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February 23, 2016
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Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University features more than 200 photographs from the Barbara C. Jordan Archives. Barbara Jordan ran for the Texas House twice, in 1962 and 1964. She then ran for the Texas Senate in 1966, winning a seat and becoming the first African American since Reconstruction to serve in the Texas State Senate … (more)

 

Private Collection of T.B. Willis 

The T. B. Willis Photograph Collection comes from the private collection of T. B. Willis. It includes 648 historical photographs with albums, documents, and historical items from the Willis family and extended relatives who settled in Waco, Texas in the 19th century…more

Jacob Fontaine Religious Museum

The Jacob Fontaine Religious Museum provides materials that represent the history of African American churches in the Austin area and have contributed to the Rescuing Texas History, 2006 and Building the African-American Community collections. The museum is named for Jacob Fontaine, a slave preacher who founded thirteen Baptist churches in Travis County. Mainly consisting of photographs, the items date from 1898 to 2006. He established several churches, a newspaper (the Gold Dollar), taught school, and established a grocery store and laundry. The collection includes photographs of church parishioners, families, students, weddings, church groups, and more from Austin’s African-American community… (more)

From the Web
 

The Portal as a resource

Sunday Gazetteer

Donna Hunt used The Portal to Texas History as a resource to locate information or the newspapers on Bredette C. Murray when he was publisher of his “Sunday Gazetteer” newspaper back in 1910 and 1911 … (more)

from the UNT Digital Library
 
University Photography Collection

Presented by the UNT Archives, this collection of photographs features University of North Texas football, coaches, and fans, UNT alumni (Golden Eagles) and alumni events, and images of the changing and growing University of North Texas campus…(more)
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December 20, 2015
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Featured Collections…

Texas Cultures Online

Texas Cultures Online features local history materials from seventeen institutions depicting the diverse cultures of Texas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Funding for this collection was provided by the Amon Carter Foundation…more

 

 

Private Collection of T.B. Willis 

The T. B. Willis Photograph Collection comes from the private collection of T. B. Willis. It includes 648 historical photographs with albums, documents, and historical items from the Willis family and extended relatives who settled in Waco, Texas in the 19th century

…more

Hardin-Simmons University Library

The Richardson and Smith libraries contain approximately 400,000 items. In addition, the resources of the Internet, remote library catalogs, and more than 100 databases are available to the researcher. Highlights of the special collections include Texana, Fine Printing, and nineteenth and twentieth century classics. Hardin-Simmons University is a member of the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council and a founding member of the Abilene Library Consortium…more

From the Web
Humble Museum gets continued help from RTH grant

Thanks to another $1,000 grant awarded to the museum, more copies of The Humble Echo are currently on their way to UNT for further digitizing, and will join the other copies of the newspaper online for anyone to read them for free at the Portal to Texas History. The university offers their “Rescuing Texas History Mini-Grants” which provide digitization services to libraries, archives, museums etc. Already digitized papers include the earliest versions of the Humble Echo released in June of 1942…more

from the UNT Digital Library
Video of Christmas sales

KXAS was the first television station in Texas and the Southwest when it signed on as WBAP-TV on September 27, 1948. It is an NBC owned station in Fort Worth which serves the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Presented by the UNT Archives, this collection features photographs, video, and scripts from news stories produced by the station during its early years…more

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November 30, 2015
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Featured Collections…
The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum

Located in Abilene, Texas, the 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum serves as a display and teaching museum for the study of World War II. Pictured is a formation of Frenchsoldiers at an American cemetery in France…(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. It is an NBC owned station in Fort Worth which serves the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Presented by the UNT Archives, this collection features photographs, video, and scripts from news stories produced by… (more
Private Collection of Joe E. Haynes

The Private Collection of Joe E. Haynes includes family photographs, as well as a fascinating array of vintage postcards covering every holiday and locations around Texas and beyond… (more)

 

From the Web

Harvest  Costumes from the 1930s and 40s

Textile Ranger is a blogger who focuses on nature and textile and she chose to shine light on The Portal to Texas History’s Weslaco Collection. Textile Ranger featured photos from The Portal like the sailor uniform pictured which is made of grapefruit peels. She writes “In this season of harvest, I bring you some creative costumes from the bountiful Rio Grande Valley of Texas. They were made in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, for the annual Birthday Party in Weslaco, Texas. To promote the region’s agricultural products, each costume had to be made from fruits and vegetables”…(more)

from the UNT Digital Library

RAG Ladies visit the Texas Fashion Collection, November 21, 2013

Video of 5 members of the RAG Ladies (Retired Apparel Group) visiting the Texas Fashion Collection on November21, 2013 at the new facility at 405 S. Welch St., Denton, Texas, on the campus of the University of North Texas…(more)

 

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November 13, 2015
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Featured Collections …

Private Collection of Joe E. Haynes 
The Private Collection of Joe E. Haynes includes family photographs, as well as a fascinating array of vintage postcards covering every holiday and locations around Texas and beyond…more

 

Star of the Republic Museum 
The Star of the Republic Museum is located in Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site, and its mission is to collect and preserve material culture of the Texas Republic. The Star of the Republic Museum’s digital collections include books, letters, manuscripts, portraits, maps, photographs, and an impressive variety of artifacts that includes furniture, clothing, buttons, farm implements, china, trade tokens, arrowheads,and looms…more

 

Log Cabin Village 

The Log Cabin Village collections feature 19th century photographs of the Tompkins, Parks, Howard, and Foster families, including tintypes and daguerreotypes. Two letter collections include correspondence between the Parks and Howard families dating from 1840 to 1940. Where the West Begins: Capturing Fort Worth’s Historic Treasures is the name of this collection. The contributing partners include the UNT Libraries, Fort Worth Public Library, Texas Christian University, the Amon Carter Museum, the University of Texas at Arlington, Beth-El Congregation Archives, Tarrant County College NE, Log Cabin Village, Cattle Raisers Museum, Lockheed Martin Archives, Archives of the Central Texas Conference United Methodist Church, Dallas Public Library, University of Houston, and the Cowtown Coliseum…more

 

From the web…

Samford geneolgy institute to move to Georgia.

Samford University in Birmingham has announced that the Institute for Genealogy and Historical Research, known by some as the Samford Institute, will relocate in 2017 to the University of Georgia campus in Athens.The Georgia Genealogical Society was chosen to be the organization to continue the seminar’s high standards of excellence in genealogical education. In July 2017, the IGHR will be held in Athens at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, with classes linked to the various libraries and resources at UGA…more

 

from the UNT Digital Library
UNT Libraries Government Documents Department

Fill it! : help harvest war crops.

Serving as both a federal and a state depository library, the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department maintains a collection of over 1 million items in a variety of formats including print, microform, audiovisual, maps, posters, musical scores, LPs, CD-ROMs, and Web documents. The department is a member of the FDLP Content Partnerships Program and an Affiliated Archive of the National Archives…more

 

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As the world prepares for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to come out on December 18th, we in the Digital Newspaper Unit are hopping into our newspaper time machine to check into the first Star Wars movie reviews and news.  The movie was initially distributed in limited release in May 1977.  As the article appearing in the Rio Grande Herald, titled, “‘Star Wars’ Raking in Millions” summarizes, Star Wars first opened to 45 theaters, and in 12 days brought in $5.2 million in sales, sweeping the world and almost doubling Fox Studio’s stock at the time of the movie’s release.

From UNT’s own NT Daily, we have a terrific review that includes the sketch in this blog post, on the left.  Star Wars sketch, NT Daily, June 30, 1977According to the review, “‘Star Wars’ features the most cosmic special effects in memory.” Unrelated but also interesting: on the same page of the review is a photo, “Dueling Banjo?” which displays a young David Iles with a terrific ’70s hairdo, wielding what appears to be a shovel-shaped sword.  (David Iles also happens to be the sculptor of the wildlife statues outside the Environmental Education, Science, and Technology Building on the UNT Denton Campus.)

Of course, “Star Wars” came out before most of its top-billed cast were famous–except for Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing, and newspapers made certain to help movie-goers answer questions like, who was that tough guy from American Graffiti?

The Rice Thresher, out of Rice University, gives us an admiring and thoughtful review that especially praises the richness of the special effects.  This review also notes newcomers Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford.

As we move toward the end of the year in our time machine, it appears that “Star Wars” gifts were at the top of most children’s wish lists by the end of 1977, from Bellaire, to Cedar Hill, to Crosbyton.

Not everyone was sad to change out movies at the theater. According to the September 16, 1977, NT Daily article, the Campus Theater projectionists were happy to see something new arrive after playing “Star Wars” for a total of 10 weeks–and after watching it over and over again.  And if you’re curious about “so-called science fiction fizzlers” that “raked a coat-tail profit in the wake of ‘Star Wars,'” you need look no further than the November 17, 1977, issue of the Fort Hood Sentinel.  From this, you’ll get reviews of such stunning classics as “Starship Invasions” and “The Fantastic Invasion of the Planet Earth.”  (Before adding this paragraph, I checked the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” episode list to make sure neither of these movies had become an MST3k episode.)