The Texas Collection Welcomes Two New Archivists

THE TEXAS COLLECTION

Believe Me Your OwnCivil War letters unveil story of enduring love

Discovering New Hope Historic church lives on through its archives

Integrating Athletics Wardlaw Fellow researches college football

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THE TEXAS COLLECTION

One Bear Place #97142Waco, Texas 76798-7142

In November, The Texas Collection received a generous grant from the Summerlee Foundation in Dallas. These funds, along with funds from the Pro Texana Society, enabled us to move forward with updates and improvements in the Guy B. Harrison, Jr. Reading Room.

In early February, 14 new parabolic lights were installed, replacing 32 fluorescent lights. In addition, 12 new globe lights were hung, and spot lights were strategically placed in the room to highlight artwork. The goal was to update and improve the quality of lighting for library users, enhancing research as well as improving the aesthetic quality of the room. Along with the new lighting, the room was painted a light green with black trim accents around the doors; this new color

The Pro Texana SocietyRenovation of the Guy B. Harrison, Jr. Reading Room Continues

beautifully highlights the warm tones of the wood cabinets. The last part of this update includes new sunscreens for the three windows in the room. These screens will block the harsh rays of the sun but allow soft natural light to enter the room. I hope you will stop by and see

the changes the next time you are on campus. All of these upgrades were made possible by the generosity of the Summerlee Foundation and donors like you. Thank you for your support.

The Texas Collection is open to the public and the staff is here to help answer questions about Texas history, culture or literature. Please join the Pro Texana Society and support the important work of The Texas Collection at the beginning level of $50 on up to the $1,000

or more level. Make your check payable to Baylor University and indicate “Pro Texana Society” in the note field. Mail to John S. Wilson, The Texas Collection, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97142, Waco, Texas 76798-7142.

Good Luck to Our Graduating Student Workers!

Visit The Texas Collection onlinehttp://www.baylor.edu/lib/texas/

Gloria Lee (Brentwood, TN) will receive a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Public Relations. She has worked at The Texas Collection for one year.

Thomas DeShong (Harrisonville, PA) will receive a Master of Arts in History. He has worked with us for one year.

Megan Burleson (Colleyville, TX) will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Humanities. She has worked at The Texas Collection for one year.

Travis Porteous (Houston, TX) will receive a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. Travis has been at The Texas Collection for two years.

Lily Espinosa (Katy, TX) will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She has worked with us for one year.

Joanna Ayala (El Paso, TX) will receive a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. She has been at The Texas Collection for one year.

The 5th Street curb in front of the Bill Daniel Student Center was her favorite childhood spot during Baylor’s Homecoming Parades. Now, Amanda Keys Norman returns to the Baylor family with a new spot down the road at The Texas Collection, as the new University Archivist.

“The Texas Collection is where I found my calling,” she said. “So I appreciate the poetry of returning to this archive to

put that calling into action.”After earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and

Communication at Trinity University, Norman ventured to Waco, where she served as Communications Specialist and then Development Writer for Baylor University Development. By 2009, she earned her Master of Arts in English Literature as a Bear.

As a Development Writer, Norman realized her love for archives during her frequent research visits in The Texas Collection and felt a calling to the profession. That calling led her to the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, where she obtained her Master of Science in Information Studies, with an emphasis on archives and records management. Norman immersed herself in the world of archiving while at UT, serving as treasurer of the UT chapter of the Society of American Archivists, as Editorial Fellow and Interim Managing Editor for Libraries & the Cultural Record journal, curating two digital exhibitions for the Alexander Architectural Archive and volunteering at the Harry Ransom Center.

“Archival collections are the records we create in the course of our daily activities,” she said. “It’s so important that we recognize their value not just as historical documents but as records that are central to our current lives as well. We have to know where we’ve been to know where we’re going.”

Norman spent the past few months as a Project Archivist and a Research Associate for the National Digital Newspaper Program at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. But she could not pass up an opportunity to return to the place where she discovered her love for archives.

“I’ve always enjoyed Baylor’s commitment to preserving tradition. However, there is so much more to do,” she said, noting that The Texas Collection has only been the official university archives since 2007. “I look forward to working with the different constituencies of the Baylor family—faculty, staff, students, alumni—to prepare a plan for the University Archives to document more comprehensively the history of this great institution.”

Norman sees her new role at The Texas Collection as a return to home. “A Bear I grew up, and a Bear I always will be,” she said. “I loved my time at Trinity and had a great experience at UT, but Baylor holds a special place in my heart.”

For Benna Vaughan, the new Special Collections and Manuscripts Archivist at The Texas Collection, “excitement is infectious,” and nothing excites Vaughan more than historical discoveries and the mystery of archiving.

With an interest in the archives field, Vaughan first came to Baylor as an intern for the Poage Legislative Library. In 2001, she became the Bullock Archive Project Director at Poage, a position that focused on exhibitions and patron services for the Bullock Collection.

Eleven years later, Vaughan’s tireless dedication and enthusiasm brought her to The Texas Collection, where she is the new Special Collections and Manuscripts Archivist.

Vaughan sees importance and value in the job of archiving. She loves the “mystery and discovery” of researching the origin of a particular item and what it says about a culture or time period. An archivist is vital to the preservation of important records and works to preserve and provide access to materials for generations to come.

Vaughan eagerly anticipates the work that awaits her in The Texas Collection, where she hopes to hone her skills and contribute to the growth of The Texas Collection. She jokes, “The Texas Collection is like Christmas every day of the year… you are always coming across something new and fresh.”

Vaughan attended the University of Texas at Arlington, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Arts in Public History with an archival emphasis. However, the acceptance she felt from the Baylor family solidified her commitment to the university. “Baylor is just different than other workplaces, but you don’t realize how different until you get here,” she said.

Not only does Vaughan have experience with Baylor, but also her dedication to patron services made her the perfect candidate for her new position at The Texas Collection. Vaughan believes that it is important to have “an understanding and willingness to provide patrons and researchers with good public service.”

This devotion and excitement drives Vaughan to share her work with other people. “When you are excited about what you do and what you are providing for your patrons, it becomes a shared experience which is very fulfilling, so loving what you do is very important to me,” she commented.

“I love being a part of something permanent and important to the future… These discoveries intrigue me,” Vaughan said. And her excitement will provide a fresh outlook to an already thriving archival collection.

A Homegrown Vision: Robert L. Smith & the Farmer’s Improvement SocietyFebruary 1 - March 20, 2012Materials from the Smith-Cobb family of Waco are featured in this exhibit highlighting the FIS, which helped tenant farmers out of a cycle of debt and poverty at the turn of the twentieth century.

A Celebration of Texas: Literature, Music & FilmMarch 28 - April 26, 2012A month-long series of events and exhibits that celebrate Texas literature, music and film presented in conjunction with Humanities Texas, the Historic Waco Foundation, the Department of English, the School of Music, the School of Education, the Film and Digital Media Division and Student Activities. Each event is free and open to the public.

A Celebration of Texas Poets: Featuring 2012 Poet Laureate Jan Epton SealeWednesday, March 28, 2012 • 1:00 p.m.Armstrong Browning Library

A Celebration of Texas Music: Getting in the “Swing” of ThingsFeaturing Dick Gimble, Jean Ann Boyd & the Baylor Swing Dance SocietyThursday, March 29, 2012 • 7:00 p.m.Moody Memorial Library, Allbritton Foyer

A Celebration of Texas Writers: Exploring Women of the American West featuring Judy AlterMonday, April 16, 2012 • 4:00 p.m.Carroll Science Building, Room 101

A Celebration of Texas Film: The Cultural Impact of Giant (1956) on the Idea of TexasThursday, April 26, 2012 • 7:00 p.m.Bill Daniel Student Center

Thank you for supporting The Texas Collection with your gifts to the Pro Texana Society and for your gifts of archival collections, books, and most importantly, your interest in all things “Texas.” This spring, I hope you will join us on the Baylor campus for a month-long “Celebration of Texas: Literature, Music and Film” exhibit, which will begin on March 28. Events include a “Celebration of Texas Music: Getting into the ‘Swing’ of Things” featuring fiddle player and McLennan Community College Professor Dick Gimble, the Baylor Swing Dance Society, and Professor Jean Boyd discussing her new book Dance All Night. “The Celebration of Texas” runs through April 26 and finishes with the program “A Celebration of Texas Film: The Cultural Impact of Giant (1956) on the Idea of Texas,” which will be held in the Den at the Bill Daniel Student Center at 7:00 p.m. These are just two of the scheduled events! You can take a look at a full schedule at www.baylor.edu/lib/celebratetexas. Special library exhibits will also be a part of this “Celebration of Texas.” The Texas Collection will feature the works of Dorothy Scarborough and the Texas Folklore Society. The Armstrong Browning Library will host an exhibit of works of the Poet Laureates of Texas; Moody Memorial Library will feature Texas writers, and the Poage Library will celebrate with an exhibit of signed books by Texas authors. Please take a moment to read about our newly hired University Archivist Amanda Keys Norman and our new Special Collections and Manuscripts Archivist Benna Vaughan. I truly believe they will have a lasting and important impact upon The Texas Collection. Finally, I hope you have a moment to visit our website and click on “Believe Me Your Own: Letters From the Battlefield to Fanny From Alex (1862-1865),” an amazing story of love, hope and commitment during a war that tore apart the nation.

From the Director

From the Collections...

In the last issue of Viva Texas, we asked for donations to repair our beautiful grandfather clock. A generous gift has us on the right track, but we still need your support. Won’t you consider helping us restore this dignified piece of history?

Dr. Zeb Baker, instructor in the Department of History at Georgia Southern University, is the 2012 Wardlaw Fellowship Fund for Texas Studies recipient. Dr. Baker’s research focuses on desegregation in college football, specifically for the time period after World War II and into the 1970s.

While at The Texas Collection, Dr. Baker researched the Baylor University presidential papers of W. R. White and Abner McCall. From his research, he hopes to publish a book tentatively titled Forward Progress: Desegregating College Football 1945-1975.

Introducing the 2012 Wardlaw Research Fellow: Dr. Zeb Baker

A newscast. The Internet. YouTube. Even a Twitter feed. In 2012, these sources give us a sense of immediacy and connect us to the people living the stories that make up the news. But once the events become history—especially if that history is more than one hundred years in the past—then we need another way to connect. Letters, what Tennyson called “those fallen leaves that keep their green,” are our link to this past.

The American Civil War yielded many such fallen leaves, carefully preserved by families through the intervening years. One striking set came from a man named Alex Morgan. In November 1861, Dr. Nathaniel Alexander “Alex” Morgan enlisted in the Confederate Army with Company F of the 19th Louisiana Infantry. He served without furlough until the war’s end in April 1865, traveling from Louisiana to the Carolinas. Morgan’s letters home to his beloved wife Fanny tell a story of faithful love in a time of great hardship.

Written with tender affection and thoughtful honesty, the Morgan letters reveal an educated man’s meditations on the war, medicine, human nature, marriage and family. Alex writes Fanny,

“Believe me your own”Letters from the Battlefield to Fanny from Alex (1862-1865)

Between Feb. 1 and March 20, The Texas Collection presents the exhibit “A Homegrown Vision: Robert L. Smith and the Farmers Improvement Society.” Robert L. Smith, founder of the Farmers Improvement Society (FIS), was a noted Texas educator during the early 1900s. He also served as a member of the Texas legislature

twice in his active public career. Smith directed FIS as it provided life insurance, financed a bank in Waco, operated an agricultural boarding school and provided a social life in a religious and fraternal setting for African-Americans across Texas. Members enjoyed these benefits and others for about forty years, before Smith’s death in 1942 and the beginning of the Great Depression signaled the end of the FIS.

The exhibit features photographs and documents of the Society and its leaders, including displays on the overall history of the FIS, the bank in Waco, the boarding school and other topics related to the society. Notable photographs include pictures of the children attending the boarding school, various members of the Society and of the bank in Waco.

This fascinating exhibit will be on display until March 20. Come learn about R.L. Smith, the Farmers Improvement Society and their work in Texas during the early 1900s.

Farmers Improvement Society Exhibit

New Hope Baptist Church, one of the oldest African-American churches in Waco, Texas, was founded in 1866. From at least 1905, and probably before that, New Hope Baptist Church was famous for its musical programs.

Notable members through the years include Jules Bledsoe, later an international African-American opera star, and Vivienne Malone-Mayes, one of

the first African-Americans to receive multiple graduate degrees in mathematics and the first African-American professor at Baylor University. The Texas Collection has at least seven collections that relate to New Hope, with wonderful letters and photographs about this important church’s 147-year history.

New Hope Baptist Church

In 1861, a group of Texans were sent to modern-day Oklahoma to find out how the American Indian tribes would respond if there was a civil war.

McLennan County resident James Harrison, a wealthy cotton planter and former frontier trader, was a member of this fact-finding mission. His report back to the governor of Texas in what is believed to be his original handwriting is in the Carter-Harrison Family Collection, held by The Texas Collection.

Many Native American tribes did side with the Confederacy and lost everything by the end of the war. James Harrison went on to become a Confederate general in the Civil War and is buried in First Street Cemetery, Waco, Texas.

Carter-Harrison Family Collection

The Texas Collection recently acquired a copy of The History and Topography of the United States. The two-volume set was compiled and edited by John Howard Hinton, an English author and Baptist minister. Samuel Walker of Boston first published the title in 1834.

Our copy is the third edition with information updated to 1842. In addition to color maps of the states and territories there are steel engravings of many public buildings of the era.

History and Topography of the United States

If you have been by the Carroll Library in the past few months, you may have noticed our new building banners. The four banners that adorn the building were designed using images from our photograph collection and feature rarely-seen photos of Baylor students from the turn of the century up to the 1990s. We hope that these banners help patrons easily identify our location and that the descriptive words will give passersby a glimpse of what we do at The Texas Collection!

Amie Oliver and Tiffany Sowell will present at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in April in Houston. Their presentation, “All are Welcome! Accessibility in Special Collections,” will be featured in the 1001 Great Ideas session.

Congratulations to Librarian Michael Toon on his 25 years of service and to Archives Assistant Geoff Hunt and Coordinator for User and Access Services Amie Oliver on their 5 years each of service to Baylor University and The Texas Collection.

“not an account of the battle, that you will see in the paper, but ... my own impressions of things, as they passed before me.” His letters begin immediately after the Battle of Shiloh and continue through Sherman’s march.

The Texas Collection is releasing Alex Morgan’s letters in an online exhibition with annotations, maps, photos and music. Visit us at www.baylor.edu/lib/believemeyourown and experience the anticipation and drama of reading news from the battlefield with “Believe me your own…Letters to Fanny from Alex.”

These letters were donated in loving memory of Maggie Scott Logue, granddaughter of Dr. and Mrs. N.A. Morgan, by her children and grandchildren.

“I will allow one hour in the day, my favourite hour, twilight. You + the children, my little world, are hardly

ever out of my mind, but at that particular time of day I am most apt to

dream of you.”--Alex Morgan, “In the Trenches near Marietta, Georgia - June 30, 1864”

To learn more about Baker’s research, visit our YouTube channel: YouTube.com/texascollection.

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Texas Collection Staff Achievements

Grandfather Clock Restoration Fund