SMU Digital Collections Update: May 2019

In May 2019, SMU Libraries uploaded 279 items into SMU Libraries Digital Collections.

Highlights include:

82 national bank notes, ca. 1884-1929, added to the Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency as part of the TexTreasures FY2019 grant program, sponsored by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

National Bank Notes in this set originate from banks  throughout Texas, including Lampasas, Laredo, McKinney, Midlothian, and Mount Pleasant, among others. Unusual notes in this set include a note from Midland that contains additional imprints on the bottom edge of the note’s recto and verso and a note from Marshall that shows an alternative imprint from the Bureau of Engraving & Printing in the upper left corner of the recto.

12 design sketches, ca. 1957-1958, for the Stations of the Cross Mosaic Mural at Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church, in Dallas, Texas. Eight of the sketches are done in graphite pencil, and depict all fourteen of the Stations of the Cross, while four of the sketches are done in colored pencil, and depict the finalized versions of the first seven Stations of the Cross.

89 Engine Drawing cards, 1908-1937, from the Baldwin Locomotive Works Records collection (Series 7: Data books). Per the collection finding aid, “In 1910, Baldwin began keeping engine drawing data on large cards. Records of locomotives after 1903 were transferred to the cards and continued from that point. The cards are arranged by BLW class numbers and include primarily dimensions of various parts of the locomotive.”

10 drawings, 1905-1920, from the Collection of Baldwin Locomotive Works, including erecting card drawings for several railroads and companies, e.g., Tuscarora Valley, Texas Oklahoma & Eastern, and Polson Logging, as well as a detail drawing for a tender truck for Mexican Southern Railway.

21 builder’s cards, ca. 1860-1945, from the Baldwin Locomotive Works Builder’s Cards, including images and specifications for Great Northern Railway, Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company, and several lumber companies.

39 photographs from the John C. Cox Jr. World War II Papers, depicting the Leyte Island U.S. Army campaign in the Philippines, which took place in late 1944. Of particular interest among these items is a photograph of General MacArthur conducting an inspection on Leyte.

26 postcards from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, featuring courthouse buildings from around the state, taken between the 1890s and 1950s.

Bridwell Library exhibits:

Twentieth-century printers and artists developed aesthetic principles that articulated the power of the book to influence the reader’s experience of a text. They endeavored not simply to copy or illustrate Scripture but to embody it in a meaningful form. Whether austere or exuberant in design, these books were conceived to give countenance to the spirit within. On view now in the Prothro Galleries in Bridwell Library, The Word Embodied: Scripture as Creative Inspiration in Twentieth-Century Book Arts.

The Chautauqua Institution began in August 1874 as an experimental Sunday School teachers’ training assembly held at Chautauqua Lake in western New York. By 1900 Chautauqua had grown to become a popular summer destination, an influential adult education organization, and an international movement blending education, religion, the arts, and recreation. Today the Chautauqua Institution continues to foster the pursuit of knowledge and serves as a national forum for discussion of public issues. On view online: Bygone Summers: Images of Chautauqua from the John H. Vincent Papers