News from the DeGolyer Library
Southern Methodist University
July 2021
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Folklore in the Archives
Part 1: Friday, August 27, 2021 – 11:00am-1:30pm CST
Part 2: Friday, September 3, 2021 – 11:00am-1:30pm CST
Join archivists, researchers, and lore enthusiasts from around North America as they share their research and collections in a two-part virtual showcase taking place on Friday, August 27, and Friday, September 3, from 11am-1:30pm CST. Participants will learn about topics such as cryptids, urban legends, superstitions, local lore, ghosts, UFOs, and more. This is one event you don’t want to miss, so register today!
Curator of the Archives of Women of the Southwest, Samantha Dodd, will present: Donde hay voluntad hay modo (Where there is a will there is a way): Aurora Lucero-White Lea and the Folklore of New Mexico.
Registration is required!
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When you think about the Olympics, you probably think about the amazing things elite athletes can accomplish. About teamwork and the world coming together. About calculators and data processing.
Ok you probably haven't considered that last part. But you will when you check out Ada Negraru's latest blog post on how Texas Instruments technology shaped the 1980 Lake Placid games. Click here to read Scoring Precision.
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Members of The Dallas Summit recently donated $3,000 to the Archives of Women of the Southwest as a tribute to three of their founders: Virginia Whitehill, Maura McNeil, and Louise Raggio. Founded in 1989, The Dallas Summit seeks a greater civic voice and impact for women in Dallas. The mission of The Dallas Summit is to serve as an influential force in Dallas so that women are full participants in decision-making processes to create a whole, just, and abundant community.
Pictured here, past Summit presidents; historian Sharon S. King; and curator of Archives of Women of the Southwest, Samantha Dodd.
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In her latest blog post, Summer in Miami…Texas, Samantha Dodd highlights the recently accessioned XX Club of Miami scrapbook. The XX Club was a women's social and recreation club in the Panhandle city of Miami, located in Roberts County. The 1922-1923 scrapbook illustrates the social lives of the cowgirl members and their summers filled with horseback riding, hiking, climbing, swimming, and parties. Click here to read the full blog post.
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New Finding Aids and Collections
William Weber Johnson was an American journalist and author. His papers contain his World War II reporting for Time and Life, articles for Smithsonian Magazine, research on kites, book reviews, and manuscripts for his well-known books Heroic Mexico, Kelly Blue, and Cortés. Correspondence, notes, research, galleys, drafts, reviews and clippings are included.
Orley Hosmer Truman was an inventor of a gravity meter for oil exploration. His scientific papers include his manuscripts, correspondence, technical drawings, and photographs regarding his work with the Lowell Observatory in Arizona and Humble Oil in Texas.
Recently Accessioned
A2021.0027c - Our nineteen thirty nine vacation : typescript, 1940
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Collection Highlight
The book pictured here has quite the lineage. Elementorum Myologiae Specimen... written by Danish scientist and bishop Nicholas Steno, is a pioneering work of both anatomy and geology. Steno was an in-house physician for the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de' Medici; lived and worked at the famed Palazzo Vecchio, and in 1657 co-founded the Accademia del Cimento, an early scientific society in Florence, Italy.
Nine years after the founding of the Accademia, two fishermen in Livorno caught a massive shark, which the Grand Duke sent to Steno for dissection. Steno observed that the shark teeth resembled stony objects he had seen embedded within rock formations, and questioned how a solid body could be found within a separate solid body. His observations on the different materials within layers of rocks, the first outline of a scientific history of the earth, published as Elementorum in 1667, is now regarded as the first geological treatise.
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Our copy is a first edition, printed in Florence, with its original binding, and was gifted by Leopoldo de'Medici to Giovanni Alfonso Borelli. Prince Leopoldo was the Govenor of Siena, brother of Grand Duke Ferdinando, and patron of the Accademia del Cimento. The Accademia was co-founded and led by Borelli, Vincenzo Viviani, and other students of Galileo, who dedicated the organization to furthering Galileo's legacy and what would become a standardized process of experimentation. Borelli himself was a physicist and mathematician and is considered the Father of Biomechanics.
Centuries later, this copy of Elementorum became part of the library of noted Italian geologist and paleontologist Romulo Meli (1852-1921) before entering the DeGolyer collection. Click here to view the catalog record.
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Recent Accessions
New to the Archives of Women of the Southwest: the Diane Wisdom papers!
Celebrated singer Diane Wisdom Senibaldi (1938-2020) was a Dallas native who attended Highland Park High School and Southern Methodist University. An appearance on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts helped launch her career, which saw her perform with Frank Sinatra Jr. Sammy Davis Jr., Ray Anthony, and Bob Hope. The Diane Wisdom papers include clippings, programs, photographs, a scrapbook, and recordings documenting her musical career.
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DeGolyer Library | Southern Methodist University | 214-768-3637 | degolyer@smu.edu | https://www.smu.edu/Libraries/DeGolyer
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