Photographic Collections in Texas: A Union Guide

Texas can boast of many diverse photographic collections—at least 350 in all. Held in public and private institutions, corporations, and governmental agencies, major and minor collections account for more than 100,000 photographs of national as well as regional interest.

This complete guide to all the major and most of the minor photographic collections in Texas lists each by city; library, museum, or archive; and collection within that institution. For the major collections a statement of purpose gives the institution's nature and the types of materials it collects, including non-photographic materials. Information on hours, assistance available, permission fee requirements, and finding aids available is then given, and a bibliography lists publications that reproduce a significant number of the collection's photographs.

Also for the major collections, statements of scope and listings of the geographic locales represented as well as the subjects and people pictured in the collections make the guide indispensable to researchers. Under "Scope", a table shows the number of photographs from each time period for each type of photograph, negative, or album. Photographers' names and studios and other corporate identities responsible for the creation of the photographs are then provided. When possible, the photographer's primary place of operation is indicated.

Finally, the materials in the collection are described by record group, which includes the guide's reference number and the record group title used by the collection, plus other information concerning the title. Elements of the record group description include subject, responsible agency, physical description, and span dates. References to the bibliography and the collection's identification numbers are reproduced at the end of the description when they were provided by the collecting institution.

Separate indexes to the guide list subjects, persons, locations, and photographers.

This important reference, the only published record of photographic collections in Texas, will be a welcome tool for scholars, research librarians, collectors, and museum curators nationwide.

Richard Pearce-Moses is historic photography project coordinator and assistant editor of Heritage magazine of the Texas Historical Foundation.