SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: July 2024

In July 2024, SMU Libraries uploaded or enhanced 412 items in SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include:

24 drawings, ca. 1870-1897, from the William Halsey Locomotive Drawings collection. These drawings, which are some of the few examples which show the colors used to decorate locomotives during the period, were a gift from Dee Young and Sandy Young, family members of the artist.

20 oral history transcript excerpts, 1983-1984, 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 Shirley Jones, Janet Leigh, Philip Dunne, Russell Nype, and Kathleen Freeman.

42 videos from January and February 1972 have 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.

122 items, ca. 1910-1920, by various creators, from the Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution. Subjects include General Emiliano Zapata and a 1915 model Jeffery Armored Car No. 1. Also included are scenes from the 1914 U.S. occupation of Veracruz, in which the United States intervened in the Mexican Revolution prior to the 1916-1917 Pershing Expedition. Photographs show members of the U.S. Marines and Navy, Mexican officials and soldiers, scenes of Veracruz including San Juan de Ulua and the Isla de Sacrificios, members of the Red Cross, and soldaderas.

36 photographs and postcards, 1910-1930, from the Lisa Stone Collection on Mercedes, Texas. Highlights include two images of the “A-Muz-U” movie theatre at Camp Llano Grande, which entertained soldiers in the area.

50 letters, 1765-1790, from the John Wesley letters collection at Bridwell Library. These letters, which were collected in a bound volume, were written by John Wesley to the theologian Alexander Knox from Knox’s early adulthood until the year before Wesley’s death. They include Wesley’s advice to Knox on various topics, including theological matters, health and wellness, and tales of Wesley’s own travels around the United Kingdom. Full-text transcriptions were provided courtesy of Dr. Randy L. Maddox, the William Kellon Quick Professor Emeritus of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at the Duke Divinity School.

107 negatives, ca. 1952-1957, by Richard Steinheimer, from the Richard Steinheimer Photograph Collection. Subjects include horses near a stretch of train tracks, Boy Scouts boarding a train after their Jamboree, and a colored image of the interior of a warehouse at Taylor Yard.

7 interviews were added to the SMU Oral History and Digital Humanities Student Projects collection. These interviews, with Isam Baber, Isaias Curiel,  Tishay Davis, Chase Drexler, Deepti Garg, Reeth Magoo, and Ibraheem Sayed are part of the Voices of SMU project.