SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: July 2025

In July 2025, SMU Libraries uploaded 441 items into SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include:

121 negatives, ca. 1933, from the Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection. Highlights include aerial images of many famous estates, including two mansions owned by Jessie Woolworth Donohue in Southampton and Palm Beach; three images of William K. Vanderbilt II’s Fisher Island property, ”Alva Base,”  which was named after his mother;  and two images of noted playwright Theodore Dreser’s ”Iroki” estate in Westchester County, New York. There is also a series of 26 images from a photo shoot for the Aviation Country Club’s seaplane cruise in the Thousand Islands on St. Lawrence River.

30 WFAA newsfilms from June 1972. The videos are enhanced with annotations 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.

13 photographs, ca. 1905-1910, from Panama Canal Construction, showing the Minda Cut, tug boats on the canal, unloading a dynamite ship at Cristobal, and a large gathering of children, women and a few men on the steps of a building, 1910. Also included is a group of photographs of William Lee Gerig, Arkansas engineer, his wife, and landscapes in La Boca, the Canal Zone.

San Antonio Album, ca. 1890s, an album of images of various notable buildings, people, and places in San Antonio, Texas. Landmarks depicted include the Alamo and various missions in the region.

20 photographs and negatives, 1936, from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, showing the Fort Worth Frontier Centennial Exposition, which took place in tandem with the Texas Centennial. The images highlight the Sunset Trail, Frontier Street, Billy Rose’s Jumbo Theater, the Casa Mañana amphitheater, and other features at the venue.

Letters of Genl. W.J. Palmer, treasurer from Colorado & New Mexico, 1867, a letterbook by William Jackson Palmer, treasurer of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, was created while surveying a southern route along the 35th parallel to the Pacific for the Kansas Pacific line, Union Pacific Railroad, Eastern Division from Colorado and New Mexico.

26 cartes de visite, ca. 1864-1866, from Portraits and People of Mexico. These studio portraits show ladies-in-waiting for Empress Carlota of Mexico. Most of the photographs were taken in Puebla by Lorenzo Becerril, presumably at the Empress’ birthday celebration in that city in June 1864.

21 photographs, ca. 1880-1904, of Indigenous people of North America, by or attributed to George Wharton James, including Navajo, Havasupai, Hopi, Apache, Pima, and Hualapai men, women, and children.

2 photographs, ca. 1900-1910, from the Albert L. Beach Photographs of Mexico, showing a coal washery and coke ovens at the Hondo coal mine in Coahuila, Mexico.

38 photographs, 1872-1963, from the [Collection of African American Photographs], including portraits of Black people and snapshots of social activities throughout the decades.

5 photographs, ca. 1910s-1940s, were added to the Belo Records collection. Highlights include a portrait photograph of Commander Sam D. Dealy, nephew of former Belo Corporation and Dallas Morning News owner George Bannerman Dealey, who was killed in action in World War II.

[Illinois Central Railroad Storm Repair, 1915 New Orleans Hurricane], 1915, from [Travel and railroad albums]. This album, containing 16 photographs, was produced by the Illinois Central Railroad Company. On September 29, 1915, the New Orleans Hurricane of 1915 destroyed the community of Frenier, located on Lake Pontchartrain. Some of the locals there sought refuge in the railroad depot, which collapsed during the hurricane and killed 25 people. The first thirteen photographs, which have the company stamp dated October 6, 1915, depict the aftermath and repairs made to the railroad between Frenier and La Branch after the 1915 hurricane. Some of the photographs show Black workers, who may have been strike breakers from the 1911 strike, repairing the 1915 storm-damaged track and bridges about 14 miles from New Orleans. The last three photographs, dated February 16, 1915, show undamaged railroad cuts.

28 photographs, ca. 1910-1938, from the Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution, featuring portraits of government, military, and civil officials along with other civilian professionals during the Mexican Revolution and scenes of Columbus, New Mexico, after General Francisco Villa’s raid on the town in 1916. The images, which show diverse areas in Mexico and the United States, include portraits of Manuel Mondragon, Porfirio Diaz and his escort during his voyage into exile aboard the SS Ypiranga, Venustiano Carranza and staff, Mexican journalists and U.S. Quartermaster’s Post staff, soldiers from both the U.S. and Mexico, and an iconic photograph of the Mexican Revolution, “Adelita-la-Soldadera,” a photograph by Jerónimo Hernández Maldonado that depicts a soldadera.

23 incunables, 1471-1500, from Fifteenth-Century Printed Books at Bridwell Library. These early printed books were printed throughout Europe in the late fifteenth century and include renowned printers such as Anton Koberger, Arnoldus Pannartz, and others.

104 newspapers, 1892-1893, from Historic Newspapers at Bridwell Library. The Texas Christian Advocate was a weekly newspaper published by the Methodist Episcopal Church that distributed news related to the Methodist Church in Texas. These newspapers were digitized by Texas Tech University using Bridwell Library’s copies on microfilm.

4 oral history interviews have been added to the SMU Oral History Projects collection. These interviews, with Regina Hammeken Iturralde, Lucero Hernandez, K. D. Smith, and Tricia Tsang are part of the Voices of SMU project.

2 erecting and detail card drawings, 1910-1924, from the Collection of Baldwin Locomotive Works Records, for Norfolk Southern Railroad and an unidentified client.