Subject and Course Guides: Online Archival Resources Guide: Texas History

Texas History

A group of Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show attendees in Fort Worth welcoming visitors to the show by waving their cowgirl hats in the air; 03/07/1940 (from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection via the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery)

Publicly available via the UTA Libraries

A Continent Divided
UT Arlington Library's Special Collections serves as the repository for one of the most comprehensive archives relating to the U.S. - Mexico War in either the United States or Mexico. The core of these holdings was acquired by Fort Worth attorney Jenkins Garrett, who in 1973 donated to UT Arlington his collection of more than 10,000 discrete items on Texas and the war with Mexico, including broadsides, sheet music, manuscripts, maps and graphic materials.

Publicly available via the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery

Jenkins Garrett Texas Postcard Collection
A collection of postcards featuring Texas cities and towns with the larger cities subdivided into subjects, such as buildings, aerial views, parks, residences, schools, street scenes, universities, and more.

Publicly available via the UTA Center for Greater Southwestern Studies

Border Land: The Struggle for Texas, 1820-1879
This digital exhibit maps sites of conflict between Native Americans and Euro-Americans in Texas from the creation of the First Mexican Republic to the outbreak of the US-Mexico War (1821-1846).

Publicly available via the University of North Texas Libraries

The Portal to Texas History
A collection of digitized materials as part of a collaborative project with over 400 participating organizations across Texas, providing rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas. Resource materials include digitized newspapers, photographs, TV news scripts, maps, videos, correspondence, legislative documents, artwork, postcards, books, audio files, yearbooks, and many more.

Publicly available via the Fort Worth Public Library Digital Collections

Texas Centennial Scrapbook
Fort Worth celebrated the 100th anniversary of Texas' Independence with several activities sponsored by the Women’s Division of the Texas Frontier Centennial, one of which was a centennial scrapbook contest. The digitized scrapbook includes clippings from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and from The Fort Worth Press’ special edition “Texas Centennial Scrapbook," related ephemera, and a scanned copy of a 53-page booklet, Twice-Told Tales of Texas, that was inserted in the original 1936 scrapbook.
Texas Spring Palace materials
A collection of digitized materials relating to the Texas Spring Palace, which opened in Fort Worth in 1889 as a regional immigration and agricultural fair. It was intended to advertise Texas by displaying all the products of the state under one roof. The building was destroyed by a fire in 1890.

Publicly available via the Southern Methodist University Libraries

Texas: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints
A digitized collection of photographs, postcards, books, historic documents, and maps of Texas held by SMU’s DeGolyer Library. Each item relates to Texas and Texas history from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials illustrate historical events such as the development of the Texas oil industry, relations with Mexico, the Texas Revolution, Mexican Revolution and Civil War. The collection also includes images of cultural experiences like the iconic State Fair of Texas and everyday life in the state.
Texas Artists: Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper
A collaborative digital collections project between SMU Libraries' Bywaters Special Collections and Norwick Center for Digital Solutions; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Dallas Public Library’s Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division and Fine Books Division; the Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; and SMU's Meadows Museum.

Publicly available via the Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Texas Archive of the Moving Image
A collection of digitized Texas-related films and videotapes, which includes home movies, amateur films, advertisements, local television, and industrial/corporate productions, as well as Hollywood and internationally produced moving images of Texas.

From left, Moree and Bitsy Johnson of Marlin, Texas smile for the camera during Bluebonnet Photo Fiesta held in Marlin, Texas, April 1938 (from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection via the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery)