Helen McDonald Memorial Nimitz Conference Recap

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Written by Isabella Baxter, student assistant in UNT Libraries’ Digital Projects Lab

The National Museum of the Pacific War’s annual conference, hosted by the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, was held at the Historic Nimitz Ballroom in Fredericksburg, TX, on October 17th-18th, 2025. This year’s theme was “Pop Culture, Propaganda, and Politics: Reflections on the Pacific War 80 Years Later.” Key speakers included Rob Buscher, Janet M. Davis, Richard B. Frank, Dr. Ambyre Ponivas, Steven Rawle, and Henry Sledge, each of whom contributed their knowledge in individual and group panels.

Nimitz Conference Poster

Isabella Baxter attended on behalf of UNT Libraries Digital Projects Unit, presenting a research poster titled “A Comparison of Slang Diction in Young Adult Correspondence.” The topic pulls from the Antone Bruns letter collection, which Baxter worked on as a metadata employee. The collection features approximately 700 letters between Antone Bruns and his girlfriend—later wife—Otha Lee Bruns, and is an excellent example of young adult diction at the time. Slang and popular diction aligned well with the conference’s theme, which included propaganda comics and other methods of wartime communication.

During the conference, Baxter spoke with many of the museum’s patrons and each of the panelists, sharing information about metadata writing, the Portal to Texas History, and the Bruns collection.

The Admiral Nimitz Foundation has partnered with the Portal to Texas History to digitize items from their vast archive for the museum’s collection on the Portal.

 

 

 

 

23rd Annual Family History Conference

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The Portal to Texas History had the pleasure of being a sponsor of the 23rd Annual Family History Conference in Tyler, Texas, on October 11, 2025. Jake Mangum attended the conference as a representative of the Portal. This year’s theme, “Your Past Unlocked: Emerging Technology in Genealogy,” seamlessly aligned with the Portal’s mission to offer free, worldwide access to historical resources.

During the conference, Mangum connected with over 100 attendees and vendors. He also took the stage to present, sharing insights about the Portal’s background, showcasing some favorite resources, and demonstrating effective research strategies.

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

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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.