SMU Libraries Digital Collections Update: May 2021

In May 2021, SMU Libraries uploaded 424 items into SMU Libraries Digital Collections. Highlights include:

208 real photographic postcards, ca. 1872-1940s, from the John Miller Morris Real Photographic Postcards and Photographs of Texas collection. 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 TXT-21010). (2021). These images showcase views of the Texas Hill Country, the Golden Crescent, and the Rio Grande Valley, and include towns such as Bandera, Medina, Laredo, Victoria, New Braunfels, and others. Also of note are several images of the international bridge in Laredo, connecting the Rio Grande into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

6 interviews from the Southern Methodist University Oral History Interviews and Digital Humanities Student Projects collection. These interviews, with Creesha Anthony Hardee, Grace Colbert, Nykesha Cole, Echo Dickerson, Derek K. Hubbard, and Dr. Kimberly Mendoza are part of the Voices of SMU project.

11 posters promoting SMU’s Literary Festival for the years between 1989 and 2010 from the Southern Methodist University Campus Memories collection. Some of these posters are signed by widely-acclaimed writers who came to SMU to speak at the events, including Allen Ginsburg (1989), Ray Bradbury (1990), Alice Walker (1997), and current U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (1998).

73 photographs from the the Bywaters Special Collections – Texas Artists Archives collection. These are from three major trip locations: Bywaters’ 1927 summer trip to Europe, Bywaters’ time working and studying with his fellow artists in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and four pictures of Bywaters’ time working and studying at the Olin Travis Summer Art School.

13 photographs and 19 negatives, ca. 1946, from the Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection. Taken in Saudi Arabia, these images feature the headquarters, production fields, and refinery for the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco). Among the images are a number of aerial views of the company’s headquarters at Dhahran and the production field at Dammam, as well as one photograph taken at the palace of Ibn Saud.

Now available in SMU Scholar: the second volume of Field and Laboratory (1932-1933). This publication contains papers published by faculty, students, and alumni from SMU’s Science Division, from 1932-1959. The articles cover many scientific areas, including biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, earth sciences, and the history of science.

21 course catalogs have been added to the Southern Methodist University Course Catalogs collection. These catalogs contain general information and course descriptions from each of SMU’s programs of study for academic years 1926-1927, 1951-1952, and 1966-1967.

70 real photographic postcards, ca. 1913-1914, from the Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution. The postcards show scenes from the Decena Tragica and its aftermath. Included are images of Federal soldiers and Felicista revolutionaries fighting in the streets of Mexico City, bombarded buildings and streets, military equipment and uniforms, generals and other military officials, and the people of Mexico City who witnessed the battle.

Bridwell Library update:

Bridwell Library added two letters to the Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon collection. One letter addressed to William Wilberforce, a British politician, Member of Parliament for Yorkshire, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade was added to the Methodism in the United Kingdom and Ireland collection.