, Republic [of] Texas, 1837, picturing the large oak tree used as the first courthouse west of the Brazos River.

Towns and cities depicted in this month’s upload of postcards include Abilene, Albany, Alvarado, Alvin, Amarillo, Anna, Atlanta, Aransas Pass, Arlington, Austin, Bartlett, Bastrop, Beeville, Bellville, Bend, Big Creek, Big Springs/Big Spring, Blessing, Blooming Grove, Bloomington, Bracketville, Brady, Brenham, Briggs, Brownwood, Burnet, Byers, Cameron, Canadian, Carmine, Carrollton, Celeste, Christine, Cisco, Clifton, Coleman, Colorado, Columbus, Comfort, Como, Conway, Copperas Cove, Corpus Christi, Crockett, Crowley, Cuero, Dalhart, Dayton, Del Rio, Denison, Eagle Lake, Edna, El Campo, Electra, Elgin, Eliasville, El Paso, Farmersville, Ferris, Fluvanna, Follett, and Hillsboro.

6 prints, including four by Mary Elizabeth Beasley Nye and two by William Elliot, ca. 1930s-1940s. Included among the prints are a self-portrait of Nye and images of various buildings, Cripple Creek, Colorado, and an African-American man.

11 photographs, ca. 1880-1925, featuring images of locomotives, railroad workers, and other scenes relating to the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Noteworthy photographs include an image of a Union Pacific locomotive on the Devil’s Gate Bridge in Georgetown, Colorado, and a baggage car that was destroyed during a robbery.

142 works on paper by Jerry Bywaters, featuring sketches, watercolors, painting studies, and relief prints of various locations, objects, and people throughout Texas and the greater Southwest. Of particular interest are poster designs, two of which feature Davy Crockett, which Bywaters created for the Texas Centennial celebration in 1936. Also featured are a number of sketches and studies Bywaters created in preparation for finished paintings, including sketches created while designing “Loading Cotton,” a mural which was painted for the Houston Parcel Post Building.

Seven mugshots of the gangster Machine Gun Kelly and his gang of associates, taken in Oklahoma City after the group was arrested for the kidnapping of the oilman Charles F. Urschel in 1933. Included in this group is Machine Gun Kelly’s wife, Kathryn and her mother, Ora Shannon.

315 images attributed to Captain Harry A. Erickson from the Early Aviation and Northrop Aircraft Corporation Albums, featuring images of early planes, aviation pioneers, and the early days of the United States Signal Corps Aviation School. Notable images include photographs of Julia Clark and Katherine Stinson, two of the earliest female pilots. Other pilots shown in the album are Lincoln Beachey, Walter Taliaferro, Farnum Fish, Theodore Ellyson, Glenn Curtiss, Doc Wildman, Archibald Hoxsey (including images of his fatal final flight), Art Smith, and many others. Also featured in this album are early versions of floatplanes and seaplanes, including images of some of the first ever flights off of water, taken at North Island, San Diego, California.