News from the DeGolyer Library
Southern Methodist University
June 2021
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Sam Holley-Kline, PhD, a Dean’s Postdoctoral Scholar at Florida State University, is using an image (left) held in the Isabel T. Kelly Ethnographic Archive for a forthcoming article in the journal Ethnohistory. Some years ago, while working on his dissertation at Stanford University, he spent a semester at the DeGolyer going through the Isabel T. Kelly Ethnographic Archive. Holley-Kline’s focus was on the Tajin area of Mexico. El Tajín is a pre-Columbian archeological site in southern Mexico and is one of the largest and most important cities of the Classic era of Mesoamerica. A part of the Veracruz culture, El Tajín flourished from 600 to 1200 CE, and during this time, numerous temples, palaces, and pyramids were built.
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In Time for a Little Arts and Crafts, Samantha Dodd highlights the Junior Three Arts Study Club, a junior branch of the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs (DFWC) which was formed in 1953 to encourage and support the study of music, art, and literature, along with social activities and fundraising. The second Wednesday of each month, members would meet in a home to study and hear from notable speakers, artists, and scholars from the Southwest. Click here to learn more about the club and it's history.
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During the week of June 14, David Kruger, Agriculture and Business Librarian at the University of Wyoming, spent time at the DeGolyer perusing more than 25 boxes of JCPenney company materials. He is currently working on a second book using the collection. This opus will be about the company’s fourth chairman, William M. “Mil” Batten. Connecting scholars with their material in person and seeing their focus in the reading room is one of the things the DeGolyer staff missed most during the pandemic. Pictured, right, is Kruger discussing a return visit with archivist Joan Gosnell. The JCPenney collection has more than 1,000 boxes, so there are plenty of topics ready for other scholars.
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This month, Anne Peterson reflected on the history and legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre, as the nation observed its 100th anniversary. In her recent post, Peterson shares documentation of the tragedy preserved in the DeGolyer Prints and Photographs collection. Click here to read the post. (Warning, the post contains disturbing images.)
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New Finding Aids and Collections
Virginia Whitehill (1928-2018) was a civic activist and champion of women’s reproductive rights in Dallas, Texas. The Virginia Whitehill papers comprise biographical materials, school records, photographs, awards, written materials, clippings, correspondence, artifacts including plaques, buttons, and t-shirts, as well as audiovisual materials. These materials document Whitehill's childhood and education in New York, and her efforts as an activist for women's rights in Dallas, Texas.
Recently Accessioned
A2021.0020c - Collection of Oyez publishing ephemera, 1964-1998
A2021.0021c - Thomas Streeter letters to E.W. Winkler, 1937-1941
A2021.0024c - Vincent Saullo World War II records, 1940-1945
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Collection Highlight
This fall, there will be a new exhibition in the first-floor galleries at the Meadows Museum entitled, Image and Identity: Mexican Fashion in the Modern Period. It will display many items from the DeGolyer Library including photographs, guaches of regional fashion, and printed material from 19th century books. Look out for items such as Typical headdress of a plume dancer in the village of Oaxaca by Mauricio Fresco, ca. 1945, featured right. The exhibition runs September 19, 2021–January 9, 2022.
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Recent Accessions
DeGolyer Library recently added a scrapbook from the Sorosis Club of New York, which was the first professional women's club in the United States. The scrapbook includes letters, photographs, and early club documents. Included with the scrapbook are documents related to the club's founding in 1868, including correspondence with Red Cross founder Clara Barton, women's rights leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, writer Hester Poole, former first lady Grace Coolidge, and other notable and influential women. Click here to learn more.
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Newly Digitized Items
11 SMU Literary festival posters were recently digitized by the Norwick Center for Digital Solutions. The posters, which date from 1989 to 2010, are part of the Southern Methodist University Campus Memories collection. The posters were pulled as part of a promotional effort ahead of the relaunch of the festival, now known as the Dallas Literary Festival, which was held (virtually) in March 2021, and featured writers Charles M. Blow, Ben Moser, Yiyun Li, Joy Harjo, Tyehimba Jess, and others. The theme, appropriately, was 'turbulence'.
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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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