News - The Portal to Texas History

Posted December 7th, 2016 by Dianne Jansing & filed under Research Fellowships.

The University of North Texas Libraries invite applications for the 2017 Research Fellowships in UNT Special Collections and The Portal to Texas History. Research in our collections is relevant to studies in a variety of disciplines including history, journalism, political science, geography, fine art, art history, film making, photography, and American studies. We encourage applicants to think creatively about new uses for special collections and digital collections.

The Special Collections Fellows will be required to conduct research in residence at UNT for a minimum of four days and a maximum of three months to receive the award. A total of $4,000 in funding will be awarded to two or more fellowship applicants.

The Portal Fellows will receive a stipend to do research with the Portal. Up to $1,000 in funding will be awarded to two or more fellowship applicants.

Preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate the greatest potential for publication and the best use of our UNT Special Collections or The Portal to Texas History.

Applications are due by February 15, 2017. Recipients will be notified by April 1, 2017. For more information on the fellowships and application process, please visit the University of North Texas Libraries Research Fellowships – Special Collections and University of North Texas Libraries Research Fellowships – The Portal to Texas History.

Posted November 30th, 2016 by Dreanna Belden & filed under General.

November 30th, 2016

recently added Collections …

The Frank Caldwell CollectionThe Caldwell collection contains hundreds of photographs documenting various parts of Texas from about the 1880s through the 1930s. Frank Caldwell (1883-1962), a lifelong resident of Austin, worked as a traveling salesman, but his passion was… (more).

Mildred Schaeffer Zichner Collection
The Mildred Schaeffer Zichner Collection contains a selection of images from a much larger collection of Zichner materials available in tangible form in the UNT Libraries’ Special Collections. (more)

George Everill Pierce Photograph Collection
The George Everill Pierce Photograph collection consists of photographs, taken between 1933 and 1942, which depict the work, play, and daily life of a young aviator during the early heyday of Texas military aviation…. (more).

From the web

Three Questions with Mylynka Kilgore Cardona, Map Curator2. How have Unique Collections changed the way you approach your research, teaching or learning?

The Portal has helped me to locate items I would not otherwise have had access to and has spawned new interests, giving me topics to pursue both personally and professionally. Having access to the scanned maps aids my work at the GLO – researching the items in our collection, gathering information for map collectors whose maps we have digitized, and helping me answer questions for our customers. The Portal is a source that I use so often… (more).

from the UNT Digital Library

[College of Visual Arts + Design Archival Project]

Artworks, art exhibitions, and art-related events created by College of Visual Arts + Design students, faculty, staff, and alumni are digitally documented here and saved for future generations’ research and reference. (more)

Our mailing address is:
1155 Union Circle #305190
Denton, TX 76203-5017

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Posted November 16th, 2016 by Ana Krahmer & filed under Featured, Grants, Hancher Library Foundation Grants, Tocker Foundation Grants.

We would like to congratulate libraries in Texas who have received Fall 2016 grant awards to digitize their historic newspapers.

The Tocker Foundation supports newspaper digitization for communities with populations below 12,000. This autumn, the Tocker Foundation has awarded the following public libraries with funding to make their newspapers freely available on The Portal to Texas History.

Bonham Public Library will digitize The Bonham Daily Favorite, The Bonham Herald, and The Bonham News. This will add to The Bonham Area Newspaper Collection previously digitized for the Fannin County Historical Commission through a Rescuing Texas History award.

Comanche Public Library has received a Tocker Foundation award to make available its county-area newspapers, including the Comanche Chief and the DeLeon Free Press.

McGinley Memorial Library in McGregor received a grant to digitize The McGregor Mirror, a title for which digital preservation is especially crucial because some of its earliest issues (1904-1925) were lost in a fire. The McGregor Mirror newspaper office has worked very closely with the McGinely Memorial Library for this very crucial grant.

Stamford Carnegie Library has been awarded a grant to digitize its Stamford American Newspaper. Many community members, including the publisher, local history lovers, and the newspaper editor worked with the library to prepare their grant application.

F.M. Richards Library in Brady will digitize the Brady Standard, from its earliest days onward, through a Tocker Foundation grant award. This award was something both the library and the publishing office were very excited to receive.

Sammy Brown Library in Carthage will digitize The Panola Watchman. This grant represents a collaboration between the Sammy Brown Library and Panola College, who worked jointly to combine their collections for the digitization project.

The Ladd and Katherine Hancher Library Foundation supports newspaper digitization for libraries with populations below 50,000. The Hancher Foundation has awarded multiple grants to local public libraries to add their newspapers to The Portal to Texas History.

The Patrick Heath Public Library in Boerne will digitize The Boerne Star, and this grant developed through another significant collaboration between the public library and the local publisher.

The Smithville Public Library has received an award to digitize historic issues of its Smithville Times in Bastrop County.

The Stephenville Public Library has been awarded a Hancher Grant to digitize two titles: The Stephenville Enterprise and The Stephenville Tribune. This grant project also represents a collaboration, between the the Stephenville Public Library and Tarleton State University-Dick Smith Library, and these newspapers will represent early Stephenville history, up to 1923.

The total awards for these libraries amount to nearly $250,000 in support of newspaper digitization and preservation. These grants demonstrate all of the best characteristics of digital preservation: collaboration, community, and support for future generations. We are very proud of all our new partner libraries from across Texas, and we’re very excited to see their newspaper issues accessible for research for future generations. Congratulations to all the new grant recipients!

Posted November 9th, 2016 by Dreanna Belden & filed under General.

November 9, 2016

recently added Collections …

Anthology: A Student Forum for Prose, Poetry, and the Visual ArtsThe Tarleton State University Anthology publishes poems, short stories, creative non-fiction, scripts, musical scores, art, sculpture, and photographs – basically anything creative that can be scanned for publication… (more).

The K.K. Legett Collection
The K.K. Legett collection contains the papers of Kirvin Kade Legett (1857-1926), and his son, Kade Bryan Legett (1889-1946). K.K. Legett came to Taylor County for the first time in 1879, where, he became one of Abilene’s leading men. He was a founder of Simmons College, now Hardin-Simmons University, and… (more).

Denton Chamber of Commerce Collection
The collection contains documents, photographs, letters, newspapers, sound recordings, home movies, and promotional films that document the Chamber’s activities from 1938-1998. The majority of these records concern a campaign… (more).

In the News

New Image of Davy Crockett Discovered in Fort Worth Museum
One afternoon last month, Dreanna Belden, the assistant dean for external relations at the University of North Texas library system, was about to leave work for the day when she noticed a voicemail message on her office telephone. The message was from a woman who claimed to have identified a photograph she had seen on UNT’s Portal to Texas History, a massive online archive of historical resources aggregated from hundreds of museums and historical associations around the state. “You have a picture on the portal that says ‘Face of a man,’” the message said. “I know who that man is, and I think you’re going to want to talk to me.” (more)

From the web

Three Questions with Ben Davis2. How have Unique Collections changed the way you approach your research, teaching or learning?

Using the Portal has made me aware of the various types of material that can augment architectural research, for instance keyword searches have revealed valuable information buried within documents I would not have otherwise thought to search. In developing the stories associated with some of Texas’ earliest structures I was able to learn more about the people for whom they were built and in some cases… (more).

from the UNT Digital Library

[The Leon Breeden Collection]

This collection contains a series of scrapbooks and memorabilia from the collection of Leon Breeden, jazz educator and legendary director of the UNT jazz program. Breeden chaired the division and… (more).

Our mailing address is:
1155 Union Circle #305190
Denton, TX 76203-5017

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Posted October 27th, 2016 by Dreanna Belden & filed under General.

October 27, 2016

recently added Collections …

The Texas HistorianThis picture depicts the Hambrick Plantation, which is considered haunted by residents of the Tyler area. The Texas Historian, one of the few historical journals in the nation dedicated to publishing the work of secondary students, features plenty of stories about local haunts like this that you can’t find anywhere else. (more)

KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection
KXAS was the first television station in Texas and the Southwest when it signed on as WBAP-TV on September 27, 1948. This collection features photographs, video, and over 12,000 scripts from news broadcasts just like this one, covering a news story about four youths spending the night in a supposedly haunted abandoned house in Dallas on a bet, discovering $2,500 in cash and securities in a stack of old newspapers, and being arrested after… (more).

University Photography Collection
Drawn from the UNT Archives, this collection of photographs features images of the changing and growing University of North Texas campus.This picture depicts Bruce Hall, a UNT dorm that is known as one of a few haunted buildings on campus. (more)

From the web

Tarleton, Stephenville libraries partner to digitize historic local newspapersBy digitizing the back issues of the local newspapers, researchers, students and everyday citizens will have quick, easy access to a wealth of historical data, including genealogical records such as marriage, birth and death notices, as well as advertisements, property transactions and editorials.

Once digitized, the 1882-1992 newspapers will be housed online in the Portal to Texas History digital library, maintained by the University of North Texas. The database provides an excellent digital home for researchers, historians and… (more).

from the UNT Digital Library

[The Texas Folklore Society Collection]

You won’t have to look very far in this collection to find ghosts or ghouls.This collection of Texas Folklore Society publications contains a miscellany of Texas and Mexican folklore, including stories about folk… (more).