Portal to Texas History Collection Highlight: The Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Photos

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This post was written by Varda Khan, who worked for two semesters as a Student Assistant – Descriptive Metadata Writer in the Digital Projects Lab. Varda recently graduated from UNT with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Art History and minors in Arabic and Business Computer Information Systems.

Portal Collection Highlight: Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Photos

Portal Collection Highlight: Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Photos

What is the Dallas Museum of Art Exhibition Records Collection?

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) Exhibition Records Collection includes photographs and documentation from various exhibitions that have taken place in the Dallas Museum of Art dating back to the early 1900s to the early 2000s. The pieces displayed in these exhibitions date back to 1200 and possibly earlier. The DMA’s vast collection includes art from many eras and regions: African Art, Asian Art, Design and Decorative Art, European Art, Indigenous American Art, Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art, The Keir Collection of Islamic Art, U.S. and Canadian Art and more! The collection includes photographs from the viewer’s perspective and highlights the curation, installation, and chosen display pieces.

Working on the DMA Exhibition Photos Collection

Over the past few months while working on the DMA photograph collection, I have been tasked with adding precise titles, subject words from the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus, and writing detailed descriptions for the photographs. I have completed around 100 records within the collection. From the collection I have worked on records from the South Asian Sculptures, Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art, Art of the African, Asian, and Pacific Rim, Eastern and Southern Africa, Asian Art, American Art Exhibitions. These various exhibitions have allowed me to explore several DMA collections and develop my analysis and description skills for various mediums and perspectives.

A Dive into a Dallas Museum of Art Installation: Island Southeast Asian Art Record

A specific record I worked on and enjoyed was the photograph showcasing the various jewelry and ornaments from the Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Exhibit. The installation that held the pieces beautifully displayed the pieces against a dark blue velvet background and showcased a black and white photograph of a man indigenous to the ethnic group or culture. Before starting to input information on this record I researched the pieces on the DMA collection and found the jewelry and pieces relative to the textile the man wore in the photograph.

Photos from DMA’s website include

 

Pair of double-spiral headdress ornaments
DMA Website necklace, late 19th, early 20th century

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Researching the collection allowed me to grasp a better understanding of the pieces I could potentially include in the title, subject or description. I vaguely titled the record based on the photograph and exhibition mentioned. Next, I wrote the description in detail based on what I found in the DMA collection, describing the pieces relative to one another.

Close up of Karo Batak Installation in Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art Exhibit showcasing jewelry and a portrait photograph of a Karo Batak man. The portrait is hung in the installation and take up majority of the right side. It is a black and white photograph of a man in a headdress and cloth wrapped around his upper body looking towards the left. Towards the left of the installation there are stands for the jewelry. There is a stand protruding out of the back wall for the necklace and an elevated block for the pendants. There are two gold detailed bracelets. One bracelet is hanging on the back wall to the left of the photograph, and one is below the photograph on a black stand. The installation is lined with navy velvet and is enclosed in glass.

Image showing metadata titles and description of object titled [Close up of Karo Batak Installation in Island Southeast Asia and Oceanic Art Exhibit]

 

Then, I searched subjects on the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Genre/Form Terms, Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus, and the University of North Texas Browse Structure. Through searches on the mediums, purpose, and significance of the pieces, I was able to find 10 subject words (not all shown in the image).

Image showing subject headings for the object described above. Click on image to read subjects.

Image showing subject headings for the object described above. Click on image to read subjects.

 

We encourage you to browse this collection (which includes over 6,900 photos) to find hidden gems from DMA exhibitions past and present!

Texas Historical Commission Grants the 2025 Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation to The Portal to Texas History

Certificate naming Benjamin B. Peck the Clerk of the County Court in Gonzales County, Republic of Texas.

Posted by & filed under Events, Featured, Milestones.

In April 2025, the Texas Historical Commission selected the University of North Texas Libraries’ Portal to Texas History to receive the 2025 Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation, described by the Texas Historical Commission as, “The Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation recognizes . . the highest achievement in the preservation of Texas’ prehistoric and historic heritage.”

Photograph of the 2nd capitol building for the state of Texas. There is a attached to the bottom right hand corner of the photograph a label that reads "The 2nd State Capital [sic]. Located on the site of the present Capital [sic], Burned in 1881."

Photograph of the 2nd capitol building for the state of Texas.

The Portal to Texas History represents a large-scale collaboration, built by many hands, all of whose contributions have made the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation possible. The Portal to Texas History hosts over 2.2 million primary source items, representing Texas people and history, including just over 1 million newspaper issues, nearly 500,000 photographs, as well as 150,000 videos and scripts, in addition to letters, maps, and other rich cultural artifacts that illustrate the state’s history. This has been accomplished through the diligent efforts of staff and student workers at the University of North Texas Libraries, as well as with financial support from many groups, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the Summerlee Foundation, and the Tocker Foundation, among many other private donors. The materials hosted on the Portal are available through the preservation efforts and contributions by partners from across Texas and across the U.S. The Cathy Nelson Hartman Portal to Texas History Endowment provides long-term financial support that will ensure the Portal’s stability, preservation, and access for future generations of researchers.

Everything on the Portal supports research and cultural preservation but the following collections and items are especially unique to the history of the Portal itself.

The earliest collection added to The Portal to Texas History, From Republic to State . . ., offers early government documents from or about the years leading up to Texas statehood. Added in 2006, the May 18, 1934, issue of the Mineral Wells Tattler was the first newspaper issue added to the Portal. Another early collection, from 2010, is also among the most highly used on the Portal, the Clyde Barrow Gang Collection, contributed by the Dallas Municipal Archives.

Lithograph of an original newspaper manuscript first published by Captain William H. May and Union soldiers while imprisoned at Camp Ford, Tyler, Smith County, Texas.

Lithograph of an original newspaper manuscript first published by Captain William H. May

Among very unique newspapers, the Portal hosts one newspaper title printed in Esparanto, an artificial language developed to serve as a universal language, as well as two newspaper titles written by hand, the Fort Lancaster Western-Pioneer and The Old Flag.

Portal partners submit materials from across Texas, including as far east as Newton County, as far west as El Paso County, as far south as Cameron County, and as far north as Dallam County.

Coin images contributed by Abilene Christian University Library represent the reign of Nero Claudius Drusus depict the oldest items on the Portal with a known creation date. The earliest items from Texas history relate to Spanish exploration and mapping of the region that became Texas, contributed by St. Mary’s University Louis J. Blume Library, hosted in the Spanish Archives of Laredo Collection.

Map of the coastline along the western part of the Gulf of Mexico, starting in the south (left) at a point labeled "La Desconoscida" and ending in the north (right) at "C[iudad] Escondido." Segments of the coastline are shaded in red, yellow, and green, with labels for river mouths, ports, islands, and other points along the coast.

Map of the coastline along the western part of the Gulf of Mexico

The one-millionth item added to The Portal to Texas History is a Dutch map depicting the Gulf Coast of what is now Texas and was then Spain, purchased by UNT Libraries’ Special Collections Department, specifically to celebrate that milestone.

All of these resources, contributed by our valued partners, are just a few examples of the many collections that make The Portal to Texas History a state treasure, and we are honored to receive the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation.

 

 

Oil Comes to Laredo!

Nearly $3,000,000 Represented in Output of Laredo District during Year 1927

Posted by & filed under Featured, General.

 

This Laredo oil boom blog post comes from Spencer Houghton, the NDNP-Texas graduate student assistant working in the Digital Newspaper Unit.

Laredo Belongs to Oil Folks

The March 16, 1928, issue of the Laredo Weekly opens with the headline, “Laredo’s Big Opportunity,” a call for “concerted action on the part of every agency” to “get together and make an effort that will put wealth and life back into our oil fields.” Little did they know that just a few months later, with the discoveries of the Schoolfield-O’Byrne Pool in Duval County, and the Las Albercas Field in Webb County, 1928 would hasten the revival of Laredo’s once-booming oil industry.

Laredo's Big Opportunity

Extensive writeup from the Corpus Christi Caller about the Mirando Oil Field (Laredo oil district)

Oil was discovered in Laredo by accident in the early 1900’s. Cattle ranchers desperate to satiate their sun-baked herds drilled deep into Laredo’s drought-stricken soil in search of water but instead found oil. O.W. Killam in the oil fieldsDespite this early discovery, it wasn’t until 1921 when the “dean of the oil industry in the Laredo district” O.W. Killam, struck gold on his third well in the Mirando Valley, that Laredo became an oil-town. According to the Laredo Weekly on December 28, 1928, Killam’s discovery proved to industrialists nationwide that “there was oil in paying quantities in this territory.”

By 1935, news of oil dominated the front pages of many Texas newspapers. Alongside the “Plains Oil Field News” in the Amarillo Daily News [LCCN: sn85042551] and the “West Texas Oil News” in the Big Lake Wildcat , the Laredo Times ran a “Weekly Review of Oil Activities Around Laredo” every Friday, publishing the number of new wells and field acquisitions in the area. At the close of 1935, the Laredo district had 1,871 producing oil wells, pumping over 32,000 barrels daily.

Oil ventures continued to expand in 1936, with thirty-one new wells in the last week of August alone. The explosion of interest in Laredo’s rich oil fields led the Laredo Times to maintain that the path was paved for a Southwest Texas oil boom. Their prescience proved infallible, as 1936 ended with 3,100 producing oil wells and over $2,000,000 million (~$45,000,000 today) in payroll for the 5,000 to 7,000 employed directly by oil and gas companies. Investment in Laredo’s generous oil reserves would continue to grow throughout the 1930’s.

For more information on Laredo, the Laredo Times, and the Southwest Texas oil boom visit The Portal to Texas History and Chronicling America.

Invitation for Your Voice to be Heard: The Portal to Texas History Census

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Researchers from the University of North Texas Libraries are recruiting participants for an online survey, The Portal to Texas History Census, to gather information related our users and their experiences working with The Portal to Texas History. Examples of questions you might see in this survey include: how often do you visit The Portal to Texas History and how might you characterize your primary use of The Portal to Texas History.   

Your participation in this survey should take no longer than 30 minutes and will help us improve access to digital primary source objects by giving us information about your experiences using the Portal. Your participation will benefit all researchers who utilize this website. There is no compensation provided for participation in this survey.  

If you are interested in participating, please visit the survey link: https://unt.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0AgVCNHzjnV9C98

Your input is greatly valued by the research team: 

Ana Krahmer 
940-565-3367; Ana.Krahmer@unt.edu  

William Hicks 
940-891-6703; William.Hicks@unt.edu 

Dreanna Belden 
940-369-8740; Dreanna.Belden@unt.edu  

Jacob Mangum 
940-565-3023; Jacob.Mangum@unt.edu  

Carol Sterenberg 
940-891-6703; Carolyn.Sterenberg@unt.edu  

Mark Phillips 
940-565-2415; Mark.Phillips@unt.edu 

2025 Virtual Portal to Texas History Partners Forum Recap

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Portal to Texas History search banner

 

The March 27th Virtual Portal to Texas History Partners Forum showcased the exciting work that UNT Libraries’ Digital Libraries Division and partners of The Portal to Texas History are accomplishing! This event gave Portal partners the opportunity to ask questions about how their Portal contributions impact researchers, and it was a chance for people to share their experiences in working with these Texas history resources and to learn helpful tips about navigating the Portal.

Presentations from the UNT Libraries included a welcome from Interim University Librarian and Vice Provost, Dr. Sian Brannon and a Portal to Texas History overview from Dr. Mark Phillips, the Associate University Librarian over the Digital Libraries Division.  These presentations showcased how contributions from our partners have benefited UNT students, faculty, and the wider public through the wide variety of partner-contributed materials related to Texas history.  Dr. Ana Krahmer presented about how partners can add their newspaper collections to the Texas Digital Newspaper Program, and Jake Mangum presented about the Rescuing Texas History program. Also from UNT, Christina Kellum and Tim Gieringer gave tours of the Digital Projects Lab and the Digital Newspaper Unit, respectively offering windows through the virtual realm into their daily routines. 

A presentation from Dreanna Belden and Courtney Abubakar about Texas History for Teachers highlighted how partner contributions are being incorporated into lessons for the K-12 History classroom, developed by Courtney and other members of the UNT team.  Offering a different perspective, Marcia McIntosh, librarian from the Digital Projects Lab, and two student workers from the division, presented about what their daily work with partner materials involves.  Noah Garcia, from the Digital Projects Lab, gave an informative explanation of the scanners he works with to represent partner materials on the Portal, while Spencer Houghton from the Digital Newspaper Unit showed how his work contributes both to the National Digital Newspaper Program and to The Portal to Texas History.  

To close the forum, Portal to Texas History partners presented about how access to their collections on the Portal have benefited their own patrons and researchers.  These partners included:

These presentations highlighted the value of the Portal and the support it receives from the Cathy Nelson Hartman Portal to Texas History Endowment.  All UNT Libraries staff who heard these presentations were deeply impressed by the partner work with the collections, and they all agreed that they could have listened to Portal partners talk all day.  We are very grateful for the dedication and hard work that Portal to Texas History partners put into building access to their Texas history collections.  Keep an eye out for future Portal to Texas History events that showcase partner collections!