New Collections

The Moses and Stephen F. Austin Papers
With plans to add more, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History contributed a selection of its Moses and Stephen F. Austin papers to the Portal. Considered the father of Texas by many, Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) carried out his father’s plan for the Anglo colonization of Mexican Texas. The collection consists of transcripted correspondence between members of the Austin family dating from 1794 to 1879. The letters document both hardship and success for the Austin family through detailed accounts of land claims, store and banking investments, shipment of goods, settlement of debts and family matters.

Museum of the Gulf Coast
More than 500 photographs and postcards spanning a hundred years provide a nice historical overview of Port Arthur and the surrounding region. It appears the locals knew how to have fun since the collection includes more than 100 photographs of musicians and their bands, including Tex Ritter, Moon Mullican, Cookie and the Cupcakes, Marcia Ball, Johnny Winter, and yes, even a photograph of Janis Joplin posing with her class in elementary school.

The Carpa Cubana and Sabino Gomez Photograph Collection
The Witte Museum of San Antonio received a Rescuing Texas History grant from UNT to digitize their Carpa Cubana collection that documents the Mexican American tent shows that traveled throughout Mexico and the Southwestern United States, mostly between 1910 and 1940. The “carpas” combined traditional circus acts with acrobats and clowns and theatrical performances, such as singing, dancing, and comedy routines. La Carpa Cubana was run by the Abreu family based in San Antonio and Sabino Gomez was their star performer.

National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation 
The National Museum of the Pacific war added their transcribed interviews of Texas veterans’ experiences in Iwo Jima, D-Day, campaigns in the South Pacific, and the Battle of Bataan. The veterans’ first-hand accounts are compelling and are a great resource for the classroom.

What’s in the Lab now?

Institute of Texan Cultures
Texas history teachers, you asked and we are delivering! The Institute of Texan Cultures is contributing thousands of images of its Texas Folklife Festival to the Portal. The colorful photographs provide wonderful examples of the diversity of Texas cultures and the retention of cultural traditions. The Museum received UNT’s Texas Cultures Online grant sponsored by the Amon Carter Foundation. The collection will be available on the Portal in July, 2012.

Mexic-Arte Museum
Another recipient of UNT’s Texas Cultures Online grant, the Mexic-Arte Museum will feature its collection of exhibition catalogs and photographs of cultural events including Austin’s largest and longest running Day of the Dead Festival.

Digital Frontiers 2012 – Save the Date!

Digital Frontiers
September 21, 2012

The University of North Texas Libraries and The Portal to Texas History are hosting Digital Frontiers, a conference focusing on digital resources for research, teaching, and learning. The conference features a keynote address by Michael Millner, Director of the Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for Public Humanites.

We invite local historians, genealogists, librarians, K-12 educators, university and community college educators, students and technologists to come together to share ideas, knowledge and questions about how digital resources are changing the landscape of knowledge production in the public sphere.

To keep the converstation going, THATCamp Digital Frontiers will be held the following day on September 22, 2012 and will offer hands-on workshops and smaller informal group discussions. More details. 

Focus on … Parades!

Geogetown Centennial, 1948, Austin Public Library.	Connolly Parade Float, circa 1900, Bosque County Historical Commission.
North Texas Homecoming, 1954, University of North Texas Archives.	Fourth of July Parade, 1970, Richardson Public Library.

Students making a difference…

Meet Anjum Najmi, who joined the Portal team in 2010 to create a set of K-12 lessons as part of a grant UNT received from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its Chronicling America project. Her Newspaper Narratives lessons, featured on the Portal’s Resources 4 Educators website, use newspaper articles to teach key events in history through first-hand accounts. They have become very popular, especially the Cattle Kingdom lesson.

Anjum Najmi is working towards a doctorate in Educational Computing with a focus in instructional design at UNT’s Department of Learning Technologies. She has a number of years’ experience teaching in the K-12 classroom. Anjum said working in the classroom has helped her understand students’ needs and how teachers view curriculum content.

As she works on her dissertation in the Learning Technologies Department Anjum is also earning an MS in Library Science at UNT’s College of Information. She sees a strong connection between the two fields as they both incorporate information literacy. Anjum is fairly new to library science and would like to know more about digital collections and the ways that digital content can be made more accessible to users. She is especially interested in how social tagging is used and the role it will have in the future.

New Languages and Cultures
in the Texas Digital Newspaper Program

The Portal is pleasedto announce the inclusion of 1,535 pages of the Texas Posten to the Texas Digital Newspaper Program collection. The Texas Posten began publication on April 18, 1896 as the first Swedish-language newspaper in Texas.  After nearly 100 years of publication, the Posten office closed down when its owners retired. The issues on the Portal can be searched in Swedish and represent the first six years of the Posten’s publication.

Also added to the Portal this year is the Galveston-based newspaper The Representative, available in its entire run, from 1871-1873. The Representative was the first newspaper in Texas to be published by an African-American proprietor and editor. 

The Portal also welcomes The El Paso Morning Times, the only Spanish and English newspaper to cover the Mexican Revolution, featuring such figures as Pancho Villa and and Emiliano Zapata. These issues represent 1913-1918, are searchable in Spanish. They were funded through a partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso.

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program is an expansion of newspaper preservation and access from the National Digital Newspaper Program. NDNP is a long-term effort from NEH and the Library of Congress to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with select digitization of historic papers. NDNP will create a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 in all 50 states and U.S. territories.

Highlights from the UNT Digital Collections

The UNT Digital Library contains a small treasure trove of rare War Department Field Manualsand Technical Manuals from the World War II era.  Because these documents were routinely superseded by newer editions, most libraries discarded them. We are lucky indeed that our own Government Documents Department maintained this collection for so many years–providing us with a snapshot of Army life and an understanding of the equipment and field techniques used during the war.

The War Department Manuals are part of a growing selection of online materials that help us comprehend this troubled period of world history.  You may also be interested in the:

World War Poster Collection
World War Two Collection
World War Two Newsmaps

Visit our Resources 4 Educators web site. We’ve added Primary Source Sets and Newspaper Narratives.

Hot Comments

“Great site! Thanks for sharing this great information!” –M.W.

“I don’t know who is responsible for including the Bastrop Advertiser in this collection, but I thank you. What a wonderful resource. Thank you, thank you!” –S. Reese

“I found my ancestor listed in the Notables. I had not seen this information on him before. My family appreciates the Portal for providing this bit of family heritage in 19th century Waco.” –Anonymous

“I want to thank whoever put my history of my relative online…I have been looking forever…I found not only her information but a photo of her and her daughter on the front page of the El Paso Herald. I have called all my family to let them know of this find!!! – Katie

Mission Statement

The Portal to Texas History offers students and lifetime learners a digital gateway to the rich collections held in Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies and private collections.

Sign up for the Portal to Texas E-Newsletter!

Please forward this newsletter to friends, family, or anyone else who loves Texas history! If you’d like to sign up for our newsletter, just click the link above and send the email

The Portal on Facebook If you are on Facebook, join the Portal to Texas History page to be the first to hear the latest Portal news and stories.

Who Knew?
You can find anything on the Portal, really. . .

A search for “fabric” brings up 16,429 items.
Photograph from the George Ranch Historical Park

Holland Tailor Shop,
Heritage House Museum

Abilene High School,
Abilene Photograph Collection

Photograph from George Ranch Historical Park

Contact Us

Beyond the Bytes is a free electronic newsletter emailed to subscribers of our listserv.

Tara Carlisle, Editor

Nancy Reis, Editor:
nancy.reis@unt.edu

Ana Krahmer, Contributor
ana.krahmer@unt.edu

UNT Libraries 
Portal to Texas History
1155 Union Circle #305190
Denton, TX 76203-5017
940.565.3023

See our back issues

“Largest Class Ever Graduated in the State of Texas,” Tarrant County College Northeast

New Collections

Southwestern Historical Quarterly
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly is an indispensible resource for Texas history researchers and enthusiasts. The Portal now has 87 issues, dating back to 1898. Articles written by noted scholars cover all aspects of Texas history, including Texas’ military brigades and battles, history of the Texas Rangers, Native American tribes of Texas, colonization, and industrialization of Texas. The image on the left is the cover of volume 71, July 1967, an issue devoted to the Texas cattle industry.

Texas General Land Office 
Texas GLO contributed 924 historic county maps, 1838 – 1939. The historic county maps are cadastral (land ownership) maps, showing original surveys, usually made by virtue of a land grant within a particular county in Texas. As land was patented by settlers, meaning a title was issued from the sovereign government, more surveys were shown on GLO maps. Successive versions of these maps reflect those changes and show the development and expansion as settlement progressed throughout each county in Texas.

USGS Topographic Maps
Over 4,200 topographic maps of Texas from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) project were added to the Portal. Each map includes towns, historic or notable sites, bodies of water, and other geologic features. Most USGS map series divide the United States into quadrangles bounded by two lines of latitude and two lines of longitude. Others show a whole area—a county, State, national park, or place of special interest.

2010 Rescuing Texas History Grant Projects
The following collections are a sampling of projects that were funded by UNT Libraries’ Rescuing Texas History grant. (To apply for the 2011 Rescuing Texas History grant, see grant opportunity section below.)

Bell/Whittington Public Library
Located near Corpus Christi Bay, Bell/Whittington Public Library contributed historic photographs of San Patricio and Nueces Counties. Images include the 1919 hurricane, portraits of early residents and buildings, President Taft’s visit to a local ranch in 1909 and hunting photographs from 1898. On the right is a photograph of local hunters posing after a day of hunting ducks on Nueces Bay.

Richardson Public Library Richardson Public Library provides a rich array of images from its beginning as a rural community, such as portraits of the families and businesses who founded Richardson, as well as historic homes and buildings. Pictured on the left employees are assembling transistors under microscopes at the Texas Instruments Semiconductor Product Plant between 1958-1962.

The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History contributed a wonderful sample of photographs from its Winkelmann Collection. Most of the images are stylized portraits of residents from Brenham and surrounding communities in Washington and Lee counties, dating 1912-1934. The entire collection, housed at the Center for American History, contains over 300,000 negatives, approximately 15,000 of which are glass plates and were photographed by three generations of Winkelmanns.

What’s in the Lab now?

The UNT Digital Projects Unit is digitizing a variety of materials at this time: school yearbooks, early Texas newspapers, Wilson County Historical Society’s photographs, books and manuscripts. The Lab also recently started working on an NEH-funded project to digitize 5,000 historically significant maps belonging to the University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections. And this fall we’ll begin digitizing materials for its Texas Cultures Online project that was generously funded by the Amon Carter Foundation.

Announcing a competition
and a new grant opportunity

Calling all teachers and students! 

Participate in My Texas History Notebook Awards, a competition that will award fourteen prizes for the top lesson plans on a Texas history topic. There are three categories to choose from, or if you are feeling ambitious, submit one lesson plan for each category.  Please see Guidelines for My Texas History Notebook Awards. The deadline to enter lesson plans is December 15, 2010.

Grant Opportunity – Rescuing Texas History, 2011

UNT Libraries is accepting applications for its Rescuing Texas History grant, 2011. UNT Libraries is dedicated to providing access to Texas history collections belonging to museums, libraries, archives, private collections, historical societies and government agencies throughout Texas.  The grant will provide allocations to digitize photographs, negatives (large and small), slides, handwritten materials and non-bound print materials and documents.  The application deadline is December 15, 2010. For more details, please click here.

Focus on Football!

Cheerleaders posing with megaphones, Hardin-Simmons University Library	1940 North Texas Agriculture College football team, Arlington Public Library and Fielder House
HSU football player with calf, Hardin-Simmons University Library	Cheerleaders from Trinity High School, Tarrant County College Northeast

Students making a difference…

Meet Reyes Berrios. He has been working in the UNT libraries since 2006; first for two years as a music cataloger and now, since September 2008, as a Graduate Library Assistant (GLA) in the Digital Projects Lab.

Reyes was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He received a Master’s degree from UNT in music performance/music history.  He is a flute player and although trained as classical musician, enjoys playing compositions in almost any musical genre, including Latin American and American pop music. Presently, he is working toward his PhD in musicology.  He expects to finish his dissertation in May 2011.  It is about the 19th century opera “Macias” by the Puerto Rican composer Felipe Gutierrez Espinosa (1825-1899). His research will demonstrate that Puerto Rico had a very active musical and cultural life that was interrupted after the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Reyes thinks UNT is a wonderful place to study.  He values the diverse community of students and great teachers.  He also appreciates the “continued efforts of the administration to upgrade its facilities, technology, and classroom resources.”

His work in the Digital Projects Lab is primarily focused on creating digital images and metadata records for items/collections held in the UNT Libraries.  He has been trusted with the task of digitizing immensely valuable music scores, opera librettos, yearbooks, maps and pictures.  Working with music from the UNT Rare Book Collection offers him a unique opportunity in his field. For example, he digitized and cataloged a score of Debussy’s “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune,” a copy Debussy dedicated to his friend, the conductor Edouard Colonne, in October of 1895. That score gives us a glimpse at orchestral performance practice of late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century because it contains markings that very likely were added by the conductor in consultation with the composer.

Upon graduation, Reyes would like to continue music research and teaching.  He is also a performer and will certainly continue to express himself through music-making. Reyes has been a valuable part of our team in the Digital Projects Lab. We expect to hear great things about him in the future.

Newspapers recently added to the Portal

Breckenridge Weekly Democrat, 1926-1933
Breckenridge American, 1920-1927, 1931-1932 
Brenham Weekly Banner, 1877-1897
El Paso Herald, 1910 (more issues forthcoming)
Galveston Weekly News, 1844-1861
Greenville Morning Herald, 1910, 1918
Jefferson Jimplecute, 1889-1911 
San Angelo Press, 1901-1906
San Saba News, 1876-1891
San Saba Weekly News, 1889-1892
Shiner Gazette, 1893-1911
Waco Daily Examiner, 1874-1888 
Waco Evening News, 1888-1889, 1892-1893

Highlights from the UNT Digital Collections

Gordon Knox Film Collection

The Gordon Knox Film Collection contains over 100 films created by Texas-born filmmaker Gordon Knox (1906 – 1982) or Mr. Knox’s production company, The Princeton Film Archives. The collection contains short and feature-length documentaries produced between 1937 and 1964 for the United States Armed Forces, state and federal government agencies, non-profit organizations and private sector clients. Currently, 67 films in the Gordon Knox Collection are available through the UNT Digital Library. The remaining 35mm films are housed at the UNT Media Library, along with physical 16mm copies of the 67 films available through the UNT Digital Library.

What is Modern Art? | Film on Tim Holt | Giant Killers ELCO| 100 Years New Mexico

Visit our Resources 4 Educatorsweb site. We’ve added Primary Source Sets and Newspaper Narratives.

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Image of the month

An advertisement for The Katy Flyer in the July, 1900 issue of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. The ad boasted a new, fast, solid vestibuled train with sleepers, free reclining chair cars, and 50¢ meals in the dining cars.

Mission Statement

The Portal to Texas History offers students and lifetime learners a digital gateway to the rich collections held in Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies and private collections.

Sign up for the Portal to Texas E-Newsletter!

Please forward this newsletter to friends, family, or anyone else who loves Texas history! If you’d like to sign up for our newsletter, just click the link above and send the email

It’s Online!!

More Texas historic newspapers have been added to the Portal recently. The Portal’s education team created lesson plansusing newspaper articles so students can learn about history through first-hand accounts covering immigration, the cattle kingdom, the Civil War, and the progressive era.

The cartoon above is featured in the El Paso Herald newspaper in 1917.

The Portal on Facebook If you are on Facebook, join the Portal to Texas History page to be the first to hear the latest Portal news and stories.

Who Knew?
You can find anything on the Portal, really. . .

A search for the keyword “money” found quite a number of items!

Republic of Texas dollar bill from the Fort Bend Museum.

One Cent copper coin with two drilled holes from the Star of the Republic Museum.

1943 French note or ticket from the Banque Chabasseur Oran from the Sulphur Springs Public Library.

What the heck is this? It’s a money pouch used in the 1840’s for carrying silver from the Star of the Republic Museum.

Contact Us

Beyond the Bytes is a free electronic newsletter emailed to subscribers of our listserv.

Dreanna Belden, Editor:
dreanna.belden@unt.edu

Tara Carlisle, Editor

Nancy Reis, Editor:
nancy.reis@unt.edu

Ann Howington, Contributor

UNT Libraries 
Portal to Texas History
1155 Union Circle #305190
Denton, TX 76203-5017
940.565.3023

See our back issues