Special Collections in 2024: 2nd Quarterly Review

• Sara Pezzoni

  • Black and white photograph of three open books spread out on a table with a banner of text across the top reading "SPCO Quarterly Review" with the orange and blue Compass Rose logo to the right of the banner text.

The purpose of The Compass Rose is to raise awareness of Special Collections' resources and to foster the use of these resources. The blog series also reports significant new programs, initiatives, and acquisitions of Special Collections. 

This is the newest in an ongoing series spotlighting new acquisitions and reproductions of our content. For more on our previous featured material, read our previously published Quarterly Review blogs.

Special Collections is continually acquiring new materials and image reproductions of items from our collections are regularly used in new publications and by media outlets. This post reviews where and how materials from our collections are being used around the world in April, May, and June of 2024.

This quarter, Special Collections hosted a total of 922 visitors and 85 of those visitors were here to conduct research in our collections! Over 275 unique archival collections, books, and maps were pulled for research this quarter, with researchers showing strong interest in the Migrant Farmworkers Organizing Committee Records, AFL-CIO Mexican-American Affairs Committee Records, Movin’ Mavs Records, and the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection.

Events

Total Solar Eclipse activities

In April, Special Collections hosted our most successful event on record when more than 250 people came to our Total Solar Eclipse event on April 8th. We were thrilled to have 230 visitors to our exhibition, Theoria Eclipsium: Curiosity, Captivation, Connection, which shows nearly 500 years of Eclipse-related history. In collaboration with UTA's Department of History, we hosted a talk by Dr. Clifford Cunningham titled "Total Eclipse of the Heart: How Eclipses Struck Fear and Wonder in the Hearts of People for Thousands of Years" that was attended by over 125 people. Theoria Eclipsium will remain on view through September 2024.

  • eclipse exhibit

Visitors viewing the "Theoria Eclipsium: Curiosity, Captivation, Connection" exhibit in Special Collections as part of the campus-wide Total Solar Eclipse event on April 8, 2024.
  • eclipse exhibit

Visitors viewing the "Theoria Eclipsium: Curiosity, Captivation, Connection" exhibit in Special Collections as part of the campus-wide Total Solar Eclipse event on April 8, 2024.
  • eclipse exhibit

Visitors viewing the "Theoria Eclipsium: Curiosity, Captivation, Connection" exhibit in Special Collections as part of the campus-wide Total Solar Eclipse event on April 8, 2024.
  • eclipse exhibit

Visitors viewing the "Theoria Eclipsium: Curiosity, Captivation, Connection" exhibit in Special Collections as part of the campus-wide Total Solar Eclipse event on April 8, 2024.
  • eclipse exhibit

Visitors viewing the "Theoria Eclipsium: Curiosity, Captivation, Connection" exhibit in Special Collections as part of the campus-wide Total Solar Eclipse event on April 8, 2024.
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Mavericks with Disabilities Panel Discussion

The Mavericks with Disabilities student organization hosted a panel discussion, "Breaking Barriers: Disability Culture Then and Now," on April 26 in the library atrium. Panelists included UTA ASL program coordinator Lisalee Egbert and alumni John Dycus (class of 1970) and Cezar Olivas. Olivas was a former Movin' Mavs wheelchair basketball player from 1993-1999 and currently serves as the assistant director of Adapted Sports and Recreation at UTA. Dycus, advocate for accessibility in Arlington since he was a student at UTA in the 1970s, was one of the founding members of Helping Restore Ability (HRA), originally the Arlington Handicapped Association. Dycus also served as Copy & Amusements Editor of The Shorthorn and, after graduating, as adviser for The Shorthorn from 1970-1998. Special Collections displayed materials from the Texas Disability History Collection during the event, which included materials from the UTA Movin' Mavs Records (AR635) and the John Dycus Papers (AR820).

Acquisitions of Printed Materials

Japanese Maps

In April, Special Collections added three maps and three atlases created by Japanese cartographers in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Prior to these acquisitions, the Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library contained just two examples of Japanese cartography, both documenting Comm. Matthew Perry’s "gunboat diplomacy" to Japan in 1853. Now, the Cartographic History Library contains several more examples of Japanese Cartography from before Japan's "opening" in the 1850s. These include a map of Mt. Fuji issued by the Murayama Sengen Shrine in 1806 (pictured at right), a two volume atlas of Japanese woodblock ukiyo-e prints inspired by the "father of Japanese cartography," Ino Tadataka, and a 1719 celestial atlas presenting the combined work of Chinese and Jesuit scholars to a Japanese audience. The Meditation map of Mt. Fuji was a folded souvenir and trail guide for religious pilgrims seeking to ascend the mountain via various paths. The map portrays beautiful illustrations of Mt. Fuji and the surrounding area and includes names of various shrines, caves, trails, lakes, and other features. Special thanks to the Virginia Garrett endowment and the Tucker-David Endowment for enabling us to acquire these incredible pieces. These new acquisitions open up new avenues to study cartography and cartographic history at UTA!

SPCO Class Visits

Students from a variety of classes visit Special Collections to engage in experiential learning activities using our unique materials. From April to June, we welcomed 9 classes from a variety of disciplines, including History, English, and Spanish, and a visit from 70 7th graders from a local middle school. Pictured below is an example from Spanish 3312, taught by Dr. Chris Conway.

Students from the "Latin American Culture and Civilization" class visited Special Collections multiple times to learn the history of printmaking by studying prints from the 1490s to the present. Examples include our original woodblock prints from the Nuremberg Chronicle all the way up to Etta Hulme's political cartoons. The students returned to view prints from the Vanegas Arroyo print shop – home of the famous José Guadalupe Posada Calaveras prints. In collaboration with the UTA Libraries FabLab, students designed their own prints based on what they had learned. 

New ArchivesSpace Finding Aids

University Archives

Texas Political History Collection

Early Texas History

  • GA17: James E. Harrison Papers
    • This collection consists of material primarily related to the people enslaved by James E. Harrison. The journal contains the names and birth dates of enslaved people listed by family group. An additional note also contains names, birth dates, and family groupings of enslaved people. The collection also contains a letter that discusses the anxiety over Lincoln's election and the preparations around the state for a civil war.
  • AR841: Henry H. Hannan Collection

Contemporary Regional Texas History

George N. Green Collection

George N. Green joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington in 1966 where he became a professor of history. Dr. Green, along with UTA history professor Howard Lackman and UTA head librarian John Hudson, established Special Collections with the Texas Labor Archives in 1967. At its inception, the Texas Labor Archives was the first repository in the Southwestern United States to systematically collect the history of Texas labor as well as the first archival collection at UTA. Dr. Green also established an oral history program in 1967 that focused on Texas labor history and, especially, elderly, African American, and Hispanic American labor leaders and union members.

This collection consists of material collected by Dr. Green and includes newspaper clippings, news releases, correspondence, newsletters, campaign material, pinbacks, and bumper stickers from the 1964, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, and 1979 elections; from the 1974 Texas State Democratic Convention; and from the 1978 Democratic National Conference.

Mini-Exhibits

This quarter, UTA Special Collections staff curated one mini-exhibit, which are designed to highlight a specific topic or commemorate an event in history utilizing materials from our collections.

"Data Through The Decades" mini-exhibit

In April, we presented the "Data Through the Decades" mini-exhibit, which included many different types of obsolete media formats to demonstrate how rapidly technology is changing. The exhibit focused on teaching about the preservation of different types of media formats and how Special Collections preserves these items for future access. Items on display included reel-to-reel tape, microfilm, vinyl records, audio cassettes, Betamax tapes, VHS tapes, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, USB drives, and even a laptop from 1987! Digital materials in our collections that are extracted from the obsolete media are preserved on the UTA Libraries Digital Archive.

Image Reproduction Highlights

Local News

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram collection, which came in increments to UTA Libraries from 1984 to 2022, is often used in a variety of news articles and columns published by the original donor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. This quarter, the Star-Telegram used photographs from the collection for 16 stories: 

Photographs from the collection were also used in 2 photo features:

Other local news outlets published the following stories using our collection materials: 

Film/Television

Exhibitions and Displays

Printed Materials

Visit The Compass Rose in September for our next quarterly blog review! 

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