News from the DeGolyer Library
March 2019

Southern Methodist University
Upcoming Events
Ron Tyler in the Texana Room
On Wednesday, March 27th, join us in the Texana Room for a talk by Ron Tyler, and a chance to purchase his newest book, Western Art, Western History: Collected Essays .

Tyler, a celebrated historian and former director of the Amon Carter Museum, will share the stories of key artists, both famous and obscure, whose provocative pictures document the people and places of the 19th century American West.

The DeGolyer Library is pleased to join the Clements Center in hosting this event. A reception will begin at 5:30, followed by the 6:00 lecture and book signing.
Our New Exhibit
"A Highway to the Pacific": Building the Transcontinental Railroad.
On May 10, 1869, the last rail was laid, a golden spike was driven, and the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory, Utah, having built together the first transcontinental railroad in the world.

Our current exhibit tells the story of this "highway to the Pacific" through original pamphlets, maps, photographs, government surveys, and more. Visit the Hillcrest Foundation Exhibit Hall to learn more about this great technological achievement, the intense political debate surrounding it, and how it played a leading role in the long-term development of the American west.
Located in the Hillcrest Foundation Exhibit Hall in the Fondren Library, “Highway to the Pacific ” runs till May 17
News & Notes
Next month, Oxford University Press will publish Exposing Slavery: Photography, Human Bondage, and the Birth of Modern Visual Politics in America , by Matthew Fox-Amato. In researching his book, Prof. Fox-Amato, then a Clements Center fellow, worked with photograph collections at the DeGolyer. Fox-Amato's book examines how the early days of photography influenced the national discourse regarding slavery, and how this discourse transformed the medium into a political tool.

We're always excited to see how researchers use DeGolyer collections. Congratulations to Prof. Fox-Amato on the publication of this impressive debut--we look forward to reading his work!
We often think of love letters as being written during the early days of romance, not a decade into a marriage. But in Love is in the Air! War-time Letters Between Stanley Marcus and His Wife, Billie , Anne Peterson looks at the romantic letters Stanley and Billie wrote to each other, years after their wedding, while Stanley was in Washington, D.C. working for the Office of Production Management during World War Two.
In Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Samantha Dodd examines the life and accomplishments of Julia Scott Reed, a Dallas native and the first African American journalist at the Dallas Morning News. The Julia Scott Reed papers are part of the Archives of Women of the Southwest, and include photographs of and by Reed, numerous awards, news clippings, and correspondence.

Last month, the film adaptation of The Iron Orchard opened in theaters. Tom Pendelton's Texas epic captures the lives of roughnecks and wildcatters on the oil fields, and was based on his own experience in the industry. In The Iron Orchard , Cynthia Franco explores Pendelton's Texas roots and connections to Mr. DeGolyer and Southern Methodist University.

Out and About
Visit the Hamon Gallery to view Information/Object: Late 20th Century Artists' Books, the new exhibit by the Hamon Arts Library, featuring a number of artists books from the DeGolyer Library.

The exhibit will run till March 8th, 2019.
From the Stacks
Collections Highlight
If you've ever wondered how long the trip from page to screen actually is, you'll want to take a look at the Horton Foote papers. Pictured here is Foote's copy of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird , where he began writing notes that would evolve into his Academy Award wining screenplay. In this collection, researchers can trace the script's journey across more than two dozen drafts and numerous notebooks.

New Accessions
From the political to the poetic, letters from prison are a long and storied tradition. The DeGolyer recently acquired a letter written by Norman Marshall to his father in May, 1888. "Dear Father, I am in the Texas Penitentiary- behind the bars of a Southern prison, but it is not such a bad place after all." What follows is perhaps the key to Norman's positive review-- "to one who can go and come at will." Curious to read more? Email cwjensen@smu.edu to schedule a visit to the reading room.
Newly Digitized Items
Almost 100 images from the Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on Mexico and the Mexican Revolution were recently digitized, many relating to Porfirio Diaz and his family, and images and ephemera related to the Mexican War of Independence centennial. Thanks to Elmer and Diane Powell for donating this much-used collection.

DeGolyer Library
DeGolyer Library | Southern Methodist University | 214-768-3637 | degolyer@smu.edu | https://www.smu.edu/Libraries/DeGolyer