Research Ready: March 2020

March’s finding aids
By Paul Fisher, Assistant Director and Processing Archivist

What’s Your Story?

By Sylvia Hernandez, Archivist

As Baylor, Waco, and the Surrounding communities move to a shelter in place, The Texas Collection will continue serving our patrons via email at: txcoll@baylor.edu. Responses may take more time than usual, but we ask that you continue asking questions and learning the stories of our friends and neighbors of Texas past.

While our own lives are upended and we try to make some sense of the current situation, might I encourage you tell your own story. Whether that is digitally or manually, this documentation will help others understand they are not alone. Just as much as time changes, it also stands still.

Over 100 years ago the Spanish Flu impacted the world over as much as Covid-19. This epidemic is most readily documented at The Texas Collection in our Camp MacArthur Infirmary Ledger from 1918. Medical records are valuable resources, but they do not tell the entire story. They lack the depth of human experience.

At this time several members of The Texas Collection Staff have turned to documenting their own stories through journaling. Many others in the world have turned to social media for immediate impact. Historically letters, diaries, and photographs have also been kept as records of emotion and experience.

For some, there may be the question: What would I possibly record? Why would anyone care? Does it have to be spelled right or done professionally? Questions are the best place to start. Ask yourself as well as those around you.

Start with your feelings. Are you anxious? Tired? Scared? Are you close by your family or have you been separated? Is there someone you wish was with you? What about your pets or children? How has your regular schedule changed? Did you create a daily routine to follow?

Interview your family members. Ask how they feel. What do they think about not being in school? Do they miss their friends? Are they missing birthdays or vacation? What was the closest experience they have had to this before? Consider how a person’s age or stage of life might influence their answer. How have you been impacted? What are you learning now that you could implement later?

Many of these questions are just starting points for what is hiding within. We all have a story to tell, but there are many ways to tell them. Draw, paint, sew, take photographs, write a book, make a movie. One day someone will find it and want to know more, even you might want to revisit this time five years from now.

Whatever you do, create.

Research Ready: January 2020

January’s finding aids
By Paul Fisher, Assistant Director and Processing Archivist

Baylor students at a Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions event, part of Missions Week in 1956. You’ll find this item in the BU Records: Baptist Student Union, Accession #BU/15, box 10, folder 18, at The Texas Collection, Baylor University.

Texas Over Time: St. Francis on the Brazos Catholic Church, Waco, Texas

By Geoff Hunt, Audio and Visual Curator, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.

Texas has changed quite a bit over the years, as is readily seen in our vast photograph and postcard collections. To help bring some of those changes to life, we’ve created a “Texas over Time” blog series that will illustrate the construction and renovations of buildings, street scenes, and more. Our collections are especially strong on Waco and Baylor images, but look for some views beyond the Heart of Texas, too.

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Research Ready: October 2019

September’s finding aids
By Paul Fisher, Assistant Director and Processing Archivist

Mary McCaulay Maxwell's Rooom at Baylor, 1908
Mary McCaulay Maxwell was a student at Baylor University in 1908. In her scrapbook, preserved at The Texas Collection, she saved photographs, notes, clippings, and more about her time at Baylor. Pictured here is her room, probably in Georgia Burleson Hall. You’ll find this item in the Mary McCauley Maxwell papers, Accession #2080, box 1, folder 1, at The Texas Collection, Baylor University.

Mary McCaulay Maxwell and Friends, 1908
Mary McCaulay Maxwell and several of her Baylor friends lost no time in exploring their new hometown of Waco, Texas, while in college. Here they look to be exploring a windmill near Waco. You’ll find this item in the Mary McCauley Maxwell papers, Accession #2080, box 1, folder 1, at The Texas Collection, Baylor University.

Texas Over Time: The McLennan County Courthouse, Waco, Texas.

 

By Geoff Hunt, Audio and Visual Curator

Texas has changed quite a bit over the years, as is readily seen in our vast photograph and postcard collections. To help bring some of those changes to life, we’ve created a “Texas over Time” blog series that will illustrate the construction and renovations of buildings, street scenes, and more. Our collections are especially strong on Waco and Baylor images, but look for some views beyond the Heart of Texas, too.Continue Reading

Research Ready: July 2019

Each month, we post an update to notify our readers about the latest archival collections to be processed and some highlights of our print material acquisitions. These resources are primed for research and are just a sampling of the many resources to be found at The Texas Collection!Continue Reading

Texas Over Time: Rockets with Roots in McGregor, Texas

By Geoff Hunt, Audio and Visual Curator

Texas has changed quite a bit over the years, as is readily seen in our vast photograph and postcard collections. To help bring some of those changes to life, we’ve created a “Texas over Time” blog series that will illustrate the construction and renovations of buildings, street scenes, and more. Our collections are especially strong on Waco and Baylor images, but look for some views beyond the Heart of Texas, too.Continue Reading

Research Ready: June 2019

Each month, we post an update to notify our readers about the latest archival collections to be processed and some highlights of our print material acquisitions. These resources are primed for research and are just a sampling of the many resources to be found at The Texas Collection!Continue Reading

Sharing Student Scholarship: Finances at Baylor University, 1890-1910

Our Sharing Student Scholarship blog posts showcase original scholarship written by Baylor students who conducted research using primary source materials in The Texas Collection. This post is the the third of five in a series of blog posts written by graduate and PhD students from the Fall 2018 Foundations & History of Higher Education Leadership course. 

by Scott Alexander, Andrew Eastwood, Preston Templeman, and Mariah Duncan

Throughout the history of higher education, finances and funding have been necessary to animate and realize the mission of an institution. Finances can make or break an institution; therefore, strong leadership has always been important in making sure that the funds of an institution are being used to support both present function and foundation for the future. Funding comes from both internal and external sources to build endowments, provide student scholarships, pay institutional debts, make capital improvements, and supply for curricular and co-curricular resources. As industrialists built personal wealth during the 1890s and 1900s, the prevailing concept of the “Protestant work ethic” encouraged philanthropic stewardship of that wealth[1]. Higher education institutions capitalized on this ethic through targeted fundraising efforts[2].Continue Reading