Content
New Collections 
What’s in the lab now?
What Ike srought
Focus on . . . postcards!
Making a difference with students
Exploring land
A new grant: Rescuing Texas History
TDNP: Brownsville Daily Herald
UNT Digital Collections 

Marfa Public Library and West Texas history

One digitization project now underway in the lab is from the Marfa Public Library. We have four boxes filled with folders containing research papers and reports written by high school history students between 1961 and 1989. These student reports tell the history of the West Texas area with numerous photographs accompanying them. Featured reports include papers about the “Raid on the Brite Ranch,” the “U.S. Border Patrol,” wildlife in the area, and in-depth stories from families and individuals of white, Hispanic, and Native American descent. The photos, some from as far back as the 1860s, depict families, weddings, Fort Davis, petroglyphs, the landscape in and around Big Bend, Bloy camp meetings, cowboys, homes, ranches, and businesses in the area. This collection shows a strong people that are proud of their heritage and land.

The material we now have comprises about 15-20% of the total collection held in the Marfa Public Library.  Two of the four boxes we have in the lab are now available online. With the Marfa Public Library, we are currently looking for funding to continue work with this fascinating collection that tells the history of West Texas.

Shown at the upper right is an image of the ministers at Bloys Camp Meeting, where people in West Texas have been meeting near Fort Davis for an annual campout with religious services since 1890. On the left is an image of Capote Falls near Marfa. The photo on the lower right was taken at the 1918 wedding of Encarnacion and Jose Chavez.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth 
The Portal to Texas History and the archives of the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth have worked together to add 952 photographic images that document the history of their company, as well as the thousands of women who built B-24 Liberators at the Mile Long Hangar, formerly operated by Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. During World War II, these women helped to make the Liberator the most produced U.S. military plane in U.S. history, with over 3,000 produced in Fort Worth alone.

These wonderful images document the tremendous service these women gave to their country in its time of need. In addition to the hundreds of images of riveting, drilling, and assembling, many WWII generals, other military brass, politicians, and celebrities came to tour the facility during this time, and also for later events at General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. Included in those photos are Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ladybird Johnson, Amon Carter, Ben E. Keith, Gary Cooper, Charles A. Lindbergh, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Chuck Yeager. And for people who love airplanes, many different types of aircraft are also pictured: B-24s, B-32s, B-36s, B-52s, B-57s, B-58s, F-102s, F-106s, F-111s, RB-36, XB-36, XB-36H, XC-99, YB-60, and YC-131C.

The images in this article show Betty Moore on the upper right standing at a piece of machinery; and on the upper left Helen Perkins is painting a star on a B-24. 

Heritage magazine
Heritage magazine is a publication of the Texas Historical Foundation, which since 1954, has published stories of Texas history and people while helping to fund projects that save Texas buildings and culture. We’ve just begun a projectwith the Texas Historical Foundation to provide online access to 95 issues of their publication, Heritage magazine.

Heritage magazine features wonderful articles such as “Spanning Texas,” which discusses the significance of the over 50,000 historic bridges in Texas, telling the stories of the people and towns where they are located; “Black Cowboys and Ranching in Texas” relates the significant place that African-American cowboys hold in Texas ranching history; and “BIG Business in the Lone Star State” focuses on businesses such as HEB, Justin Boots, Dr. Pepper, and Marshall Pottery. We are very excited about providing access to this excellent publication which should be online at the Portal by the end of January 2009.

Cattle Raisers Museum
Work is continuing on the extensive collections of the Cattle Raisers Museum. While they are awaiting the completion of their new home at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, we’ve partnered with them to digitize photographs which detail the importance and significance of Texas and the Southwest’s rich ranching heritage.

We were so sad to hear about the catastrophic losses that severely damaged the building and collections of one of our partners – the Heritage House Museum in Orange, Texas. After substantial flooding, the collections are warped, and the building sustained so much structural damage that museum staff have not been cleared to enter it.. More than three feet of water swept through the building, damaging photographs, artifacts, and documents. Mold is now growing rampantly throughout the building.

The only silver lining from this devastating loss is that last year we digitized over 1,700 of the museum’s historic photos, saving them from total loss. The originals may be gone, but at least the museum can reprint these images from the high quality master preservation images that were captured at UNT during the project. The vulnerability of the Texas coast is a reality, but thanks to technology all is not lost. Heritage House Museum’s online collections date from 1858 to 1995.

If you are interested in learning more about the status of cultural heritage institutions in the Gulf Coast region and whether they have damage, several professional associations are posting updates: the Texas Association of Museums; the Texas Library Association; and the Society of Southwest Archivists.

Focus on… postcards! Some things never go out of style, and old postcards are as irresistible today as they were in yesteryear. Take a stroll down memory lane. El Capitan Hotel, Van Horn, Clark Hotel Museum Spring Street, Palestine, c. 1909, Anderson County Historical Commission Lake Pinto, Mineral Wells, Dallas Historical Society Fluff Cat in a Handbag, c. 1908, from the Private Collection of Joe E. Haynes

Leah’s in the Lab! Leah Eggers is an undergraduate student who is majoring in Computer Science. She says, “I started out as a music major, which is why I’m at UNT. I love the small-towniness of Denton and of course I love all the friendships I’ve built.” Leah’s hometown is Marietta, Georgia.

Leah’s been working in the lab for over two years, and plans to stay until she graduates in May of 2009. Working in the Digital Projects Lab has been a good experience for her, “I really enjoy it!! I’ve learned a lot about Photoshop and a lot about Texas. I like the old pictures of Denton. It’s changed much less than you’d expect.”

Leah adds, “When I was in first grade, I wanted to be a librarian. Obviously, that goal changed, but here I am now, working in a Library! I’ve always thought that was sort of funny. After all, how many first graders want to be a librarian?” 

Recently, we’ve heard from a lot of folks in the oil industry who are using the Portal for their research. Genealogists and oil researchers have one thing in common – the Portal is a great place to look for the answers you need. We have a lot of information about land grants, from a handwritten ledger of Conditional Land Grants for Washington Countydated 1841, to individual land grants dating from 1833 to 1878. We have some plat maps and soil survey maps, in addition to a 1902-1913 Lot and Block Book of Texas City, Galveston County.

If you like maps, we have over five hundred online, dating from 1597 to 1971. The map to the left is a Bird’s Eye View of Wolfe City from 1891, and above is an 1875 San Antonio Plat map that documents the northern portion of the city surrounding the public square and bounded by the San Pedro Creek on the west. In the Portal you can also find a plethora of railroading maps. Did you know that a first class ticket from Hannibal, Missouri, to Houston cost $34.70 in 1877? In present day dollars, the same ticket would cost you $668.08, just proving that travel is never cheap.

The Summerlee Foundation of Dallas recently awarded the UNT Libraries funding for the third installment of the popular Rescuing Texas History program. Due to the success of previous Rescuing Texas History projects, we have added materials from twenty-eight collaborative partners, and in total have digitally preserved and provided free public access to 11,115 historic images. The images created through this funding have been viewed over 2,600,000 times, by people all over the world who are interested in Texas history.

Please help us pass along the word about this opportunity, or apply yourself. These digitization mini-grants are available to libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and other groups which hold local history materials. The deadline for application is December 15, 2008, and scanning will begin in 2009.

With the Rescuing Texas History program, we can continue to provide historical materials online that are making a difference in people’s lives. Educators, historians, and everyday people are finding answers and making connections to the past due to the generous support of the Summerlee Foundation.

The Library of Congress’s Chronicling America site now hosts editions of the Daily Herald of Brownsville, Texas from July 1892 to December 1896.  This is the first batch of Texas newspapers to be loaded onto the Chronicling America site.  You can browse the newspapers or search through them.

The Portal to Texas History team plans to upload this paper and other Texas titles into the Portal to Texas History starting in Spring of 2009. Learn more about upcoming titles at the Texas Digital Newspaper Program website.

The UNT College of Music Program Books from 1988-2007
Every year, the College of Music compiles all of the performance programs into volumes that document the musicians and music presented during the year. All of UNT’s College of Music programs dating from 1988 to 2007 are now online.

The College of Music is internationally renowned for its jazz studies program, and is highly acclaimed for its instrumental and vocal ensembles, keyboard, composition and scholarly programs, as well as its teacher training.

Help us spread the word and please forward this newsletter to anyone you think will be interested.

Content
New Collections 
What’s in the lab now?
Focus on . . .Rodeo Pictures!
Making a Difference with Students
NEH honor: EDSITEment
A talk with historian Stuart Reid
TDNP: a new grant
UNT Digital Collections 

Legacies: a History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas

Legacies is a biannual publication devoted to the rich history of Dallas and North Central Texas as a way to examine the many local historical legacies—social , ethnic, cultural, political—which have shaped the modern city of Dallas and the region around it. Currently, Legacies is a joint publication of Dallas Heritage Village, the Dallas Historical Society, the Old Red Museum, and the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. This new collection to the Portal gives our visitors access to 38 issues of this brilliant history journal featuring the spring 1989 through fall 2007 issues.

Each issue, comprised of 40 – 70 pages, has its own “focus”. Examples of these include: Architecture in Dallas, Newspapers and Radio in Dallas, Theater in Dallas, George Bannerman Dealey, Dallas in the 1960s, Women Who Made a Difference, Dallas Lost & Found: Hidden Treasures and Forgotten Stories , Dallas Pioneers, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Inside each issue the reader will find historic photos and maps, remarkable stories and book reviews. The Portal includes each issue in its entirety, which can be viewed with our page-turning feature.

Shown are two issues’ covers; One from fall 2006 focusing on the assassination of JFK, and the other with the iconic Dallas Pegasus, from fall 1999 focusing on triumph over adversity.

José L. Castillo Photograph Collection 
The Portal to Texas History and the UNT Archives have added 1104photographic images by José L. Castillo, a Katie award-winning correspondent for the international EFE News Service. This archive of photographs, taken between July 2004 and July 2006, was donated to the UNT Archives in March 2007. It is the first entirely digital photo collection in the UNT Archives.

These splendid, colorful images depict events in the Latino community, including: the 350,000-strong march against the HR4437 immigration bill in Dallas in April 2006, Hispanic community and political leaders, festivals, Latino soccer leagues and other gatherings in the North Texas area. Featured subjects include: Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and former LULAC President Hector Flores.

The Images in this article show Hector Flores, the Dallas Farmers Market, and the Mega March on April 9, 2006 in Dallas. When the project is completed, over 3,000 images from Castillo will be online at the Portal.

City of Clarendon Records

Clarendon, a small town in the Texas panhandle, recently received a big historical boost. The Portal team recently uploaded thirteen historical ledgers that document the development and history of the town from 1901 to 2003. The ledgers contain pages with handwritten text, typewritten text, newspaper clippings and pages printed from electronic documents. The types of information contained in them cover:

• minutes from Clarendon Town Council meetings
• minutes from Clarendon City Commissioners meetings
• minutes from Clarendon Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meetings
• ordinances proposed and passed by the City of Clarendon
• papers for the incorporation of the Town of Clarendon
• documentation filed in the Office of the County Court for Donley County

Some interesting tidbits found in these ledgers include an application to open a telephone exchange and electric power plant in Clarendon in 1902; a citizen asking the Chamber of Commerce to help the city’s baseball team hire a “pitcher who is able to deliver the goods…and pay him real money… to get a crowd out to the games” in July 1920; City of Clarendon meetings about telephone rates, carnivals located within 200 feet of residences, the establishment of a “Permanent Fireman”,  and improvements for the band in the summer of 1938; in 1941 the city decided to stop furnishing free water to the school and began to charge them the regular domestic rate of $1.00 for the first 2000 gallons;  the creation of the city dog pound in 1964; in 1984 there were proclamations for things such as Child Support Month, Social Security Week, Alzheimer’s  Awareness Month, etc.; a trash truck was approved for purchase in 1998 for $61,463,00. Recycling was discussed at length during the 1990’s and a Recycling Center was opened in Nov 2001.

Lockheed Martin

The folks at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, are collaborating with us to provide access to photographs from their extensive image archives of the Mile Long Hangar, formerly operated by Consolidated Aircraft Corporation. Thousands of hard-working women contributed to the war effort by building B-24 Liberators. Fort Worth’s own “Rosie the Riveters” did their part to make the B-24 the most produced U.S. military plane in history, with over 3,000 manufactured in Fort Worth alone. On the right is an image of Charles Lindbergh touring the Mile Long Hangar in 1942, and above are images of women working in the aviation factory.

Cattle Raisers Museum
While the Cattle Raisers Museum awaits the completion of its new home at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, we’ve partnered with them to digitize their extensive photographic archive which details the importance and significance of Texas and the Southwest’s rich ranching heritage. Many of these photographs were first published in The Cattleman, the monthly magazine of the Cattle Raisers Association. This image features Jim Stroud and seven cowboys who worked the trails between Lajitas, Marfa, and Alpine around 1916.

Amon Carter Museum 
The Amon Carter Museum has partnered with us to provide access to rare books and pamphlets that detail Fort Worth’s rich history. Pictured at right is a photo and caricature of Amon Carter from Makers of Fort Worth(1914). Other materials in the works include a volume of the Panther City Parrot from 1906 (Polytechnic College);Fort Worth, the “Convention City” and a City of Beautiful Homes (1921); The Book of Fort Worth (1914); the official souvenir magazine of the 36th annual convention of the Cattle Raisers Association; The Stock manual: containing the name, post office address, ranch location, marks and brands of all the principal stockmen of western and northwestern Texas, showing marks and brands on electrotype cuts as they appear on the animal (1881); and other fascinating materials. All of these projects mentioned above are funded by the Amon Carter Foundation and the Adeline and George McQueen Foundation..

Focus on… rodeo pictures! What could be more “Texas” than a rodeo? Come on partner, and take a look. Cowgirls from Madison Square Garden Rodeo with Mrs. Randolph Hearst, 1932, UNT Archives Texas Rodeo Stars in Breckenridge, 1921, UTA Libraries Matlock Rose riding the quarter horse Buster Waggoner, George Ranch Historical Park Bob Calen trick riding in Cowboy Championship Contest, c. 1920, UNT Archives

Meet Hannah Tarver!  Hannah is a graduate student who is finishing her degree this month. Hannah’s hometown is Chandler, Arizona.

Hannah is getting her master’s degree in Library and Information Science with an emphasis in Information Organization at UNT. “I have had really awesomeprofessors here at UNT, and my time with Digital Projects has been great,” said Hannah. 

When asked what she learned working in the Digital Projects Unit, Hannah said, “I think one of the best parts of working in Digital Projects Unit for me has been that I’ve gotten to apply a lot of what I have learned in my cataloging classes to my metadata records, but I’ve also gotten a much broader view of the theory behind cataloging and how all of the traditional methods can or cannot be applied to the Internet and to different media than libraries have historically dealt with.”

“Also, I’ve gotten to do what is essentially original cataloging on items far more complicated to catalog that what I would likely see in a library, so I’ve been challenged in ways that will make other cataloging relatively easy,” added Hannah. 

“In terms of graduation, I think the broader perspective has really given a different angle in my class work.  I have brought up my work in Digital Projects and the way that Portal to Texas History records are handled as examples in several of my classes and even cited them in papers as examples of non-traditional cataloging. Of course, it’s given me the sort of experience that’s hard to get, but a huge bonus in my field, particularly now that so many institutions are trying to find ways to incorporate digitization.”

Hannah has been an integral part of the Digital Projects Unit since August of 2007.   All of the Portal to Texas History staff wish Hannah a big Congratulations on all of her accomplishments while here at UNT.  

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) honored the Portal to Texas History this summer by selecting us for inclusion on their website EDSITEment as one of the best online resources for education in the humanities. Michael Hall with NEH said, “The Portal to Texas History was nominated for inclusion in the EDSITEment project in response to an open call for nominations posted on our website and on several humanities listservs. Your site was then reviewed by a Peer Review panel composed of teachers and leaders in education and non-profit organizations. Panelists determined that your site met the EDSITEment criteria for intellectual quality, content, design, and most importantly, classroom impact.”The panelists who reviewed the Portal website had great things to say about us:

• “The digital reproductions of photos and primary documents on this site provide visitors of all levels with a rich experience.”
• “It does provide students with access to authentic and significant materials with precise references and clear content.”
• “This site is user-friendly and attractive graphically.”

We’re really proud to be honored by NEH by their inclusion in EDSITEment, and look forward to making an impact in classrooms for years to come.

Stuart Reid spoke with us recently about the role the Portal to Texas History played for him while he was writing his award winning book, The Secret War for Texas. Stewart Reid was a historical consultant to the National Trust for Scotland for the Culloden Moor Memorial Project. He has been a librarian, a boatman, a professional soldier, a cartographer, and a surveyor, among other things. He has written twelve entries for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and is the author of fourteen previous books. He lives in the United Kingdom.

What was your inspiration for writing The Secret War for Texas? It was simple curiosity. I am primarily a military historian specializing in the 18th century, but quite by chance I discovered a cryptic reference to my 3 x great grandfather, Dr James Grant, having been killed or murdered in Mexico. Rather to my surprise I then very soon found that he had been a pivotal figure in the Texas Revolution, and was blamed for all the disasters arising out of the Matamoros expedition, from the collapse of the provisional government to the fall of the Alamo. Yet astonishingly little had been written about him – and most of that was wildly inaccurate – despite what turned out to be some very rich source material.

What are the challenges in writing a Texas history book while living in Scotland? Well actually it had its advantages, first because I had access to family information on Dr. Grant not available in Texas, and secondly because I had access to documents in the India Office, relating to his service with the East India Company, and to the (British) National Archives at Kew, where I was able to work through confidential papers relating to Mexico – and Texas as part of Mexico. The challenges, obviously, were at the Texas end. Thanks to the Portal I was able to access specific documents.

How did the materials in the Portal to Texas History help you when doing your research?  Ultimately it’s the straightforward matter of being able to access original documents and transcripts rather than relying on re-hashing secondary sources which almost invariably do little more than perpetuate old errors of fact and interpretation.

Did you find anything surprising or revelatory in the Portal? There’s probably nothing specific I can point  a finger to, other than to stress again what a different picture you get when you jettison secondary sources and everything else you’ve ever been told and then work from the ground up using the original materials. Any work of this kind always has its moment; not always as spectacular as finding the reference in a letter warning of a British agent, a “Doctor Somebody” who could only have been James Grant; which had me yell “Gotcha!” in the National Archives reading room, but there’s always that sense of connection at first hand with the real people we think of as history.

The Portal team and our partners at the Center for American History at UT have received a new grant for digitizing “Early Texas Newspapers – 1829-1861,” a comprehensive grant to microfilm, digitize, and provide free public access to the earliest Texas newspapers held by the Center for American History. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission awarded $24,637 for the project, which will begin in September and finish in August of 2009.

The scope of the project includes sixty-one newspaper titles, and a total of 12,280 newspaper pages.  A partial representative list of selected titles includes:  The Texas Gazette (San Felipe de Austin), 1829-30, 60 pages; Telegraph & Texas Register (Houston), 1835-1845, 2,137 pages; Texas Republican (Brazoria), 1834-36, 127 pages; Galvestonian, 1839, 4 pages; Matagorda Bulletin, 1827-39, 128 pages; Redlander (San Augustine), 1841-1846, 140 pages; Southwestern American (Austin), 1849-53, 488 pages; Centinela (Brownsville, in Spanish), 1849, 4 pages; Texas Presbyterian(Victoria), 1846-48, 38 pages; Galveston News, 1848-1861, 112 pages; and Texas National Register (Washington), 1844-46, 88 pages.

Due to Texas’s frontier nature, business uncertainties, and the volatility of the political situation with Spain and Mexico, no newspapers survived long in Texas up to the time of the Texas revolt against Mexico. Nine publishers printed newspapers between 1819 and 1836, but only the Telegraph and Texas Register was still in publication at the time of the Texas Revolution. The Telegraph and Texas Register became the paper of record for the Republic of Texas, and played a major role in keeping citizens informed. Five years after Texas became a state in 1845, the number of newspapers had grown to thirty-six.  The collection of newspapers proposed for microfilming and digitization provide critical information regarding the early history of Texas, both as a republic and a state. 

The FCC Record 
Last year , the UNT Government Documents Department collaborated with the Digital Projects Unit to provide access to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Record, comprising 620 volumes and over 364,500 pages of searchable text. The FCC Record is a comprehensive compilation of decisions, reports, public notices, and other documents of the FCC from 1986 to the present.Several volumes document the FCC’s many actions against “shock jock” Howard Stern during the 1990s. Now UNT is the only place in the world where researchers can search the full text of these important documents.

Help us spread the word and please forward this newsletter to anyone you think will be interested.

Content
New Collections 
What’s in the lab now?
Focus on . . . 
Working with Private Collectors
Making a Difference with Students 
Iogene Project
Texas Digital Newspaper Program
UNT Digital Collections 

Fantastic images from Heritage House Museum in Orange 
The Heritage House Museum in Orange, Texas has provided over 1,700 photographs to the Portal to Texas History depicting life, nature, and industry in the Orange area from the late nineteenth century through modern times. Orange was an important area for lumber, oil, and shipbuilding in the early 20th century. There was a booming oilfield in Orangefield prior to 1920, a US Naval base in the 1940s-60s, numerous shipbuilding companies from the 1950s through the present and chemical plants such as DuPont along “Chemical Row.” The image on the right is of an oil derrick in Orangefield.

This collection included photos of the many historic homes,churches, businesses, and people from the area including the Stark mansion, the Link home, First Presbyterian Church (also known as Lutcher Memorial), and Pinehurst Ranch. Also included are current attractions such as the Stark Museum and the Lutcher Theater. In this image we see the ferryboat “John F. Kennedy” under construction in 1965.

The Sabine River, along with the bayous and forests that provide natural beauty and attract wildlife to the area can also be seen in thecollection. Many thanks to the Summerlee Foundation, the Stark Foundation, and private contributors who sponsored this project.

The Texas Reports 
The Portal to Texas History has added 67 volumes of the Texas Reports. These contain decisions of the Supreme Court of the State of Texas beginning in 1846. The decisions are fascinating not only from a legal standpoint, but also because they provide a vibrant view of Texas’s culture and politics throughout its history as a part of the United States and the Confederate States of America. Of special interest are the Reconstruction-era volumes which illuminate changes in the Court under the unpopular Constitution of 1869.

Read court decisions about cases of theft, forgery, counterfeiting, murder, divorce, deception, adultery, arson, and even patent infringement! Materials in this and all collections can be browsed by subject, by contributor, by location, and by historical era.

Museum of the American Railroad 
The collection from the Museum of the American Railroad goes beyond our Texas borders. Included in this fabulous collection are 338 images of trains such as the Texas Eagle, the Texas Special, the Sunshine Special, the Katy Flyer, the Texas Zephyr, the Cannon Ball, the Louisiana Limited and the Texas Chief, to name a few of the Texas trains. Also included are interior and exterior pictures of depots across America in places such as Albuquerque, Amarillo, Durango, Clovis, Los Angeles, Dearborn, Chicago, Penn Station, and others. Some interior shots show the observation cars and dining cars with their “modern” decor.

Those of you who enjoy and remember traveling America’s railways will enjoy browsing through this collection.

STIRPES
Stirpes is the quarterly newsletter of the Texas State Genealogical Society, whose purpose “is to stimulate and support research and teaching on the genealogical aspects of history.” Last year, the Portal team added back issues of Stirpes from 1961-1990. The lab is currently working to add issues from 1991-2000.

Stirpes includes wonderful information for genealogists, such as extracts of vital statistics from The Telegraph and Texas Register, and information on early Austin county families. Search Stirpes.

Fort Worth Jewish Archives
Working with historian and author Hollace Ava Weiner, we selected photographs and rare materials that document Jewish life in Fort Worth with historical items from Temple Beth-El and Congregation Ahavath Sholom. In this photo, six men in suits dig shovels into the dirt at the groundbreaking of the Dan Danciger Jewish Community Center in 1964.

Log Cabin Village 
Log Cabin Village is a living history museum nestled within the towering oak forest located adjacent to S. University Drive in Fort Worth across from the zoo. The Log Cabin Village collections feature 19th century photographs of the Tompkins, Pickard, Parker, Howard, and Foster families, including tintypes and daguerreotypes. We’re also working on digitizing two collections of letters that include correspondence between the Parker and Howard families dating from 1840 to 1940.

University of Texas at Arlington 
The Amon Carter Foundation and the Adeline & George McQueen Foundation are providing funding for “Where the West Begins: Capturing Fort Worth’s Historic Treasures.” Another partner for that effort is UTA. The UTA Special Collections Library offers in-depth resources which portray the rich history of Fort Worth through extensive collections of manuscripts, photographs, books, drawings, letters and maps. UTA holds over 2.7 million images in the photographic archive of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. As part of the project, we are also scanning 21 rare books that focus on Fort Worth History, such as Tarrant County Heroes in the World War (1918); Photographs of Fort Worth (1890); and The Texas Spring Palace(1890). The photo above shows scenes from the devastating flood of 1916.

Focus on… aerial photos Did you know that the Portal to Texas History has over 700 aerial photographs online? Come “fly” the friendly skies and check them out. Aerial view of UNT in 1964, Denton Public Library Aerial view of Hereford, Deaf Smith County Public Library Aerial view of Kemah, Kemah Historical Society Aerial view of Killeen, Killeen City Library System

Meet Jerrell Jones, an undergraduate student who has been working with us in the digital projects lab since spring of ’07. Jerrell is majoring in Photography and will be graduating in December of this year.

Jerrell says, “While working at the DPU Lab, I have learned a lot of exciting methods in digital imaging technology on top of the knowledge I have gained on my own and in school. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to gain this knowledge while preserving the past. I have gained a better understanding of why the Portal to Texas History is special and why what we do as student assistants is so important. To scan one book in the lab is almost like a needle in a haystack, but saving a book before it falls apart could make a difference in someone’s life.”

“When I am correcting my photographs for printing, I often use knowledge that I have learned from Digital Projects. It’s also nice when I can share what I have learned while working at the lab with fellow photographers and other artists.”

Jerrell calls Houston home, and says, ” What I miss most about Houston is the Arts District. I attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston which was very close to the Museum of Fine Arts, Contemporary Arts Museum and other smaller museums and multiple galleries. Art was always there growing up. There are so many individuals there that contribute so much of their time to young artists, and being one of those artists makes me thankful to come from a place like Houston.” Jerrell chose UNT because of the strong programs at the College of Visual Arts, and specifically the Photography program.

“The Photography program has provided me with a series of challenges that have taught me about my craft, myself, those who have challenged me and why they did. With Denton being near both Dallas and Fort Worth, there are so many opportunities for artists of all kinds to come together and share with each other. This is something that I really enjoy about going to UNT and living in this area. What I have loved most about going to UNT is seeing how students support each other in their areas of study. UNT has a large student body, but I have never felt like a number. Through the faculty, campus employees, and students there is a wonderful energy that makes this place home. I am proud to say that I am a North Texan.”

Jerrell continues to do a fantastic job working for us while he is earning his degree. UNT is a student-centered public research university, and the Digital Projects Unit is proud to offer rewarding work experiences to so many of our wonderful students. 

While developing and writing the grant for the IOGENE Project, the Portal team uncovered some revealing facts. Almost all of the user-needs research done in the digital library field focused on academic use by scholars, faculty, or students; or K-12 use by teachers and students. One large segment of avid digital library users remained virtually unexamined — genealogists.

Genealogy has emerged as one of the most popular forms of life-long learning, but almost no research has explored genealogists’ information seeking behavior, or how that behavior might inform the design of a digital library interface. This is amazing when you consider that the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that nearly a quarter of all Internet users seek genealogy information on the Internet. This represents a group of over 50 million Americans.

This winter, the UNT Libraries began work on the grant, the IOGENE Project, a.k.a., Interface Optimization for Genealogists. This $448,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services will identify the user interface requirements of genealogists interacting with the Portal to Texas History. The IOGENE project will identify a model for digital library interface development using a user-centered design approach. Visit the IOGENE website to learn more about the latest news about this exciting project.

Texas Digital Newspaper Program. We have been approached by many, many libraries interested in providing online access to their local historic newspapers. With all the historic news events that have happened in our great state we are convinced that this is an important area to include on the Portal to Texas History. So we are moving forward with a plan to do just that.

After becoming familiar with newspaper digitization through our work with the National Digital Newspaper Program, we are happy to announce the Texas Digital Newspaper Program as a means to digitize and provide access to many more Texas newspaper titles than we are able to do in the national program alone.

We are actively seeking partnerships with others to digitize Texas’s historic newspapers. Our goal is to create a digitized newspaper resource that covers a broad geographical area, and this will only be possible through cooperation and multiple funding sources. This program will follow the same high standards set forth by the Library of Congress for the national program. For more information about the process, standards, funding opportunities, and other FAQs, please visit our Texas Digital Newspaper Program website.

 The A to Z Project
In 2007, the Government Documents Department began an ambitious project to digitize those federal documents in its collections published prior to 1960. As a Federal Depository Library, UNT holds a national reputation for its leadership in providing online access to government information. The “A to Z Digitization Project” intends to provide access to a minimum of 500 additional documents every year.

The first documents digitized come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These vintage pamphlets provide advice on raising livestock, pest control, food preparation, and a wide variety of other topics.

Some of the over 350 documents already online include: Rabbit Recipes, Porcupine Control in Western States, Soybeans for the Table, Dairy Cattle Judging, Christmas Trees as a Cash Crop for the Farm, Farm Poultry Raising, Mule Production, Home Tanning of Leather, Chinchilla Raising, Ginning Cotton. Peanut Growing, Rammed Earth Walls for Buildings, Breeds of Dogs, Blueberries, Culture of Orchids, Eliminating Bats from Buildings, and the ironic Kudzu: a Forage Crop for the Southeast.

In 2008, the focus will be on the War Department Technical Manuals from the early twentieth century, since there is a high volume of requests for these.

Help us spread the word and please forward this newsletter to anyone you think will be interested.