One of the best things about working with any archival collection is that you never know how a researcher will interpret the materials that he or she finds. Brett Lucas, an Economic Geographer and Spokane area city planner, has been working on a project for a couple of years asking for the opening and closing…Continue Reading Mapping JCPenney stores
How the News Got Made: A Rare Look at SMU’s WFAA Newsfilm and a Conversation With the People Who Created It
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/10/wfaa1_smaller.jpg)
Learn how the news was captured and shared, and gain a new appreciation for the hard work and ingenuity that went into making the WFAA nightly news throughout the 1960s and ’70s. A panel of notable WFAA staff, including on-screen personalities and behind the scenes personnel, will present clips from SMU’s Jones Film and Video…Continue Reading How the News Got Made: A Rare Look at SMU’s WFAA Newsfilm and a Conversation With the People Who Created It
GCI online exhibition – Octavio Medellin: Maya-Toltec Temples and Carvings
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/10/om_10_ms_medellin_maya_071_opt-1024x834.jpg)
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
Collection Spotlight: G. J. Signaigo collection of theater materials
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/09/mr_signaigo_007_002_p00_oldmill_150ppi_autoadjustsize_jpg-711x1024.jpg)
George Joseph Signaigo was a prominent Dallas businessman who co-owned the Brannon-Signaigo Cigar Company of Texas. The majority of the material in this collection consists of theater programs that were collected over the course of Signaigo’s life. The collection includes correspondence, ephemera, manuscripts, publicity and published works relating to the theater ca. 1910-1930. Most of…Continue Reading Collection Spotlight: G. J. Signaigo collection of theater materials
Arts Management students tour Bywaters Special Collections
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/10/img_29293.jpg)
I have the pleasure of working with the International Arts Management graduate students here in Meadow’s Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship (AMAE) division. They represent a diverse mix of academic backgrounds and nationalities – coming out of film, theater, visual art, performing arts, or humanities backgrounds and originating from the United States, Europe, Canada, South America,…Continue Reading Arts Management students tour Bywaters Special Collections
WFAA Newsfilm Collection: Look what I found this week!
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/09/wfaa2-1024x683.jpg)
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!
Mr. Penney’s birthday celebrated on September 16
On September 16, 1875, James Cash Penney was born in Hamilton, Missouri. Although his retail career began in Hamilton, he moved to Colorado to find his fortune. His first store, the Golden Rule, opened in Kemmerer, Wyoming in 1902. Kemmerer was a small mining town. He and his wife and infant son lived above the small…Continue Reading Mr. Penney’s birthday celebrated on September 16
Collection Spotlight: Evaline Sellors Art Work and Papers
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/09/evalinesellors_001_150ppi_autoadjustsize_jpg.jpg)
Evaline Sellors (1903 – 1995) was an artist and teacher active in the Dallas and Fort Worth area mainly from the 1930s through the 1960s. Primarily known as a sculptor, she also worked in ceramics, mosaics, and stained glass. Her work can be found in museums and private collections in the north Texas area. Sellors…Continue Reading Collection Spotlight: Evaline Sellors Art Work and Papers
THE STATE FAIR OF TEXAS, 1886-2016: Celebrating 130 Years of a Texas Institution
This year, the State Fair of Texas is celebrating its 130th anniversary, a real Lone Star State tradition! Joining in the celebration, the DeGolyer Library will be kicking off the fun with an exhibition of State Fair photographs by Dallasite Lynn Lennon. In addition to Lennon’s images, there are several cases of related ephemera. Included…Continue Reading THE STATE FAIR OF TEXAS, 1886-2016: Celebrating 130 Years of a Texas Institution
Strange inheritance
![](https://blog.smu.edu/smulibraries/files/2016/08/mcardle-battle-of-san-jacinto-1901-conserved.jpg)
In the spring of 2009, I received a telephone call from Atlee Phillips, Texas art specialist at Dallas’s Heritage Auction Galleries. Although I’d never met Atlee, she told me that I’d soon think of her as “my new best friend.” A few days later, she arrived in my office with numerous photographs of a painting…Continue Reading Strange inheritance