News from the DeGolyer Library
Southern Methodist University
September 2021
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Engaged with Books:
Photographs Over Time
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September 9 through November 12, 2021
Hillcrest Foundation Exhibit Hall,
Fondren Library
For our first exhibition since January 2020, we chose to celebrate reading and the written word by showcasing photographs of people holding books and other reading material. The images, ca. 1845 to the 1950s, highlight the importance of books as studio props in the nineteenth century and later in casual snapshots taken in the home and outside.
For questions, contact Anne E. Peterson, Curator of Photographs, DeGolyer Library, email: apeterso@smu.edu
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Last month marked 100 years of public radio in Dallas. To commemorate the centennial, Ada Negraru looked at the history of the industry in Dallas, and the birth and spread of WFAA. The station began by broadcasting from its first transmission site atop the Dallas Morning News building on Commerce street, and thrived in radio's heyday in the 1930s and 40s.
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October is American Archives Month!
American Archives Month is a collaborative effort by professional organizations and repositories around the nation to highlight the importance of records of enduring value. Archivists are professionals who assess, collect, organize, preserve, maintain control of, and provide access to information that has lasting value, and they help people find and understand the information they need in those records.
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#AskAnArchivist Day - October 13, 2021
On October 13, archivists around the country will take to Twitter to respond to questions tweeted with the hashtag #AskAnArchivist. Take this opportunity to chat with archivists around the country. No question is too big or too silly. What do archivists talk about around the water cooler? What should I do to be sure that my emails won’t get lost? How does critical race theory influence archival practice? How should I think about documenting and preserving my family history?
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"100 Years of Majestic Theatre", a documentary that DeGolyer Library supported, was screened for free on September 19 at the Majestic Theatre for a live, in-person audience! After the documentary, there was a 100th anniversary screening of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid with live piano accompaniment, just as it would have been 100 years ago at the Majestic – a wonderful performance!
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New Finding Aids and Collections
Roger Horchow was a businessman and Tony Award winning Broadway producer who lived in Dallas, Texas. His luxury mail order business, Horchow Collection, operated from the early 1970s to 1988. He spent the rest of his life producing and investing in multiple Broadway shows. This collection includes catalogs, photographs, correspondence, business records, and music.
Ernest Conine was a journalist from Dallas, Texas and a Southern Methodist University alum. His papers include his articles from various McGraw-Hill magazines from the 1950s-1963, his editorial columns for the Los Angeles Times from 1963-1990, his unpublished memoirs, and a scrapbook.
Recently Accessioned
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Updates from Prints & Photographs |
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September brought requests ranging from British researchers in search of images of the Lusitania for an upcoming maritime history book, to an inquiry from the Netherlands for photographs of northwest India. Local history was represented in requests for shots of Lufkin and Nacogdoches, and images of H.L. Hunt, Lady Bird Johnson, and the Bush family. Railroad history is always a popular research subject, and this month saw lots of requests for images of the Nevada Central Railroad. |
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There was an inquiry for the Stanley Marcus papers related to a 1945 Life magazine article about Neiman Marcus, featuring photographs by Nina Leen. The article described how “Neiman Marcus helped turn Dallas into a new, off-center fashion metropolis. Its exclusive, personalized style earned it widespread recognition.” An image, featured left, of Carrie Marcus Neiman, Stanley’s aunt and one of the founders of the store, was shared for an upcoming biography, A Girl Named Carrie… written by Jerrie Marcus Smith. Carrie was a fascinating woman, and we’re so looking forward to her biography! Another Marcus papers research request, related to an exhibition, explored exclusive packaging and gift wrap designer Alma Shon. For 30 years, Shon worked for Neiman Marcus creating unusual and imaginative packages that customers looked forward to each season. The store highlighted Shon’s work, describing how “A gift wrap by Director of Design Alma Shon, whose unerring feel for ribbons and sequins results in gifts which look “too pretty to open.”'
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Collection Highlight
What did the late '60s counterculture look like at SMU? Check out our bound run of Dallas Notes to find out! Published in Dallas from 1967 to 1972, Dallas Notes also ran under the titles Notes from the Underground and later as Hooka, an acronym for Humanitarian Order of Kosmic Awareness. The underground newspaper blended leftist political activism, counterculture and liberation art and philosophy, and anti-police and anti-war sentiment, with a focus on the lives and views of college students.
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Recent Accessions
DeGolyer Library recently accessioned a complete set of The Observator in Dialogue, a newspaper written by Roger L'Estrange as a dialogue between a fictional Whig (constitutional monarchists roughly akin to a liberal party), a Tory (heirs to the Royalist Jacobite movement, akin to the conservative party), and a Trimmer (L'Estrange's word for a political and religious moderate) from 1681 to 1687. L'Estrange was a pamphleteer and courtier, as well as a vocal Tory and defender of Charles II of England during the Restoration era, and of his brother and successor James II during the Monmouth Rebellion. Bound in two folios, this set contains all 931 issues published, first by Henry Brome, whose death in 1681 left his wife Joanna to succeed him as Observator publisher, until her death in 1684, when her son Charles took over the family business. Our copy contains bookplates from two separate Lords Arundell of Wardour. At least one likely belonged to Henry Arundell (1606-1694), James II's Lord High Steward and member of his Privy Council.
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Newly Digitized Items
The Norwick Center for Digital Solutions digitized eight images from the Stanley Marcus Papers this month, featuring leading Japanese fashion designer Hanae Mori and her work, which was celebrated during the 1974 Japan Fortnight. Click here to view the images.
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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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