News from the DeGolyer Library May 2022

“Send Me a Postcard! Women on the Road across 19th-20th Century America” highlights women’s voices and their stories across America’s roadways. Though travel has generally been associated with men, and the male prerogative of exploration, investment, and research, women have always been on the move. Women traveled for a variety of reasons including education and knowledge, a sense of adventure, and a newfound freedom to move outside of their traditional sphere. This exhibition examines the experiences of women travelers. From a group of college students on a summer road trip, to an anthropologist documenting the American Southwest, from trips to National Parks, to diners and dives, these manuscripts and narratives are full of memories and adventures and represent a variety of perspectives.

Included in the exhibit are trailblazers such as Blanche Stuart Scott, the first person to inaugurate a transcontinental motor trip for the purpose of interesting women in the value of motor car driving; Alice Huyler Ramsey, in 1909 the first woman to drive an automobile across the United States from coast to coast; and Harriet White Fisher Andrew, the first woman to circle the globe in a Locomobile. Also highlighted are everyday ladies on family vacations and girls’ trips. Elizabeth Dalrymple, who motored with her friends from Pennsylvania to Colorado in 1940, said of travel: “never worry about getting lost out here in the great open spaces, as every road eventually leads to somewhere, no matter how lonely or how long.” Documents such as these provide invaluable insight into women’s experiences traveling and what life was like for women on the road. While no two experiences are alike, together these narratives weave together women’s shared experiences with life on the road, demonstrating in fact “women can handle an automobile just as well as men.”

“Send Me a Postcard” features materials from the DeGolyer Library’s holdings of rare books, pamphlets, ephemera, and manuscripts, including the Archives of Women of the Southwest.

April 28 – August 31

Hillcrest Exhibit Hall, Fondren Library West

8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., M- F

This month, 75 “Golden Mustangs” visited DeGolyer Library to view items from the SMU Archives and tour our latest exhibit. The Golden Mustangs are SMU alumni who graduated 50 years ago or more, and during their visit, they revisited yearbooks, directories, student newspapers, sports memorabilia, and more from their time on the Hilltop.

In May, staff from the DeGolyer Library attended the 50^th annual meeting of the Society of Southwest Archivists in Houston, Texas. The theme of this year’s annual meeting was Small Steps, Giant Leaps. During the first in person conference/meeting since 2019, Special Collections Librarian Ada Negraru and Curator Samantha Dodd presented on their work with Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO), the freely accessible platform for searching finding aids from repositories across Texas including the libraries at SMU. From 2018-2022, as members of the steering committee and web/tech subcommittees, Samantha and Ada worked alongside other archivists and librarians across the state to overhaul and redesign TARO for today’s researchers.

Also in May, Samantha and Ada attended the virtual Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL). Their presentation, “This Is Fine: Pressing on with Planned Changes Amid Ongoing Unplanned Ones!” discussed the challenges of launching the new TARO 2.0 website and conducting user experience testing at a time when if something could go wrong, it did: pandemic, snowstorm, and unforeseen delays in the development of the website. In spite of these roadblocks, our researchers can rest assured that TARO 2.0 is well on its way to becoming a reliable discovery tool for a variety of archival, manuscript, and photograph collections.

David Charles Goodyear (circa 1897-1960) was the owner and curator of Railway Historical Museum in High Falls, New York. The bulk of his papers include correspondence about obtaining photographs and railroad materials for his collection. Also included are locomotive rosters, locomotive drawings, and railroad ephemera for United States railroads and international railroads.

Recently Accessioned

A2022.0012c – Collection of nineteenth century correspondence on right of way in Illinois

A2022.0013c – The ballad of Jesse Neighbours : manuscript

A2022.0014c – History of Winchester Chapter : photocopy

Grilling this summer? The DeGolyer Library has an expansive cookbook collection, ranging from 19th century handwritten family recipe collections to contemporary classics from celebrity chefs. As Memorial Day approached, we went searching for some of our older cookout guides, and found them in our pamphlet collection. Most of the booklets pictured here are promotional material–“Always grill with a Webber!” “A&P knows barbeque!” “For barbecuing and in the kitchen, there’s only one Kikkoman Soy Sauce” etc. These slim volumes were published between the 1950s and 1970s, and offer as many tips for hostessing as they do for cooking. Click here to see what other barbeque cookbooks are in our collection.

The Norwick Center for Digital Solutions has digitized and shared numerous items that are currently on display in DeGolyer Library’s summer exhibit, “Send Me a Postcard!”. A standout item which you can now view in it’s entirety online is Tour of all Mexico, 1909, a scrapbook kept by Leonora D. Nelson that includes the itinerary, railroad map, menus, passenger list, clippings relating to people and places seen on the luxury tour, with photographs recording the tour group and activities. Click here to flip through the scrapbook.