News from the DeGolyer Library March 2022

“Black Lives, Black Letters: Primary Sources in African American History and Literature” highlights the range of DeGolyer Library’s holdings in this area, featuring rare books, pamphlets, broadsides, sheet music, prints, photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera documenting aspects of the Black experience in America, from the colonial period to the present. Well known figures, from Phillis Wheatley to Toni Morrison, from Frederick Douglass to Barack Obama, are represented. But more often than not, our sources are drawn from much less familiar, sometimes anonymous, figures from the past, in literature, education, politics, religion, business, sports, the performing arts, domestic life, and popular culture.

If you missed last fall’s exhibit Engaged with Books: Photographs Over Time you can now visit the virtual exhibit to view images that were on display in Fondren Library’s Hillcrest Foundation Exhibit Hall. The exhibit celebrates reading and the written word by showcasing photographs of people holding books and other reading material.

To mark International Women’s Day, Samantha Dodd, in her latest blog post, highlighted the National Women’s Conference of 1977, as documented across the Archives of Women of the Southwest. The conference was the largest political women’s conference since Seneca Falls, and focused on issues like the ERA, child care, sexual violence, and reproductive rights. The Archives of Women of the Southwest holds conference programs, promotional material, photographs, correspondence, and more. Click here to read International Women’s Day.

Author, photographer, and friend of the library Melvin Shaffer passed away last year, shortly after publishing his memoir From Anderson’s Holler…

Through his travels, Melvin made friends around the world. Bachir Zemmiri, a physicist in the United Kingdom recently reached out to share his memories. Melvin had visited Bachir’s home town of Bou Saada in Algeria, and Bachir stayed with Melvin and his family in Arizona, during which time the two friends (pictured together in Navaho Nation) explored the southwest. Melvin’s lasting legacy lives on through his friends and family, and we’re fortunate to play a role in preserving his memory.

Linden Hill, a PhD candidate from Stanford University, spent the week of March 14 researching the 1957 Neiman Marcus Fashion Exposition at which Coco Chanel was the sole recipient, as well as the first Fortnight. She additionally reviewed the other French Fortnights of 1972, 1977, and 1985 in the Stanley Marcus Papers. Hill was a recipient of a Clements Center/DeGolyer Library travel grant.

In her latest blog post, Texas Instruments curator Ada Negraru looked at a number of women who worked at TI in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. At a time when TI was using the popular image of the housewife to market products, it was also employing thousands of women across its organization. To learn more about these women, check out Defeating the Stereotype.

The Balsas Valley Company was an American mining company in the state of Guerrero, Mexico during the twentieth century. These records provide a history of an American mining company in Mexico during various political upheavals. In 1961 the Mexican mining industry was nationalized, and in the 1970s foreign mining companies faced even tougher restrictions. This collection includes business records, correspondence, maps, and photographs.

Recently Accessioned

A2022.0001X – Marian Henley papers

A2022.0002 – Ralston family diaries

A2022.0003c -Wells Fargo & Company Express route agent’s record of employees : manuscript

A2022.0004c – Earnest H. McCallum collection of National Bank of Garland documents

A2022.0005c – Maternal side of the family : Sullivan : printout copy

Not all doctors have illegible handwriting! This is a page from our collection of Peruvian hospital documents, written between 1656 and 1826. The collection includes an election tally gathered at a hospital for Afro-Peruvians, a writ filed against the superintendent of a hospital in 1789, financial records, general charges, and a request for a pension filed by a lieutenant who fought for Peruvian independence. Click here to view the catalog record.

The Ralston family diaries collection was recently acquired by the Archives of Women of the Southwest. The collection includes photographs, a family history, and diaries by multiple members, with the majority written by Marilyn Ralson Enzler. Marilyn was born in 1927 and documents her childhood in Dallas, her time studying at Highland Park school and the University of Texas at Austin, and her marriage and life as a working mother. Click here to view the catalog record.

Many photographs of African Americans have been recently scanned for the current related exhibit, “Black Lives, Black Letters: Primary Sources in African American History and Literature,” that highlights the range of DeGolyer Library’s holdings in this area, featuring rare books, pamphlets, broadsides, sheet music, prints, photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera. Images uploaded to the digital library this month included a portrait of Booker T. Washington, a family posed for a photograph, and an image of Apostle Paul Sykes, an Oklahoma preacher. Click here to view more images.