The enormously prolific and influential composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, passed away on November 26, 2021. Known for his generosity in sharing his knowledge and tutelage in the field of musical composition, Sondheim came to SMU to receive the Meadows Prize in 1994 and spoke to students and the SMU community about his ideas on…Continue Reading In memory of Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)
“The art of this church has been the largest and most important commission given to me in the 30 years that I have been pioneering art in Texas.” On December 7, 1958, the Dallas Morning News published the above quote by Octavio Medellin in reference to his commission at the Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic…Continue Reading Octavio Medellin and the St. Bernard Church of Clairvaux mural project
Selected items from this fabulous archival collection held in Bywaters Special Collections are now available online! Items include fashion design sketches created by Nancy Hamon during the 1930s as well as photographs of Jake and Nancy Hamon attending their annual theme parties in Dallas during the 1950s-1970s. The collection offers valuable insights into Dallas social…Continue Reading New digital collection: Jake and Nancy Hamon Papers
The Bywaters Special Collections staff are happy to announce that SMU’s Central University Libraries is now a part of the Google Cultural Institute. BSC staff, Ellen Buie Niewyk, curated the first GCI exhibition with archivist, Emily George Grubbs. Octavio Medellin: Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings, 1938 is an exhibition curated from the holdings of photographs and documents of the artist from Bywaters…Continue Reading GCI online exhibition – Octavio Medellin: Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings
Greetings. My name is Jeremy Spracklen, and I am the moving image curator of the G. William Jones Film and Video Archive inside the Hamon Arts Library. One of my current projects is the digitization of the Library’s WFAA Newsfilm footage spanning from 1960 to 1977. Every other week I’m going to share a set of…Continue Reading WFAA Newsfilm Collection: Look what I found this week!
Kino Lorber recently released Pioneers of African-American Cinema, a five DVD set with extensive film notes. An announcement of the collection’s release appeared in The New York Times (August 10, 2016), in which the film critic, J. Hoberman, stated that “there has never been a more significant video release” in cinema history. This set includes…Continue Reading Pioneers of African-American Cinema
The current exhibition at Meadows Museum at SMU, Process and Innovation: Carlotta Corpron and Janet Turner, is a welcome reminder of earlier showings of Janet Turner’s prints in Dallas and elsewhere in Texas. Don’t miss Turner’s remarkable prints now on loan from Hamon’s Bywaters Special Collections, along with other private lenders, including Jack and Beverly Wilgus -donors who have…Continue Reading Janet Turner: Texas Printmaker
The Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection is one of the signature collections of the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection. This collection of race films from the 1930s and 1940s were discovered in an East Texas warehouse in 1983 on miraculously well-preserved nitrate stock and transferred to safety film in 1985. With the advent of…Continue Reading Gems from the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection
One of the most significant of the Tyler Race Films is The Blood of Jesus, written by and starring Spencer Williams. As with many of Williams’ films, this is a study of the continuing conflict between good and evil, holiness and godlessness, church and juke joint. Williams filmed it with a largely amateur cast and…Continue Reading The travels of The Blood of Jesus
Please stop by the second-floor gallery outside of Bywaters Special Collections and view how the portfolio XTOL by Octavio Medellin was researched by the artist in 1938 and later published in 1947 by the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, which preceded the Dallas Museum of Art. Work began in 1938 when Octavio Medellin spent six months…Continue Reading Octavio Medellin: Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings, 1938 on display