In September 2023, SMU Libraries uploaded and/or updated 188 items in SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include:
61 manuscripts, documents, and imprints, 1857-1954, comprising 1,893 pages have been uploaded to the Texas: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints digital collection. The items include minutes from church meetings, school guidelines and premium lists from fairs in the state, as well as W.E. B. DuBois’ What the Negro has done for the United States and Texas (1936), A history, State Fair of Texas, 1886-1904 and the Texas Republican Party letterbook regarding the 1904 election. 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-253655-OLS-23).
40 letters, documents, and photographs, 1957-2000, from the Stanley Marcus Papers. Highlights include three color photographs of noted photographer David Douglas Duncan. (Note: some items are restricted to on-campus viewing due to potential copyright restrictions.)
3 interviews have been added to the Southern Methodist University Oral History Interviews and Digital Humanities Student Project digital collection. These interviews, with Nadia Armstrong, Jonathan Angulo, and Elizabeth Sankarsingh, are part of the Voices of SMU project.
20 photographs, ca. 1880s-1900s, by various creators, from the [Collection of Texas people and portraits]. Subjects include several Texas legislators, a group photograph of the Dallas Pierian Club, and a collage of portraits of Judge “Tex” Cooper, a Western actor who was in the Gene Autrey Show and more than 200 films.
15 photographs, ca. 1880-1898, from the Collection of Texas Photographs showing various scenes around Texas near the turn of the 19th century. Historic buildings depicted include the Blinn Memorial College, the J.A. Ranch Headquarters, Rusk College, and a half-dugout home of an average family. Towns with street and birds’ eye views include Fort Stockton, Odell, Hillsboro, and San Marcos. Other events photographed include group photos for a school carnival in Saint Jo, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas landing near the San Jacinto Battleground, a Pleasant Hill School class photo, the oldest known photograph of a Texas gun club, and scenes of civil defense drilling or training.
21 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 Vincente Minnelli, Charles Bennett (screenwriter), Signe Hasso, Jan Clayton, and George Sidney.
6 photographs, 1949-1965, by various creators, from the Heritage Hall Collection of Southern Methodist University Athletics showing scenes from SMU football and basketball games.
4 diaries, 1952-1955, from the Sir Ellice Victor Sassoon Papers and Photographs collection.
13 drawings, 1942-1949, from the Jan Kirsten Papers and Collection of Locomotive Drawings, showing erecting card elevations, piping arrangements, tank elevations, hopper car diagrams and more for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company and the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co.
1 drawing, 1901, from the Collection of Baldwin Locomotive Works Records. This erecting card drawing was made for the Honolulu Plantation Company’s Pu’uloa Locomotive.
3 railroad photographs, ca. 1917-1955, by Douglas Wornom, from the Everett L. DeGolyer Jr. Collection of United States Railroad Photographs. Two of the items depict the “Texas Special” train.