News from the DeGolyer Library September 2022

The Joy of Cooking: Two Centuries of Cookbooks at the DeGolyer Library highlights the vast collection of cookbooks preserved in our library. These cookbooks are a storehouse of recipes, as well as a sign of technological, sociological, cultural, and economic change over time. From handwritten recipe collections and household guides of the 19^th century, to ‘reducing’ cookbooks of the 1920s and the rationing cookbooks of World War II, this exhibit will chart changing attitudes and approaches to homecooked meals. The Joy of Cooking exhibit will also examine food communities in America, including Jewish cuisine, African American foodways, and church and community cookbooks. If we are what we eat, cookbooks can tell us much about our character in the past.

“Send Me a Postcard! Women on the Road across 19th-20th Century America” highlights women’s voices and their stories across America’s roadways. This exhibition examines the experiences of women travelers. From a group of college students on a summer road trip, to an anthropologist documenting the American Southwest, from trips to National Parks, to diners and dives, these manuscripts and narratives are full of memories and adventures and represent a variety of perspectives. “Send Me a Postcard” features materials from the DeGolyer Library’s holdings of rare books, pamphlets, ephemera, and manuscripts, including the Archives of Women of the Southwest.

On display outside of Hillcrest Hall: Ribbons, Races, and Research: Forty Years of the Susan G. Komen Foundation 1982-2022. View materials from the Komen archives housed in the Archives of Women of the Southwest and learn how one sister’s promise launched a movement. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. It is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.

Published earlier this month, the book Burl: Journalism Giant and Medical Trailblazer by Jane Wolfe documents the life and career of Burl Osborne (1937-2012). Osborne was a journalist, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, director of the A.H. Belo Corporation, and served as chairman of the Associated Press. During Osborne’s leadership, The Dallas Morning News modernized its content and format, doubled its readership, and saw its reporters win six Pulitzer Prize awards. In addition to being an accomplished journalist and publisher, Osborne was also a kidney transplant pioneer. Diagnosed with nephritis in childhood, he received a kidney donated by his mother Juanita in 1966, at a time when the procedure was still experimental and extremely risky. Almost three decades later, Osborne went through a second transplant surgery, receiving a kidney and bone marrow from his brother David.

In the process of researching and writing Osborne’s biography, author Jane Wolfe consulted the Belo Corp. records at the DeGolyer Library several times in 2018 and 2019 and then remotely during the pandemic. Materials such as correspondence, oral history interviews, photographs and artifacts offered valuable insight into Osborne’s life and career. At Wolfe’s invitation, librarian Ada Negraru attended the book signing at Interabang Books on September 8.

A biographical entry for Burl Osborne in the online Handbook of Texas can be found here: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/osborne-burl

Our latest exhibit, The Joy of Cooking, was featured in Texas Monthly! DeGolyer Director Russell L. Martin III and exhibit curator Christina Jensen spoke with Mary Beth Gahan about the DeGolyer’s expansive cookbook collection of more than 6000 titles, the history of Texas cookbooks from Texas Cook Book (1883) to Lucille’s Treasure Chest of Fine Foods (1960), and the process behind choosing and curating items for an exhibit.

J. A. Majors started selling medical books to rural doctors while attending medical school in Nashville in 1898. J.A. Majors Company grew with the expansion of medical and nursing schools until it had six warehouses and six bookstores. The wholesale business was sold to Baker & Taylor in 2004. The retail stores were closed over a period of years until the last one in Dallas was sold to Matthews of St. Louis in 2010. The collection contains publisher contracts and correspondence, employee correspondence and training materials, customer contracts and correspondence, photographs, property leases, financial records, and legal documents.

Adlene Harrison was an American politician who served on the Dallas City Council, and was the first acting female mayor of Dallas in 1976. She was elected three times to the Dallas City Council between 1973 and 1977. Her career also included working as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency from 1977-1981. During her time in office Harrison worked on environmental issues as well as public transportation in Dallas. She was a key figure in the development of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system and served as the first chairman of the board. Her papers comprise both personal and political papers and include: correspondence, printed materials, speeches, scrapbooks, ephemera, photographs, and audiovisual materials.

Natalie Ornish was a Texas historian, author, filmmaker, composer and playwright. Her most notable works includes Ehrenberg: Goliad Survivor Old West Explorer (the first biography of Herman Ehrenberg), “Texans All,” and Pioneer Jewish Texans (the first comprehensive history of Jewish people in Texas from the conquistadors to modern times). Her papers comprise research files, drafts and manuscript materials, scripts, correspondence, audiovisual and film, sheet music, and photographs.

Recently Accessioned

A2022.0039c – Arthur Everett Rector correspondence

A2022.0040c – Jody Morgan papers

A2022.0041c – Roy W. Cook letter to his grandparents

A2022.0042c – Collection of Helena, Texas receipts

A2022.0043c – Tony Pederson’s copy of The American Mercury signed by H.L. Mencken

A2022.0044x – Minnesota and Missouri River Railroad minutes

A2022.0045x – Marion Severance scrapbooks

A2022.0046c – Texas books compiled by Harriet Smither, 1931