Beyond the Bytes

Winter 2013

Proud to Represent Texas! The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) invited The Portal to Texas History to become a partner and join a distinguished list of ten service hubs across the country to provide online access to their digital collections. DPLA’s mission is to “offer a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States.” Taking it a step further, DPLA created a platform that allows researchers, developers, programmers, and others to use the items in creative ways – visit DPLA’s App Library to view some innovation at work.

Full-color Newspapers Texas Digital Newspaper Program uploads first full-color newspapers from the new scanner. All issues of The Meridian Tribune from 1935 have been uploaded as the Texas Digital Newspaper Program's first newspaper title digitized from UNT Libraries new scanner. Master images are 24-bit, full-color TIFFs, from which OCR has been generated and derivatives are viewable as full newspapers. Through a Tocker grant awarded to the Meridian Public Library, over 60 years of The Meridian Tribune will be included on The Portal to Texas History.

Featured Collections

Norman Dietel Photograph Collection, contributed by the LBJ Museum of San Marcos, documents Lyndon Johnson and family at the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, Texas (his home from 1951-1973, Lady Bird's until 2007). Noteworthy persons included in photographs are Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, Sam Rayburn, John F. Kennedy, Henry B. Gonzales, Hubert Humphrey, Pierre Salinger, and Bill Moyers. The photos also depict scenes of Texas hill country and historic Fredericksburg buildings, such as the Vereins-Kirche.

The Ormer Locklear Collection from the University of Texas at Dallas depicts the exciting and brief career of pilot Ormer Locklear. The WWI veteran performed as a barnstormer in Texas and then headed to Hollywood where he acted in two feature movies (The Great Air Robbery and the Skywayman). The Collection consists of photographs of Locklear, his friends and family, his stunt flying and his movie work, and a hand-colored set of Lobby Cards from The Great Air Race.

Featured Partner

The Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC), part of the Houston Public Library System’s Special Collections, contributed two of its extensive collections to the Portal.

Mexican American Family Photo Collection
Through photographs and documents, the collection relates the everyday life of families (including photographs of the Rusk Settlement House for Mexican-American Immigrants) as well as local businesses, festivals and community events.

John J. Herrera Papers
Lawyer and leading civil rights advocatefor Mexican Americans, John J. Herrera played a significant role in key cases that challenged the legitimacy of separate schools for Mexican American children and excluding Spanish-speaking citizens from service on juries. Herrera also served as national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

What’s in the Lab now?

UNT and the Texas Historical Commission (THC) received a TexTreasures grant this year to digitize a selection of THC’s Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) application files from five heritage regions in the state. The RTHL designation is awarded to historic structures deemed worthy of preservation and is the highest honor the state bestows upon historic buildings in Texas. Each application includes a narrative describing the building’s historical significance and images illustrating the architectural features of the property. Here's a preview of one application.

Beyond the Bytes

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