News from the DeGolyer Library
September 2020
Southern Methodist University
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Our Latest Virtual Exhibit |
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“Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes: An Exhibition Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Passage of the 19th Amendment” features over 100 objects from the collections of Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Helen LaKelly Hunt, and the DeGolyer Library. The exhibit includes materials such as rare books, pamphlets, broadsides, photographs, sheet music, manuscripts, and ephemera documenting the history of the women’s rights movement, from the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) through the 19th century and early 20th century, with emphasis on the roles women played first in the abolitionist movement and then in the suffrage movement. Represented are well-known figures such as the Grimke sisters, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth, as well as more local figures and organizations, such as the Women Suffrage Association of Oklahoma.
Related video clips from faculty in the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, New Feminist Discourses and Social Change, are available here as well:
Special thanks to Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Helen LaKelly Hunt, Bonnie Wheeler, Crista DeLuzio, Susanne Scholz, and Lolita Buckner Inniss.
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The Dallas Morning News is 135 year old
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A sister publication of Texas’ oldest newspaper The Galveston News owned by the A.H. Belo Co., The Dallas Morning News published its first issue on October 1, 1885. Printed on the high capacity Bullock Press (pictured, right) TDMN saw its average daily circulation grow to 15,000 copies within its first ten years, reaching readers in locations outside of Dallas, such as McKinney, Sherman, Denison, and Houston, via special delivery trains.
Under the leadership of G.B. Dealey, its first director and editor, the newspaper reported on Dallas’ prospering life, as well as the American participation in World War I. It also did not shy away from controversial topics, such as the anti KKK campaign conducted in the first part of the 2oth century, when the paper lost more than a few subscribers, but maintained its journalistic integrity. Numerous other events and topics have been covered by its pages since the first issue. Although issued in a mostly online format these days, The Dallas Morning News continues to be a staple of the Texas information industry.
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October is American Archives Month, when archivists work to raise public awareness about the importance of historic documents and records. Every October, institutions throughout the Metroplex gather for the DFW Archives Bazaar. This year, the meeting is going virtual. Follow along on social media to learn more about local archives and work of archivist through October.
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Remembering Virginia McAlester |
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This past spring Dallas lost a notable name in historic preservation. Virginia Savage McAlester, author, historian, preservationist, philanthropist, and activist died on April 9, 2020.
Author of five celebrated architectural-history books, including A Field Guide to American Houses, McAlester helped create the Swiss Avenue Historic District, and helped found the Friends of Fair Park, and what is today Preservation Dallas. Because of her efforts and activism, some of Dallas' most treasured buildings and neighborhoods are thriving. Now her legacy is part of the Archives of Women of the Southwest. This fall, 170 boxes of research files, personal papers, photographs, artifacts and awards, correspondence, and publications arrived at the DeGolyer Library.
Thanks to the McAlester family, Virginia's work will continue to inspire and educate future generations of historians, preservationists, activists, and scholars.
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Houston Displayed, or, Who Won the Battle of San Jacinto? was first published in 1837. Written by “A Farmer in the Army,” Col. Robert Coleman, it cast grave doubts on the military exploits, political ambition, and personal character of Sam Houston, who had just become the president of the fledgling Republic of Texas. Edited with an introduction and scholarly annotation by Stephen L. Hardin, Houston Displayed is the thirteenth volume in our Library of Texas series, published in conjunction with the Clements Center for Southwest Studies.
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From Anderson’s Holler … to Washington, New York, Newport News, Casablanca, Sicily, Salerno, Naples, Anzio, Rome, Florence, Poltava, Southern France, Dachau, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Washington, Nuremberg, and Tokyo is a memoir by Melvin C. Shaffer, who served as a medical photographer in World War II. From the mountains of West Virginia to the far reaches of the globe, Shaffer recounts his experiences of the brutality, cruelty, and horror of the bloodiest war in history, laced with irony, touches of humor, and grace. For those interested in personal narratives of World War II, From Anderson’s Holler is a must-read!
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Click the images above to order these titles |
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New Finding Aids
The Nancy Barlow stereograph collection consists of over 6,500 stereographs of tourist sites from all over the world and various other subjects such as courtship and marriage, nature and animals, war scenes and religious imagery. In addition, there are magic lantern slides, View-Master reels and stereoscopic viewers. All materials are from the 1850s to the 1950s.
Isabell Cranfill Campbell (1910-1995), granddaughter of Baptist leader Dr. James Britton Buchanan Boone Cranfill, was a Dallas civic leader. Other members of the Cranfill and Campbell families worked as physicians, religious leaders, businessmen, and journalists in Texas. These papers primarily comprise family correspondence. Printed materials, clippings, papers, notebooks, and photographs are also included.
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The Reeves Family Papers include photographs, correspondence, and ephemera collected by sisters Mary, Anna, and Estella, which document their lives growing up in an African American family in Austin in the mid 20th century.
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My guess is that if you're reading this newsletter, you're already registered to vote (if not, click here!) In a recent blog post for SMU Libraries, Joan Gosnell looks at the history of Get Out the Vote initiatives on campus, including Vote 72, ahead of the first national election 18 year olds were eligible to vote in, and the Rock the Vote drive, led by MTV in 1992. Click here to read the post, and make sure to vote!
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Recent Accessions
"Do something for someone every day" was the motto of philanthropists Ebby Halliday. This past month the Ebby Halliday Foundation donated the personal papers of its namesake to the Archives of Women of the Southwest. In additional to the dozens of boxes of letters, photographs, scrapbooks, and speeches, the foundation also made a very generous gift to the archives for the care and preservation of Halliday's legacy and to ensure future generations access to her life's written work.
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Newly Digitized Items
90 film negatives captured from the 1930s through the 1950s were recently digitized by the Norwick Center for Digital Solutions. The images, taken by Robert Yarnall Richie, focus on oil refineries and drilling operations in Aruba and Venezuela. Industrial photography might not sound all that interesting at first pass, but Richie had an incredibly artistic eye and the images not only document the industry, place, and time, but feature striking composition, lighting, and beauty. Click here to learn more about the Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection.
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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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