SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: February 2024

In February 2024, SMU Libraries uploaded and/or updated 250 items in SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include:

[Portrait of a Girl], ca. 1840s-1850s, DeGolyer Library, SMU.

8 photographs, ca. 1840-1930, from Portraits and People of Mexico. Subjects include members of the Special Mexican Claims Committee and President Emilio Portes Gil’s inauguration of the Statistics Congress in 1930.

48 negatives, ca. 1952-1959, from the Richard Steinheimer Photograph Collection. Subjects include 3-ft-gauge rails over Cumbres Pass, as well as portraits of Robert Hale and Richard Steinheimer.

"Negro city directory of Dallas [Part 1]," page 75, DeGolyer Library, SMU. — “Negro city directory of Dallas [Part 1],” page 75, DeGolyer Library, SMU.

25 documents and imprints, 1874-1947, comprising 1941 pages, were added to the Texas: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints digital collection. The items include a variety of reports sent to Governor Richard Coke of Texas and several city directories. Of note are two large volumes of the “Negro City Directory of Dallas” for 1941-1942 and 1947-1948. These directories include names, addresses, and other information about every Black person “of high school age or older, residing in the City of Dallas,” as well as a list of local and state officials; a directory of Black churches, educational institutions, and other organizations; a list of Black schools and school teachers; a classified index of Black businesses; photographs of Black Dallas residents; advertisements directed to the Black community, and more. 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).

[Daphnis Playing Pipes Woodcut Proof no. 1], ca. 1933, Bridwell Library, SMU.

91 sketches, washes, and woodcut proofs, ca. 1933, from the Hornby Ashendene collection. These images were created by wood engraver Gwen Raverat for the Ashendene Press 1933 edition of Les Amours Pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe and showcase some of the processes which went into developing illustrations for the book.

5 interviews were added to the SMU Oral History and Digital Humanities Student Projects collection. These interviews, with Mary Margaret Carrillo, Charles Cox, Ashley Hamilton, Jadon Stronge, and Ash Thye are part of the Voices of SMU project. Charles Cox, who delivered an introductory speech for Martin Luther King Jr. when he spoke at SMU in 1966, recounts many details of Dr. King’s visit and its impact on the SMU campus and beyond.

De-nesting Pipe at Ras El Misha'ab, 1948, DeGolyer Library, SMU. — De-nesting Pipe at Ras El Misha’ab, 1948, DeGolyer Library, SMU.

10 color transparencies, ca. 1940s, from the Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection, covering the oil industry and related scenes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, including for the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO).

1 stereograph, ca. 1860, by Alfred Briquet showing Marlborough Tower overlooking the lake in the Queen’s Hamlet at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France.

3 photographs, ca. 1890s-1902, also by Alfred Briquet, depicting daily life in Mexico.

[Camp Mercedes Soldiers by Medical Tent During Spanish Flu Epidemic], ca. 1916, DeGolyer Library, SMU.

50 postcards, ca. 1900-1920s, from the Lisa Stone Collection on Mercedes, Texas. Highlights include a postcard featuring the men from Mercedes’ original city council and a number of postcards showing buildings relating to the American Rio Grande Irrigation and Land Company (ARGL&I), which was responsible for extensive canal work in the region allowing more irrigation for more farm land.