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
scrapbooks
Research Ready: October 2018
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
Research Ready: August 2018
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
Research Ready: March 2017
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!
March’s finding aids
By Paul Fisher, Processing Archivist
- Estes family papers, 1853-1996, undated (#187): Includes Civil War correspondence from Aaron Estes, a soldier in the 10th Texas Infantry, plus legal and financial papers.

- Gordon Zahorik papers, 1939-1980, undated (#284): Contains photographs of streetcars operated by the Texas Electric Railway Company during the 1930’s and 1940’s.
- Davis and Manon Yantis Stribling papers, 1898-1912, undated (#1595): Two albums of photographs from around the Baylor University campus, circa 1907-1910. Other materials include European postcards and books.
- Currency collection, 1837-1914, undated (#3866): Collection contains currency from Texas, Mexico, various states, and organizations throughout the 1800s and early 1900s.
- Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway records, 1880 (#1902): Consists of a cancelled land deed from 1880 that was initially proposed to attract the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway Company to Belton, Texas.
- Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad records, 1948-1949 (#2192): Includes conductor’s orders and clearance cards used in directing a special presidential campaign train carrying President Harry Truman to Waco on September 27, 1948.
- Nora Elizabeth Potter Sims papers, 1943-1971, undated (#3925): Contains materials including diaries, notebooks, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and artifacts all pertaining to Nora’s life.

- Roy Elmer Beck collection, 1918-1946, undated (#3293): Materials from Beck’s lengthy employment for the Texas Electric Railway Company in Waco.
- Texas and Pacific Railroad Company records, circa 1874 (#1542): Consists of a single, U.S. Congressional bill pertaining to the construction of a transcontinental railroad via the Texas and Pacific Railway Company.
- Brinkman-Alston Texas currency, 1841-1843 (#3908): Includes three paper bills: 2 Republic of Texas currency notes and 1 McKinney, Williams, and Company currency
- C.E. Casebier collection, undated (#2242): Collection contains an essay by C.E. Casebier concerning his trip to Washington, D.C. in 1923 to advocate for the Kansas City-Mexico-Orient railroad.
March’s print materials
By Amie Oliver, Librarian and Curator of Print Materials
This month, we are highlighting a selection of 16th century volumes recently discovered in our backlog and added to the collection.
here to view in BearCat.
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here to view in BearCat.
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here to view in BearCat.
ClickResearch Ready: August 2016
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!
August’s finding aids
By Emily Carolin, Graduate Assistant, and Paul Fisher, Processing Archivist

- Mary Charlotte and Frances Alexander papers, 1920-1970 (#1966): Documents the lives of two sisters: one a Southern Baptist missionary in China, and the other sister, a teacher and author in Texas. The correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs provide insight into the perspective of an American expatriate living in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Communist Revolution.
- Zora Francis Greenway papers, 1946-2006 (#4005): Materials include correspondence, newsletters, and photographs about the personal, medical, and evangelistic activities of a female Southern Baptist medical missionary in Nigeria, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and Ghana.
August’s print materials
By Amie Oliver, Librarian and Curator of Print Materials
This substantial volume, filled with photographs representing turn-of-the-century San Antonio, contains many advertisements. The final twenty pages of the volume provide additional information about the history of the Alamo, the missions, and other points of interest in San Antonio. Click here to view in BearCat!
With a beautiful full-color cover, this volume contains the story of a cowboy’s life in the 19th century Wild West. Western volumes such as this one, published in London, were immensely popular in Europe. Click here to view in BearCat!
This French language travel volume was discovered in our backlog. What’s unique about this book is that part of the inside is hollow and can only be read through page 28. The rest of the volume’s pages have been cut, creating a book safe. According to a note found in the book safe, this volume was discovered in a book shop in the New Orleans French Quarter. Click here to view in BearCat!
Research Ready: February 2015
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 are February’s finding aids:
- BU records: Baylor Literacy Center, 1946-1988 (#BU/32): Contains the files of Baylor’s literacy center, which helped to teach members of the Waco community how to read. The collection contains brochures, subject files, and student work produced by the staff and students of the Literacy Center.

- Winter family photographic collection, 1880-1920 (#3945): Mostly unidentified photographs from Waco and Central Texas. The photographs provide insight into the style and photographic practices of American society at the turn of the twentieth century.
- Jesse Breland and Jessie Brown Johnson papers, 1888-1929 (#440): Includes letters and mathematics notebooks. The letters describe Baylor student life in Waco 1888-1891.
- John F. Baugh papers, 1946-1995, (#3339): Draft manuscripts, notes, and research files for Baugh’s book, The Battle for Baptist Integrity.
- [Belton] First Christian Church records, circa 1962-1967, undated (#117): Contains research materials and draft manuscripts of the church history book History of the First Christian Church, Belton, Texas, 1856-1966.
- Forest Edwin and Edna Lee Sedwick Goodman family photographic collection, 1870-1918, undated (#3944): Includes photographs documenting Goodman family life in Waco, Texas, along with a scrapbook of a trip to Mexico. Forest Edwin Goodman worked for the Tom Padgitt Company in Waco.

Exploring the Waco Jewish Community with the Texas Jewish Historical Society
By Paul Fisher, Processing Archivist

On January 24, The Texas Collection welcomed the Texas Jewish Historical Society to a special display of materials on Jewish life and faith in Central Texas. Members of the society viewed many different kinds of materials, including:
- a letter to a German Jewish family by the German secret police, warning them to leave the country (they later came to Waco, Texas),
- an elaborate green velvet scrapbook with photographs from the 1800s of the Goldstein family in Waco,
- photographs of Jewish-owned businesses in Waco, such as the Goldstein-Migel and Sanger Brothers department stores,
- membership cards and past meeting pamphlets from the Texas Jewish Historical Society, and
- photographs of Temple Rodef Sholom and Congregation Agudath Jacob in Waco from the early 1900s.

All together, The Texas Collection has more than 20 Jewish-related collections available for researchers to explore. Most of these collections are unprocessed, meaning they are not yet described through a finding aid in BARD or housed in modern acid-free boxes and folders. However, two Jewish collections have been processed recently, the De Cordova Family papers 1845-1956 and the Waco Chapter of Hadassah records 1928-2009, and we hope to process the rest of them soon. Stay tuned for more news about our Jewish collections!
Mother Neff State Park: A Texas Original
As summer descends upon us and we feel the desire to travel and explore, let’s not forget one of the most easily accessible destinations we Texans can reach: our own Texas State Parks. One such park, with the honor of being called the first State Park of Texas, is very close to Waco and has historic ties to Waco and Baylor University. Mother Neff State Park, located in Coryell County along the Leon River, claims that title and is named after Isabella Neff, mother of former Governor of Texas and president of Baylor, Pat Neff.

Mother Neff donated about six acres of land (sources vary as to whether it was six acres or seven) with an eye toward a place for gatherings and other events. This land was beautiful and diverse with massive trees, bluffs, an Indian cave, and prairie land perfect for wildflowers. As Emma Morrill Shirley said (quoted in one of two Mother Neff State Park scrapbooks in the Pat Neff Collection), “There is no more typically Texas spot in all Texas than Mother Neff Park.”
Mother Neff insisted there be no fee for the use of the property and her wish was that the community make use of the land freely. And use it they did, with town meetings, picnics, political sessions, family reunions, prayer gatherings and camp meetings.

One of Pat Neff’s favorite events was the yearly chautauqua, the first one held July 5-12, 1925. In Neff’s words, the chautaqua was “a program of general information and inspiration.” Leaders in business, education, and religion came to speak to those who gathered during this time. Two of the talks Neff proposed for his first event were, “Triumphant Christianity in Texas,” and “The Public Educational System of Texas.” Neff’s fondness for these yearly events was widely known and anticipated.
After Isabella’s death in 1921, Neff donated the six acres to the state and named it Mother Neff Memorial Park. In 1934, Neff donated an additional 250 acres and the park became Mother Neff State Park, the first State Park in Texas. Mr. F.P. Smith also donated three acres to the park, bringing the total acreage of the park to 259 acres.

Neff realized that the park needed a lot of work to become the park he envisioned, so he turned to federal government programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, and had one unit of the Corps stationed by the park. The CCC, working at the park from 1934-1938, was responsible for many of the buildings and improvements on the park grounds. The clubhouse, park entrance, church, observation/water tower, and road system throughout the park are due to the Corps’ hard work.

On May 14, 1938 (Mother’s Day), the official Mother Neff State Park Dedication Ceremony took place. The Baylor University Golden Wave Band performed and Dr. J.M. Dawson gave the dedicatory address. Other state officials also attended and it was estimated that over 1,000 people came to the event.
More information on Mother Neff State Park resides in the Pat Neff collection housed in The Texas Collection at Baylor University, and in it are two scrapbooks dedicated to Mother Neff State Park. In their pages are photographs of Neff, Isabella, the park landscape, and animals that lived on the park land such as sheep, goats, and horses. Also contained in the scrapbooks are images of park buildings, Indian caves, and other features. We hope you’ll enjoy exploring these images in the Flickr slideshow at the end of this post.

One of the scrapbooks contains documents describing the park, correspondence and general statements about the park, birthday cards to Isabella Neff and, in particular, a poem. We urge you to take the poem’s advice:
To those who are traveling and pass this way, / I want you to stop and hear what we say. / The birds and the bees, and the squirrels when they bark, / All bid you come into the Mother Neff Park.
For more information on Mother Neff State Park, see :
The Mother Neff State Park home page,
The Handbook of Texas Online entry for Mother Neff State Park, or
the Pat Neff collection finding aid.
Research Ready: May 2013

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. This is our one-year anniversary of telling you what’s Research Ready, so we added things up. We’ve announced nearly 90 finding aids completed between May 2012-May 2013. Wow—that’s a lot of research just waiting to happen! We look forward to sharing many more research opportunities with you. Here’s the scoop for May 2013:
- [Waco] Branch Davidians: FBI Letters and Negotiation Transcripts Collection.
Inclusive: 1993: Copies of letters written to the FBI during and after the Branch Davidian siege, as well as transcripts of negotiations between the Branch Davidians and the FBI. - BU Records: Fulmer (Katherine Lucylle Cope). 1939-1941, undated: Fulmer’s scrapbook on student life at Baylor University, 1939-1941.
- Grace Rosanky Putnam Jones Papers, 1934-2009, undated: Correspondence, literary productions, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials related to Jones’ experiences as a World War II WASP pilot, New York fashion model, and owner of a dress shop.

- Nick Pocock papers, 1971-1983, undated: Correspondence, photographs, and a newspaper clipping pertaining to Nick Pocock, a former aviation correspondent for The Waco Citizen and a former professor at Texas State Technical College.
- R. H. Smith Papers. 1836, 1839: Three letters, one of which has a typed transcription. Several incidents described in the letters relate to the Texas Revolution.
- Wichita Falls Symphony Records, circa 1962-1966: Correspondence, minutes, and bylaws about the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra.