UNT @ the 2025 National Digital Newspaper Program Awardee Meeting

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On September 29 and 30, 2025, Tim Gieringer and Ana Krahmer represented UNT at the National Digital Newspaper Program’s Annual Awardee Meeting.  This meeting, hosted by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, marked the 20th anniversary of the National Digital Newspaper Program, while UNT marked its eight award round.

In addition to presentations from representatives with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, state-awardees also presented about the impact of NDNP on their local newspaper preservation efforts.  Krahmer and Gieringer presented about the partnership for newspaper digitization between UNT and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, which will result in 100,000 pages of newspapers being digitized annually from the TSLAC physical and microfilmed newspaper collection. With 49 newspaper titles represented in this collection thus far, spanning from 1853-2006, the state library newspapers offer research opportunities of all kinds. 

Ana Krahmer was also invited to discuss how the Digital Newspaper Unit conducts research into the public domain status of newspaper titles that they submit for inclusion in the NDNP Chronicling America repository.  This presentation explained how the Newspaper Unit bases its local process on the national process taught by NDNP staff.  In November, Ana Krahmer and Mark Phillips will offer a copyright and licensing workshop to Portal to Texas History partners interested in understanding more about the topic of permissions.

In all, the 2025 conference was a wonderful way for Krahmer and Gieringer to connect with other newspaper digitization specialists from around the country, and they were honored to participate in this meeting.

Chronicling America is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to build a nationwide, open-access repository of digitally accessible historic newspapers.

2025 Rescuing Texas History Awarded

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Young Woman Accepting Award — https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth118138

The Portal to Texas History is excited to announce the awardees for its 2025 cycle of the Rescuing Texas History program!

Each year, the Rescuing Texas History program offers up to $1,000 of digitization services to applicants. The materials the awardees share with the Portal come from a variety of places including libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and private collectors. This is the seventeenth year of the program, which has made more than 86,000 items from 463 projects. The resources added to The Portal to Texas History from these collections have had more than 20 million uses since the program began back in 2006!

This cycle saw an abundance of strong applications, all of which could add content that Portal users might find beneficial to their research. In the end, proposals from the following Portal Partners were selected:

Humanities TexasSam Bell Maxey House State Historic SiteWilson County Historical Commission ArchivesThe Texas Library of The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth Dallas Municipal Archives
Texas Military Forces Museum Private Collection of the Ritchie FamilyFarmersville Historical SocietyBandera County Historical CommissionMills County Historical Museum
Fannin County Museum of HistoryMagoffin Home State Historical Site ArchivesMuseum of the American RailroadCity of GalvestonMuseum of the Coastal Bend
Texas Czech Genealogical SocietyW. K. Gordon Research Center for the Industrial History of TexasThe San Antonio Conservation SocietyCzech Heritage Society of Texas, IncPreservation Texas
Hidalgo County Historical CommissionFannin County Historical CommissionFirst Methodist Church; WeatherfordSeguin Public LibraryPrivate Collection of Dr. Teresa Marrero
Private Collection of T.B WillisFort Worth Jewish ArchivesPrivate Collection of John FreesePrivate Collection of Macedonio S. Tamez, IIIScottish Rite Hospital for Children

We want to thank all of the amazing applicants. The thought, effort, and passion for Texas history that was put into each of the applications is greatly appreciated.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded UNT Libraries $216,859 for an eighth consecutive round of the National Digital Newspaper Program

National Endowment for the Humanities: A More Perfect Union

Posted by & filed under Featured, General, Grants, National Digital Newspaper Program.

Special thanks to Spencer Houghton, the NDNP graduate student assistant, for his help in editing this announcement.

UNT Libraries are pleased to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities and Library of Congress (LC) have selected us for an eighth, two-year cycle of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). This award, which comes to us through the NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access, will provide access to an additional 100,000 pages of Texas history via digitized newspapers on Chronicling America.

For this round, we will ask our advisory board to select newspapers from amongst South Texas and Texas border titles, including from Eagle Pass, Del Rio, San Benito, and San Antonio, with the goal of showcasing Texas newspaper history up to 1963, depending on the recommendation of the NDNP-Texas advisory board. For the years we propose to digitize, ranging from 1920-1963, all cities saw significant changes in military expansion and the civil rights conversation, as the U.S. underwent recovery from both World Wars and the Great Depression.

In addition to including the newspapers on Chronicling America, titles will also be available on The Portal to Texas History through the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP). All newspapers uploaded to Chronicling America and TDNP are freely accessible for research and education. Consequently, we will continue to inform teachers and students about the importance of using newspapers as a window into history.

Chronicling America is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to build a nationwide, open-access repository of digitally accessible historic newspapers.

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.