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!
May’s finding aids By Paul Fisher, Processing Archivist
Waco, Belton, and Georgetown Railroad records, 1909-1910, undated (#1577): Contains correspondence, financial notes, clippings, and the articles of incorporation about the planning and construction of the railroad in 1909-1910. Ultimately, however, the venture failed and the railroad was not completed.
Annie Jenkins Sallee and her husband Dr. William Sallee were missionaries to the interior of China in the early 1900s. This photograph shows the Sallees as guests at an ordination service in Kaifeng, the capital city of the Henan province. You’ll find these items in the Annie Jenkins Sallee papers, 1897-1967, undated (#715), box 1, folder 13, at The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
Annie Jenkins Sallee papers, 1897-1967, undated (#715): Includes manuscripts, photographs, newspaper clippings, diaries, and letters to and from Annie Jenkins Sallee and William Eugene Sallee, Baptist missionaries to China in the early 1900s through the beginning of World War II.
Texas Colony Association collection, circa 1870’s (#3295): Contains a broadside entitled “Texas Colony Association, Rapid Development of a Glorious Country.” It was produced in the mid-1870’s in an attempt to entice Americans to move to Texas, particularly the Kaufman County area east of Dallas
May’s print materials By Amie Oliver, Librarian and Curator of Print Materials
Thomas, Henry J., Mrs. The Prairie Rifles, or, The Captives of New Mexico: a Romance of the Southwest. New York: Beadle and Adams, [1868]. Print.
This dime novel, one of nearly 400 in The Texas Collection, contains the fictional tale of two women who are captured by Comanche Indians. Click here to view in BearCat.
Catalogue of the West Texas Military Academy: a Church School for Boys. San Antonio, TX: The Academy, 1904-. Print.
This catalog was produced just eleven years after the 1893 founding of the West Texas Military Academy in San Antonio. Two-thirds of the volume explains rules and regulations, administrative information, and academic standards. The remainder is devoted to athletics. Click here to view in BearCat.
Some of the Things 1909 Farmers Buy. Volume 1. Texas. New York: Crowell Publishing Company, 1909. Print.
Published as a special issue of the national publication Farm and Fireside, this volume highlights a group of Grayson County, Texas farmers randomly selected from the publication’s subscription list. Included in the volume are photographs of homes and descriptions of farms. Click here to view in BearCat.
In late November 1941, the most respected authority on materials relating to Texas visited Baylor University’s Texas Collection as part of his duties as a member of the McGregor Fund Committee. Thomas W. Streeter applauded The Texas Collection’s holdings in a letter to Guy B. Harrison and generously donated several items from his personal collection to the library.
Thomas Streeter was a successful businessman from the Northeast who harbored an interest in the collecting of rare materials relating to American history. His business ventures took him to Texas, which he utilized as an opportunity to add maps, broadsides, and various other items to his collection. By the end of his life, Streeter had assembled the largest known private collection of Texana.
Streeter meticulously compiled and published his Bibliography of Texas 1795-1845 in three volumes between 1955 and 1960. The work contained more than 1,600 entries including maps, novels, and musical scores along with pamphlets and government documents. His bibliography is widely considered the foremost authority on early Texas imprints and The Texas Collection owns many of the items he included.
Five of these items came from Streeter personally in 1941 after his visit to The Texas Collection. He came to Waco as a representative of the McGregor Plan, a program Baylor University participated in throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s. The program, founded by philanthropist and bibliophile Tracy W. McGregor, assisted libraries not located near major institutions to purchase rare books they would otherwise not be able to access. The school paid $500 each year and the McGregor Plan matched their funds and acted as the go-between for the schools and rare book dealers. Streeter served as a member of the committee which administrated the program after McGregor’s death in 1936.
A new map of Texas, with the contiguous American & Mexican states (1836)
The Texas Collection acquired significant rare Texas materials through the library’s participation in the McGregor Plan. After his visit, Streeter sent several items he felt would fill in the gaps he perceived in The Texas Collection’s holdings. He donated an 1836 map of Texas entitled “New Map of Texas with the Contiguous American and Mexican States.” The map, published by S. Mitchell, included boxes of text containing information on the general state of Texas, its land grants, and rivers.
Title page of Nuttall’s Journal of Travels… (1821)
Streeter also donated a pamphlet from the Secretary of the Treasury of the Republic of Texas to President Houston and a Mexican imprint detailing financial transactions after the war with Texas. Streeter included a pamphlet, “Lecture on the Subject of Re-annexing Texas to the United States,” delivered in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1845. This item gives a well-reasoned argument in favor of annexation from a northern perspective and is unique because most northerners opposed the annexation of Texas as a slave state into the Union. The Baylor Lariat identified the last item, Thomas Nuttall’s Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory, as the most valuable in the donation. Even though the work did not directly mention Texas, Streeter still felt it was worthwhile in its description of the territory now adjoining Texas.
Although Streeter did not publish his famed Bibliography of Texas for several more years, his visit to Waco and personal donation remain an important part of the story of The Texas Collection. The library continues to purchase Streeter items today and hopes to enlarge its holdings of these rare items in the years ahead.
Streeter, Thomas W. Bibliography of Texas 1795-1845. Portland, ME: Anthoensen Press, 1955. Reprinted, revised and enlarged by Archibald Hanna with a guide to the microfilm collection Texas as Province and Republic: 1795-1845. Woodbridge, CT: Research Publications, Inc., 1983.
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!
October’s finding aids By Emily Carolin, Graduate Assistant, and Paul Fisher, Processing Archivist
This image shows baseball being played at what was then Baylor University’s main sports venue: Carroll Field. Image taken circa 1903, Waco Texas. Notice Carroll Science Building and Old Main in the background (Carol R. Bates photograph album, Accession #3980, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.).
Carol R. Bates photograph album, 1907-1910 (#3980): Provides a glimpse into student life at Baylor in the 1900s. Many of the University’s events such as “Ring Out,” graduation, and sports such as football and baseball are represented in this album.
W.R. “Skeet” Eason papers, 1928-1940 (#2983): The W.R. “Skeet” Eason papers give insight into the workings of an airport operator and pilot in the 1920s-1940s through logbooks and photographs. With his friend, Ed Ockander, Eason operated the East Waco Airport from 1929-1933, where they sold airplanes, taught flying, and barnstormed at various small towns in the 1920s and 1930s. This collection includes Eason’s logbooks from East Waco Airport and photographs.
Aaron Moses Goldstein papers, 1927-1936 (#1807): Aaron Moses Goldstein was well-known in the Waco area, as president of his father and uncle’s company, Goldstein-Migel Department Store, city commissioner, and president of the Waco Chamber of Commerce. His papers include correspondence to and from Goldstein and several prominent leaders in the Waco community.
John Oscar Birgen “Swede” Johnson papers, 1860s-1990s (#2284): The collection of John Oscar Birgen “Swede” Johnson contains articles, photographs, and other materials on the railroad industry in Texas from Johnson’s 41 years working in the Katy Railroad Shop.
John R. Rogers Architectural drawings (#3924): The John R. Roger Architectural drawings contain plans for many different kinds of buildings in Central Texas, designed by Waco firm Drennon Associates/The Rogers Company. The majority of the plans are for buildings in Central Texas, including Waco, Rosebud, Itasca, McGregor, Lorena, Belton, Salado, Temple, and more.
Champe Carter Eubank Photo Album, circa 1890s (#2790): Compiled over a series of trips to New England and includes images of Waco, Texas, as well as coastal scenes in New England. The album displays some early photographic practices such as cyanotypes, silver gelatin, collodion, and albumen prints.
Waco Regional Baptist Association records, 1897-2014 (#230): The Waco Regional Baptist Association records largely document the activities of the Waco Regional Baptist Association in Central Texas from the 1930s through the early 1980s. It is comprised of minutes, correspondence, periodicals, reports, budgets, ledgers, and photographs.
October’s print materials By Amie Oliver, Librarian and Curator of Print Materials
The Cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: Photo-gravure. El Paso: W.G. Walz Co., 1894. Print.
With only two pages of text, the majority of this volume is a wonderful collection of nearly 40 images of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. From the Plaza of Ciudad Juarez to the views of Fort Bliss, this volume provides a great look at turn of century Texas and Mexico. Click here to view in BearCat!
This accordion-style booklet contains 24 images of the Texas coastal region, including photos from Bay City, Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and more. The images range from residential, coastal, and agricultural points of interest. Click here to view in BearCat!
Austin, Stephen F. Notice. [San Felipe de Austin]: [G.B. Cotton], 1829. Print.
This rare broadside, one of only three copies of the original 25 printed known to exist, informs immigrants to Austin’s Colony about the information needed to be accepted. Requested information includes name and age of the head of household and dependents, occupation, and “recommendations, accrediting the Christianity, morality and steady habits of the applicant.” Click here to view in BearCat!
Each month, we post a processing update to notify our readers about the latest collections that have finding aids online and are primed for research. Here’s the scoop for November:
Decree by Mexican Secretary of War Jose Maria Tornel, via District Governor Jose Gomez de la Cortina, regarding Mexico’s response to Santa Anna’s capture at San Jacinto: while Santa Anna remains in prison, a bow of black crepe was to be placed on all flags and standards, and the national colors were to be flown at half mast. Jones Texas Broadsides, box 1, folder 11.
Gertrude Harris Cook papers, circa 1962: Correspondence and a manuscript Harris wrote on the Battle of Glorieta Pass, an important battle during the American Civil War in New Mexico.
Frank Jasek Papers. Inclusive: 1915-2012, undated: Research files consisting mostly of notes, correspondence, photographs, compact discs, and literary productions used in the publication of Jasek’s book, Soldiers of the Wooden Cross: Military Memorials of Baylor University.
A program from a 1916 presentation by the younger girls attending the Woodrow school. The school used the White system of expression, a noted methodology to teach students how to best utilize gesture, emotion, and voice in public. Woodrow School of Expression and Physical Culture, box 1, folder 1.
![Thomas, Henry J., Mrs. The Prairie Rifles, or, The Captives of New Mexico: a Romance of the Southwest. New York: Beadle and Adams, [1868]. Print.](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4276/34869832812_281d3deb8e_o.jpg)
![Jones, Tom. Miniatures: Gulf Coast, Southern Texas [Cincinnati]: [Tom Jones], 1907. Print.](https://c6.staticflickr.com/6/5560/30533286501_ba282f227b_o.jpg)
![Austin, Stephen F. Notice. [San Felipe de Austin]: [G.B. Cotton], 1829. Print](https://c7.staticflickr.com/6/5603/30321499390_e0fa21dcfa_o.jpg)
