SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: April 2023

In April 2023, SMU Libraries uploaded and/or updated 367 items in SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include:

211 postcards, ca. 1905-1950,  from the John Miller Morris Real Photographic Postcards and Photographs of Texas collection. This project was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and Texas State Library and Archives Commission (Grant Number LS-252486-OLS-22). (2023). These photographs, which were taken throughout Texas, feature images from Bailey, Brown, Cameron, Cochran, Crosby, Fisher, Floyd, Hale, Hemphill, Hidalgo, Hockley, Howard, Lamb, Lipscomb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley, Roberts, Terry, Wichita, Willacy, Williamson, and Yoakum Counties. Items include scenes of towns, construction, crashes and disasters. Examples include a picture of a head-on train crash, people posing with train wreckage, an oil storage tank that had been struck be lightning, and a portrait of General Blanco with three Colonels.

Metadata for the WFAA newsfilm videos from May 1971 has been updated and enhanced with annotations that were researched and written by staff at the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection. The annotations provide detailed descriptions of each shot based on time-code, making the newsfilms easy to search and retrieve, as well as providing information on the people, places, and events that are depicted.

8 drawings, ca. 1900, from the Collection of Baldwin Locomotive Works Records. These erecting and detail card drawings for the Royal Bavarian State Railways including locomotives, tenders, name plates, and driving wheel covers, as well as a drawing for a Mammoth Cave Railroad locomotive.

2 manuscripts, 1767, by Francesco Clavigero (1731-1787). One manuscript is the original 1767 Spanish draft of volume IV of Clavigero’s Storia antica del Messico. This 165-page draft is entitled “Dissertaciones concernientes a la historia antigua de Mexico en que se ilustran y confirman los principales puntos de ella.” The second manuscript is a 17-page draft entitled “Relacion de los Sucesos de la provincia de Mexico desde el dia 25 de Junio de 1767.” This draft describes Clavigero’s expulsion as a Jesuit from Mexico and his journey to Italy.

20 oral history transcript excerpts, 1970s, from the Ronald L. Davis Oral History Collection. The interviewees are from all branches of the performing arts, but the emphasis is on motion pictures and popular music. Many interviewees give detailed accounts of personal experience and reflections from their professional career. Highlights include excerpts from interviews with Will Geer, Kim Hunter, Lillian Gish, Viveca Lindfors, and Hank Snow.

10 interviews have been added to the Southern Methodist University Oral History Interviews and Digital Humanities Student Projects collection. These interviews, with Aneshia Campbell, John Chávez, Emily Graham, Jrnie Jade Lara, Harvey Luna, Elena Miranda, Seify Mohammad, Richard Neal, Amrita Vir, and Joe Watkins are part of the Voices of SMU project.

1 scrapbook and 3 pamphlets, 1917-1939. The scrapbook is entitled the [William Hoblitzell Barton World War I Scrapbook: Typescript]. The three .pdfs are pasted in the scrapbook, and presented separately as well. William Hoblitzell Barton (1894-1961) served during World War I in the Army 36th Infantry Division, Company C, 133rd machine gun battalion. His scrapbook contains a 1918 roster of his battalion; 12 typescript pages describing training in Texas and his service in Europe; photographs with typescript captions; military pamphlets, orders, letters, military ribbons and buttons, and newsletters. More than half of the scrapbook contains postcards of France.

30 real photographic post cards, ca. 1904-1950, from [Texas Oil Production]. These RPPCs document the development of the petroleum industry in Texas during the first half of the 20^th century. Towns and areas in Texas depicted include Brazoria County, Gregg County, Burkburnett, Borger, Desdemona, Dublin, Electra, Kilgore, and Midland. A photograph of an oil derrick in Wewoka, Seminole County, Oklahoma is also included. Many photographs show spectacular oil field fires that captivated the interest of and endangered local populations. Other photographs show oil field workers, scenes from oil field towns, oil company employee lodging, and landscapes full of rigs, storage tanks, and other equipment.

63 unmounted stereographs from the Civil War were added to the Jack and Beverly Wilgus History of Photography Collection. Highlights include a photograph of soldiers and their captain posing with a large gun on the deck of the U.S.S. Philadelphia.

Three photographsm, ca. 1865-1885, by Alfred St. Ange Briquet, two taken in Mexico and one taken in France, from the [Collection of Alfred Briquet views of Mexico, France and the Caribbean] were added to the Mexico: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints and Europe, Asia, and Australia: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints collections, respectively.