Laredo, Texas--The Future Great Railroad Centre and Grand Gateway of International Commerce.

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

As part of UNT Libraries’ seventh round of National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant funding awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress has begun uploading more Texas newspaper issues to Chronicling America, the digital repository for historic U. S. newspapers. This seventh round of funding, focused on building content from south- and border-Texas cities, includes new titles from Laredo and McAllen and additional issues to the previously digitized San Antonio Light. After being uploaded to Chronicling America, these newspapers will also go into the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) on the Portal to Texas History.

Laredo Daily NewsThe first titles to go online for this round include Laredo Daily News, showcasing a small number of issues from the late nineteenth century. We then have issues of the Laredo Weekly Times, from several years spanning the early twentieth century.  This first batch of digitized newspapers also includes some 1935 issues of The Laredo Times, a title that featured news in both English and Spanish. More issues from the Laredo Weekly Times and The Laredo Times will be added Chronicling America in the coming months.

Chronicling America currently provides over 20 million pages of digitized historic newspapers in 30 different languages from all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. You can find a list of previously digitized Texas newspapers on Chronicling America, as well as see when new titles and issues are added to Chronicling America here.

 

Posted by & filed under General.

This post was written by Madelin Villanueva, a UNT Emerald Eagle Scholar and biomedical engineering major, who is completing an internship in Digital Libraries this semester.

Did you know that many Texans invented early versions of the same medical devices we use today?

Bandage

Leah M. Kirwan patented the bandage pictured below on August 9, 1921, from Houston, Texas.

Early bandage patented in the 19th century, invented by a Texan.

 

Johnson and Johnson Consumer, Inc., patented the below version of the bandage on August 2, 2022.

 

Johnson & Johnson bandage patent from 2022.

 

USD959680S1 – Adhesive bandage with decorated pad – Google Patents

 

Inhaler

George W. White from San Antonio, Texas patented this version of the inhaler on August 27, 1912.

Inhaler patent from Portal to Texas History

Respiri, Ltd., patented this new version of the inhaler on August 19, 2014.

Inhaler patent from 2014

US8807131B1 – Compliance monitoring for asthma inhalers – Google Patents

 

Syringe

James H. Glasscock from Sherman, Texas patented an early version of the syringe on April 9, 1889. 

James Glasscock syringe patent from Portal to Texas History.

Schott AG patented a new version of the syringe on May 31, 2011.

Syringe patent from 2011

Syringe patent from 2011

US7951120B2 – Method for manufacturing a syringe – Google Patents

There are countless patents that reach far beyond medical devices, if you are interested in discovering what else fellow Texans have created just go to The Portal to Texas History where you can find the Texas Patents – The Portal to Texas History.

 

Posted by & filed under Events, General, Resources for Educators.

The 2024 Texas Conference on Introductory History Courses, an American Historical Association regional conference, took place October 4th and 5th at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. The focus of the conference centered around issues, challenges, and opportunities associated with introductory courses in US and world history that students may encounter in their education. The Portal to Texas History had the opportunity to share information on the ever growing number of resources made available online for scholars of all kinds.

Posted by & filed under General.

This September, The Portal to Texas History was happy to sponsor and attend the Texas General Land Office’s Save Texas History Symposium in Austin, Texas. The symposium provides attendees the opportunity to learn from scholars discussing the rich history of Texas. This year’s theme, Cartographic Frontiers: Putting Texas on the Map, focused on how the map and map making influenced the social, political, and economic history of Texas.

Posted by & filed under General, Rescuing Texas History.

The Portal to Texas History announced its most recent call for submissions for the 2024 Rescuing Texas History program. This is the sixteenth year of the program, which has brought to light over 82,000 items from 448 projects. The resources added to The Portal to Texas History from these collections have had more than 19.5 million uses since the program began back in 2006!

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.

We are thrilled to announce this year’s awardees!
Congratulations to:

Museum of the American Railroad Private Collection of TB Willis Alpha Delta Pi of Gamma Upsilon Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site
Riesel Historical Society Dallas Municipal Archives Tomball Museum Center Midland Historical Society
Private Collection of the Whitehead Family Private Collection of Sharon Smith Private Collection of the Ritchie Family Bastrop Public Library
Experience Wrestling Denton Public Library Lamar University Collin County Genealogical Society
Rainbow Garden Club of North Texas Private Collection of Jim Mahoney West Side Port Arthur Private Collection of the Whaley Family
City of Galveston Development Services Texas Lutheran University  Murphy Historical Society Rice University, Woodson Research Center
Ft Worth Jewish Archives Texas Military Forces Museum University of Dallas Archives