Side of “Mexico Standard” brick
While we don’t know the story of these bricks, we know they came off buildings during renovations. If you have any more information, feel free to comment.
We have three examples of brickused on campus: the “Mexico standard,” the Ferris Brick Company, and the Sherman Brady Brick Company.
Over the past few months, we’ve been busy.
The Banded Geckos collection features the work of the band, which called Houston home from 1979 to 1993, before relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The collection has a great array of posters, photographs, promotional materials, and audio.
Frank Davis, Sand Mountain Coffee House, ca. 1965
The Boys From Houston research files includes photographs, digital images, news clippings, and memorabilia that Vicki Welch Ayo and William C. DeLaVergne used to write the book series.
Shake Russell, Dana Cooper, and Jimmy Raycraft at Rockefeller’s, ca. 1981
The Danny McVey collection features photographs, news clippings, and audio saved by McVey, a sound engineer for The Michael Marcoulier Band, The Dishes, and Beans Barton and the Bi-Peds. Within the next few days, his oral history will also be online.
Since November, we’ve been doing oral histories with members of the folk community. We’re so happy to announce that some of those are now online.
Judy Clements of the folk duo Ken and Judy talks about being a Jester Lounge regular, an early folk club in Houston.
Vince Bell discusses his time starting out in Houston up to his current work. He even performs a couple of songs and explains his unique playing style.
Richard Dobson talks about working in Houston and Nashville, and his current adventure of being a Texas singer-songwriter in Switzerland. He also discusses his songwriting process and performs two songs.
To keep up with new collections and oral histories, please follow the Houston Folk Music Archive Facebook page, as well as check out our research guide.
Among our Masterson Texana collection is this unusual little book about Texas.
Written by Col. Edward Stiff, the book acts as a biography of Col. Stiff, as well as a history of Texas. There are a few surprises inside, like this map.
Col. Stiff had very strong opinions about critics.
Also, this book plate from Yale is a bit unusual. I hope the book was obtained in an honest way.
The Woodson features heavily in the library’s publication News from Fondren.
The front page features an article by our own Rebecca Russell on how we worked with students on a public humanities initiative.
Another discusses our acquisition of the Richard J. Dobson collection.
The last page includes some of our political memorabilia.
Back in October, we received a wonderful phone call from a woman in the NE offering us a scrapbook, belonging to her relative Richard G. Park, Jr.
Why would we be interested in this scrapbook? It provides more history on the Texas Mexico Border Campaign. Almost exactly two years ago, we featured a scrapbook on the same topic, focusing on one man’s experiences during the campaign. While the scrapbook is fascinating, it’s unlabeled.
In comparison, Park labeled almost all of the photographs and included people’s names, dates, and locations. It is a treasure trove of information. This would be a wonderful digitization project in the future.
Now, feast your eyes on the photographs.
For more information on the collection, please see our finding aid: Richard G. Park, Jr. scrapbook, 1915-1917, MS 673, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
We are happy to announce that our new mapping project, Mapping Civil War Narratives, is now available online!
This series of maps uses ArcGIS to highlight some of the WRC’s numerous Civil War collections (1861-1865). Researchers can now explore the multiple geographies of over 300 Civil War-era letters. From military operations to disease to courtship, these maps convey the potential of our archives’ diverse stories. You can, for example, follow the particular route of a soldier in the Army of the Potomac through his letters or explore the communication in and out of a single city. Use filters to see where men and women were discussing slavery, politics, battles, or military medicine.
Visit the website to take a tour of these maps. Or, if you are familiar with ArcGIS, scroll to the website’s last page to go directly to our two feature maps.
View the connections between where letters from each collection were sent and received.
Or look at individual locations to see where letters were written, where they were received, and what locations the authors mentioned within their letters during four years of war.
You can explore the collections by mutual themes, as well. See where authors discussed battles, politics, or particular officers.
Part of an ongoing effort under the new Fondren Fellows program, we expect to continue to grow and evolve this project as more and more of the WRC’s collections are added.
We want to thank Christina Regelski, our Fondren Fellow, for all of her hard work over the fall semester. She did more with our letters than we could have imagined.
Happy researching!
These are school bus safety PSAs, perhaps from the 1980s, recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker for the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation. Enjoy!
Image from: The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 16, 1969
. . . to give hair.
For archives, an envelope filled with hair is not a new thing. It’s part of the job.
This hair is a bit different than what we normally see. It seems to be an early example of clip-in extensions. Note the gathered section that could be pinned close to the scalp.
Allie May Autry Kelley‘s labeling on the envelope is pretty great, too: “Who’s hair? Mom’s?”
Another Thanksgiving postcard from the James Lockhart Autry papers. This postcard from 1907 includes an advertisement from Mistrot-Munn Co, a dry goods and clothing store, as well as Buster Brown, and a slightly worried turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving!
In the early hours of KTRU’s 1976 election night coverage, Stan Barber, Dr. Gilbert Cuthbertson (Doc C), Joel Laser, and David Butler attempted to interpret the voting returns at Rice. Ultimately, the voting at Rice did not reflect the sentiment of the rest of Texas (Carter won by 51.14% of the vote). He did lose in Harris County, though.
Images from: The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 16, Ed. 1 Monday, November 1, 1976
