Posted by & filed under General.

 


Beyond the Bytes

 Winter 2013

 

Proud to Represent Texas! The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) invited The Portal to Texas History to become a partner and join a distinguished list of ten service hubs across the country to provide online access to their digital collections. DPLA’s mission is to offer a single point of access to millions of items, photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Taking it a step further, DPLA created a platform that allows researchers, developers, programmers, and others to use the items in creative ways. Visit DPLA’s App Library to view some innovation at work.

Full-color Newspapers Texas Digital Newspaper Program uploads first full-color newspapers from the new scanner. All issues of The Meridian Tribune from 1935 have been  uploaded as the Texas Digital Newspaper Program’s first newspaper title digitized from UNT Libraries new scanner.  Master images are 24-bit, full-color TIFFs, from which OCR has been generated and derivatives are viewable as full newspapers.  Through a Tocker grant awarded to the Meridian Public Library, over 60 years of The Meridian Tribune will be included on The Portal to Texas History. 

Featured Collections

Image of LBJNorman Dietel Photograph Collection, contributed by the LBJ Museum of San Marcos, documents Lyndon Johnson and family at the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, Texas (his home from 1951-1973, Lady Bird’s until 2007). Noteworthy persons included in photographs are Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, Sam Rayburn, John F. Kennedy, Henry B. Gonzales, Hubert Humphrey, Pierre Salinger, and Bill Moyers. The photos also depict scenes of Texas hill country and historic Fredericksburg buildings, such as the Vereins-Kirche.

The Ormer Locklear Collection from the University of Texas at Dallas depicts the exciting and brief career of pilot Ormer Locklear. The WWI veteran performed as a barnstormer in Texas and then headed to Hollywood where he acted in two feature movies (The Great Air Robbery and the Skywayman). The Collection consists of photographs of Locklear, his friends and family, his stunt flying and his movie work, and a hand-colored set of Lobby Cards from The Great Air Race.   

Featured Partner

The Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC), part of the Houston Public Library System’s Special Collections, contributed two of its extensive collections to the Portal.

Mexican American Family Photo Collection
Through photographs and documents, the collection relates the everyday life of families (including photographs of the Rusk Settlement House for Mexican-American Immigrants) as well as local businesses, festivals and community events.

John J. Herrera Papers
Lawyer and leading civil rights advocatefor Mexican Americans, John J. Herrera played a significant role in key cases that challenged the legitimacy of separate schools for Mexican American children and excluding Spanish-speaking citizens from service on juries. Herrera also served as national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

 

What’s in the Lab now?

UNT and the Texas Historical Commission (THC) received a TexTreasures grant this year to digitize a selection of THC’s Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) application files from five heritage regions in the state. The RTHL designation is awarded to historic structures deemed worthy of preservation and is the highest honor the state bestows upon historic buildings in Texas.  Each application includes a narrative describing the building’s historical significance and images illustrating the architectural features of the property. Here’s a preview of one application.

Beyond
the Bytes

Sign up for the Portal to Texas History
newsletter!
 

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


http://texashistory.unt.edu/
To unsubscribe from this newsletter: click here and send the email.
AA/EOE/ADA

 

 

 

Posted by & filed under General.

Beyond the Bytes

The e-newsletter of UNT’s Portal to Texas History | June 2012

Cotton Wagons Crossing Brite Ranch
Cotton Wagons Crossing the Brite Ranch, Marfa Public Library


New Collections


The Moses and Stephen F. Austin Papers
Austin PapersWith 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.

mullicanMuseum 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.

Carpa Cubana Witte MuseumThe 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.

WWII veteranNational 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.

graphic

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.

graphic

Digital Frontiers 2012 – Save the Date!


Digital Frontiers
September 21, 2012

willisThe 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

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.

banner for the Texas Digital Newspaper Program

New Languages and Cultures
in the Texas Digital Newspaper Program


Texas Posten newspaperThe 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. newspaper

El Paso HeraldThe 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.

graphic

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

 

dogaerialsmall boatsaerialaerial

computer graphical element

UNT

picture of hand raising in classroom

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



facebook iconThe 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.fabric
Photograph from the George Ranch Historical Park

tailor shop
Holland Tailor Shop,
Heritage House Museum

Abilene High SchoolAbilene High School,
Abilene Photograph Collection

George Ranch
Photograph from George Ranch Historical Park

Contact Us

Alamo Illustration

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

 


UNT wordmark

http://texashistory.unt.edu/
To unsubscribe from this newsletter: click here and send the email.
AA/EOE/ADA

Posted by & filed under General.

beyond the bytes

ryey

Holiday Greetings

The Portal team extends its denton city hallbest wishes for the holiday season! The lab has been busy digitizing collections from around the state. Below are some highlights of recent collections that have been added to the Portal. Closer to home, the postcard on the right is from the Denton Public Library.

What’s New

O Henry collectionCollaboration at its best! The Austin History Center, the Texas General Land Office, and the Texas State Preservation Board received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize their O. Henry materials.The O. Henry Collection includes letters, documents, and his many short stories.Gillespie County Historical

UNT Libraries’ received a Texas Cultures Online grant, funded by the Amon Carter Foundation, to digitize ethnically diverse collections and a few are already online. The Gillespie Historical Society collection features photographs of German settlers, family portraits, local businesses, such as the Klaerner Opera House, the Ludwig Shoe Shop, and the original Probst Brewery.

austin presbyterian theological The Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary showcases its archives of the Texas-Mexican Presbytery.The Presbytery established Mexican-Presbyterian churches, placed ministers, disbursed support funds, and established two Mexican-Presbyterian educational institutions

Texas Jewish Post
The Portal’s Digital Newspaper Program is growing by leaps and bounds and so far has more than 82,000 historical newspaper issues online. The most recent newspaper collections that were added are the Southern Mercury (1888-1907), El Regidor (1890-1903), and the Texas Jewish Post (2005-2011).

UNT Libraries received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission civil war letterto digitize some of its civil war papers. The Civil War and its Aftermath: Diverse Perspectivescomprises eight archival collections reflecting the experiences of women, military men, Texas cattlemen, businesses, farmers, and government officials with vastly different political views and experiences.

Making a difference

Meet Kristy Gallahan, our student assistant who joined the Digital Projects team in May 2007 when she was a just freshman.  Kristy grew up in Gainesville, Texas attending a small public school, with only 500 students (K-12) in the small community of Era.

Kristy is a computer science and biochemistry double major at UNT, which is a lot of work.  With all the new research opportunities that are rapidly opening up in these fields, she is excited to be studying here at UNT.

Kristy says she has learned a many things working in the Digital Projects Lab.  She has developed her Photoshop skills, learned about Texas and American history, learned some Python (a computer programing language) and a lot about databases, as well as how to run our super-fast duplex scanner!

Kristy plans to continue her academic career by obtaining a Master’s degree in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and eventually, a PhD.  Then she wants to continue research in sequencing DNA and studying proteins.  She would love to be part of the team that cures cancer.  She also wants to publish a book, take up karate and learn to play the piano.  Kristy believes the sky is the limit!

 

Hot Comments 

“Thanks for placing these sketches of persons at First Street Cemetery on the Portal!”

“I adore this website. My pioneer grandpa was here in 1836. It has been a wonderful experience to use your website.”

“I enjoyed seeing a picture of the Hussars. Thanks.”


Always in style. . .

fashion

 

The Portal on Facebook

Join the Portal to Texas History Facebook page to be the first to hear the latest Portal news and stories.facebook icon

 

 


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.

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.

Contact Us

Alamo Illustration

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

The Portal to Texas History

To unsubscribe from this newsletter: click here and send the email.

AA/EOE/ADA

Posted by & filed under General.

Beyond the Bytes

The e-newsletter of UNT’s Portal to Texas History | October 2010

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

New Collections


Southwestern Historical QuarterlySouthwestern 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 
Clamp County MapTexas 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 map AnuhuacUSGS 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 LibrarySan Patricio Texas hunters
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.

Texas InstrumentRichardson 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.

 

photograph from Winkelmann Studio photo from winkelmann studioThe 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.

graphic

What’s in the Lab now?


DPL Sarah LynnThe UNT Digital Projects Unit is digitizing a variety of materials at this time: school yearbooks, DPU lab photoearly 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.

graphic

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 football field
Cheerleaders posing with megaphones, Hardin-Simmons University Library 1940 North Texas Agriculture College football team, Arlington Public Library and Fielder House
football player and heifer cheerleaders
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.  Reyes BerriosHe 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.

banner for the Texas Digital Newspaper Program

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

 

graphic

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.

Gordon Knox Film collectionGordon KnoxGordon Knox film collectionGordon Knox film

What is Modern Art? | Film on Tim Holt | Giant Killers ELCO100 Years New Mexico

 

computer graphical element

UNT

picture of hand raising in classroom

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


Hot Comments

“Love your site, use it all the time and recommend it on message boards all the time.” L. Smith

Apperson family“Thank you so much for this site, it has really been wonderful to see a glimpse
into my family’s daily life!”
Best regards, A. Apperson

“Just want to say a big “THANK YOU” for this wonderful site.” Regards, Lufkin, Texas

“I am always excited to visit this blog in the evenings. It is very entertaining.”
– L. Derna


Image of the month

advertisement southwestern historical quarterly

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.

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

 


facebook iconThe 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 dollar bilRepublic of Texas dollar bill from the Fort Bend Museum.

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

French currency1943 French note or ticket from the Banque Chabasseur Oran from the Sulphur Springs Public Library.

money pouchWhat 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

Alamo Illustration

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

 


UNT wordmark

http://texashistory.unt.edu/
To unsubscribe from this newsletter: click here and send the email.
AA/EOE/ADA

Posted by & filed under General.

 

Beyond the Bytes Banner

The e-newsletter of UNT’s Portal to Texas History| May 2010

Content
New Collections 
What’s in the lab now?

Grant Opportunity
Focus on . . . Picnics!

Students making a Difference . . .
TDNP: Fort Worth Daily Gazette and Houston Daily Post now online

UNT Digital Collections 

Railroad survey crew
Railroad Survey Crew, Irving Archives, 1902

computer graphical element

New Collections

Lower Valley School is not forgotten

With support from the Summerlee Foundation, the Northeast Lakeview Community College digitized hundreds of photographs and documents of the Lower Valley School (1877-1966), a rural two-room German schoolhouse which served the Cibolo and Schertz communities for 89 years.Lower Valley SchoolThe public school opened in 1877 when German immigrants settled in the Central Texas area to start farms, ranches, and trading centers along the railroad line. The school had one teacher who taught all grades until the early 1900’s. When the Lower Valley schoolhouse closed in 1966, Lutrell and Maxine Watts, who taught at the school for 25 years, purchased and eventually donated the schoohouse and its archives to Northeast Lakeview Community College.

Picturing the Mexican Revolution

El Paso Public Library digitized over 500 photographs from its Otis Aultman collection. Working in El Paso as a commercial El Paso Villistasphotographer for International News Service and Pathe News, Otis Aultman documented the Mexican Revolution as it crossed the border into El Paso and surrounding areas. His gruesome photographs of the dead or fleeing refugees portray a chaotic and dangerous borderland.refugees fleeing mexicoThe images signify the historic impact that the Revolution had on the United States with over 890,000 persons immigrating to the U.S. during the war. As one of the few American photographers that General Pancho Villa would pose for, Aultman spent much of his time following Villa and his soldiers. El Paso Library will use images from this collection for its upcoming exhibit commemorating the centennial anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.

Early Republic of Texas Sesson Laws

To the delight of many researchers, the following volumes of the Laws of the Republic of Texas are now available on the Portal thanks to funding from the Texas Historical Foundation. Finding that elusive amendment or resolution will be much simpler using the Portal’s full-text searching capability.

Bee County Historical Commission 
Bee County CourthouseHistoric homes, buildings, schools, churches and leaders of the community are featured in Bee County Historical Commission’s collection. Images of the “Confectionary” in Skidmore, the first plane to fly in Beeville, and the Skidmore Float in the 1916 Beeville parade along with hundreds of other photographs provide a glimpse into historic Bee County. When applying for the “Rescuing Texas History” grant, the Commission stated that in addition to preserving the photographs, it wanted to make them available on the Portal so students and the community could learn more about their local history.

Port Arthur Public Library 

Port Arthur was founded in 1898 by Arthur Stilwell who dreamed of turning the barren marshland into a thriving seaport. He built the first railroad from Kansas City southward to the Gulf CoastPort Arthur Sabine Lake. Decades later Port Arthur would become a major site for petrochemical industries and global trade. Aerial photographs of the city show the Gulf Oil Company and Texaco plants, detailed images of refineries and technology, and an overview of Port Arthur’s business district, while images of recreational scenes such as fishing on Sabine Lake (right), the Seascout (boyscout) troop, and herding “Gulfaloes” add local color.

graphic

What’s in the Lab now?

River Valley Pioneer Museum

Photographer Julius Born took thousands of photographs of the people, land and community in Hemphill county located in the Texas panhandle. The Portal team is in the process of digitizing 2,700 photographs for the River Valley Pioneer Museum, to add to the 1,100 already available on the Portal. young woman, river valley pioneer museumyoung man, river valley pioneer museum
The Museum states, “In thousands of portrait photographs taken during the first half of the twentieth century, Born forever documented our past, our heritage, our humanity.  In his images of cowboys and businessmen, well-composed ladies, and fidgety children, Born shows us the pioneers and early residents who made Canadian what it is today. For decades, Born operated his photography studio from the back of his variety store.  It was here where all types of people stepped into his curious world of cameras and backdrops, costumes and mood lighting.  Over the years, thousands sought out this self-taught photographer and curiosity shop owner to record their most important moments.” The portraits are so compelling that it’s hard to stop looking! Preview the collection.

graphic


Texas Cultures Online Opportunity

The Portal to Texas History recently received grant funding from the Amon Carter Foundation for its proposed project Texas Cultures Online. In response to educators’ need for more multi-media materials that support the teaching of the many cultures of Texas, the Portal proposed a project to digitize cultural heritage collections that represent various racial, ethnic and religious groups. This summer the Portal will make an official announcement inviting partners and institutions to apply for a Texas Cultures Online grant. Depending on the project the award allocations will range from $500 -$20,000. The criteria for the mini-projects will include several factors: 1) historical significance of the collections; 2) ability of the materials to help close the thematic gap: Texas Cultures; 3) potential of the partner to raise additional funding or contribute staff time towards the work; and 4) and condition and age of the materials. Please spread the word if you know of a collection that would be a good candidate for this project.


Focus on … Picnics!

Buffalo Clover Fields family picnic
In the Buffalo Clover Fields of Texas, Postcard, 1908, Joe E. Haynes Collection Family picnic, Abilene Photograph Collection
Group of people at a picnic Picnic at Marshall Public Library
Group of People at a Picnic, Heritage House Museum The 1980 summer reading program at Marshall Public Library finishes with a picnic.

Students making a difference …


Meet Sashenka Lopez, Graduate Library Assistant (GLA) in the Digital Projects Lab. She has been a part of our team since spring 2009. Sashenka was born and raised in dynamic Denton, Texas but also spent quite a lot of time in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico with her relatives. Her mother is a UNT alum, with three degrees from the school.photograph of sashenka lopezSashenka plans to graduate with her MS in Library and Information Sciences in August 2010. She states, “The library sciences are noble. Librarians take up the battle for accessibility and the freedom to use information. Information professionals also work to preserve cultural history and foster future greatness in communities worldwide. Library science will…increase in value as the age of information defines itself.”

Sashenka is working on our Resources4 Educators and Resources4 Students initiatives through the Portal to Texas History. Resources4 Educators offers educational resources to enrich students’ knowledge of Texas History by providing exciting materials that correspond to multiple aspects of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for teaching Texas History. She feels that these resources will have a positive impact on teachers and students throughout the state of Texas. Her goal is to to foster a fun, engaging experience in order to encourage the use of primary sources within the Portal

Her passions lie with reaching out to under-served populations, working with cultural preservation and food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the “right” of peoples to define their own food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries systems, in contrast to having food largely subject to international market forces. She is also in a band, Orange Coax, and will be going on tour with them after graduating.

Sashenka has been a creative, self-motivated GLA and we enjoy her contributions to the Digital Projects Lab and appreciate all her hard work on the Portal to Texas History.


banner for the Texas Digital Newspaper Program

The Fort Worth Daily Gazette
and the 
Houston Daily Post

The Portal recently added the Fort Worth Daily Gazette, 1880-1889, Fort Worth Weekly Gazette, 1890-1899, and the Houston Daily Post, 1890-1909, which comes to a total of 3,321 issues. The newspapers are an indispensable research tool for students and scholars and are just a lot of fun to browse. An editorial in the Fort Worth Daily Gazette sums up the state of affairs in Fort Worth on May 4th in 1885:Fort Worth Daily Gazette

“On the theory that variety is the spice of life, Fort Worth is certainly blessed with a good deal of “spice” just now. Seduction cases on trial, a red-hot revival meeting in full blast, horse racing sports, a prohibition convention, its incomparable White Elephant Saloon, etc, altogether constitute a programme sufficiently diversified, it would seem, to satisfy the tastes of even the most fastidious. Such is Fort Worth, where more people get off and on the cars than in all other leading towns in Texas combined.”

The UNT Libraries is one of 22 state partners, and the only partner from Texas, to receive National Endowment for the Humanities funding to digitize newspapers from the late 1800s and early 1900s for the National Digital Newspaper Program, “Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.”

The National Digital Newspaper Program, or 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.

graphic
Highlights from the UNT Digital Collections

Miniature Book Collection
UNT Libraries’ Rare Book and Texana Collections presents a small selection of tiny treasures from the holdings of the UNT Libraries Rare Book Room. These miniature books, 4” (10 cm) tall or smaller, include both contemporary and historical works. In some cases, only the covers have been digitized.

mini book 3 mini book 1 mini book3

The book in the center titled De 7 werewonderen is 3 and 3/8 inches tall and was created 1965-1973 by Franco-Suisse. It is an overview of the “seven wonders of the ancient world, and various other structures and monuments that could be considered as equally important.”


 

UNT logo

 

picture of hand raising in classroom

Visit our Resources 4 Educators web site. We’ve updated the Primary Source Adventures and added a search box so you can now search for a lesson plan by topic.

Hot Comments 

“Greetings: I’m thrilled to have found this site. As one who was raised in Abilene, it’s great to see images of places that are no more…”
– C.Jones 

“Thank you so much for sharing this photo! This is the first photo my family has seen of Joseph McMurry… I have been doing family research on the 15th Texas Infantry and was overwhelmed to see this photo….Thank you again!!” – M.P

“I have just today spent a long, long time enjoying the ‘Sutherlin Family Collection.”    The Portal to Texas History is superb – there are no words to describe the website.    I could spend hours and hours checking it all out.”
– Y.Sutherlin

Image of the month

Woman with guitar

Signed portrait of singer Lydia Mendoza with her guitar from the Rose Marine Theatrecollection, 1945.

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!!

Poster, Love Field Airport

Dallas Love Field Album and Photographs Collection from the Dallas Municipal Archives features images of the daily life and flight training at Love Field in 1918 and development of Love Field as a major commercial airport in Dallas from the 1960’s. The image above is a sign used during airport renovations.

The Portal on Facebook

If you are on Facebook, join the Portal to Texas facebook iconHistory 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 flying finds a whopping 5,646 items. Here are a few.

airplanes flying

AT-11s flying in formation, Childress County Heritage Museum

postcard of man flying down the stairs

“I Will Be Up as Soon as Possible” Postcard, Joe E. Haynes Private Collection

Flying Crow train in Texarkana

The “Flying Crow” arriving in Texarkana, Texas, Museum of the American Railroad

flag flying and cadets

Flying Cadets at Retreat, Tarrant County College Northeast

flying instrument panel

Flying instrument panel, Tarrant County College Northeast, Heritage Room

World's Fair 1968 model

Image of model of the “Los Voladores” Flying Indians of Mexico at the 1968 HemisFair.

Contact Us
Portal to Texas History

Alamo Illustration

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
940.565.3023

See our back issues

 

UNT wordmark

The Portal to Texas History

To unsubscribe from this newsletter: click here and send the email.

AA/EOE/ADA