Texas Archives Month > Texas Archives Month 2023 Poster (this page)

Texas Archives Month 2023 Poster – Start Your Research with Texas Archival Resources Online!

A PDF file of the 2023 Archives Month Poster is available at this link for download; suitable for printing.

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Start your research with Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO)!

What better way to celebrate Texas Archives Month than to highlight a vital and ever-expanding tool that allows members of the public to virtually explore the details of historical collections held in Texas libraries, archives, and museums? Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO) is a website (txarchives.org) with more than 80 participating cultural heritage institutions sharing their collection descriptions and inventories in one place. Each repository links to TARO, creating a one-stop-searching tool to look up where to find archival resources on particular topics. One may also limit the search to a single repository and look for materials within those collections. As the TARO website says, “Consider these an extended table of contents which describe unique materials only available at the individual repositories.”

Txarchives.org

View map of TARO participating repositories: https://txarchives.org/map

View a list of TARO participating repositories: https://txarchives.org/browse/repositories

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Background on TARO

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) blog, Out of the Stacks, published a piece on TARO in 2021 that provides a look at the history and development of TARO:

TARO was established in 1999 with initial funding from the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, one year after the release of the first version of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) developed by a group of American archives professionals. The TARO website was established at The University of Texas Libraries and has continued to reside there; UT Libraries formally became the institutional home for TARO in 2018. TSLAC was one of the seven founding institutions of the TARO project. [Read more on the Out of the Stacks blog ]

Sample collection items

The 2023 Texas Archives Month poster emphasizes the variety of materials held in participating TARO collections. While the items themselves are not typically included in the finding aids and inventories, many have digital materials just a few clicks away. TARO repositories house architectural drawings, photos for family history projects, textiles from centuries gone by, maps, artifacts, and so much more.

The repositories represented on the poster include: the Texas Memorial Museum, Alexander Architectural Archives, and Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin; the Texas Tech University Southwest Collection/Special Collections and the Texas State Archives Artifact Collection at TSLAC.

TARO finding aid, Texas State Archives Artifact Collection: https://txarchives.org/tslac/finding_aids/70064.xml
Woman's shoe, black, 1900-1920. Texas State Archives Artifact Collection, ATF0070. Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

TARO finding aid: https://txarchives.org/utaaa/finding_aids/00024.xml
Harvey P. Smith and Associates, Homer L. Fry (landscape architect), United States. Federal Civil Works Administration (client). Fountain, Spanish Governor's Palace. Harvey P. Smith collection, Alexander Architectural Archives, The University of Texas at Austin.

TARO finding aid: https://txarchives.org/utlac/finding_aids/00087.xml
Castañeda, Carlos E., 1896-1958 (contributor). Castañeda family photograph, circa 1940s.
Carlos E. Castañeda Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin.

TARO finding aid: https://txarchives.org/utaaa/finding_aids/00016.xml
Cret, Paul Philippe, 1876-1945 (consulting architect), Staub, John F., 1892-1981 (architect), University of Texas Texas Memorial Museum (Austin, Tex.): scheme "A" alternate elevation, 11/3/1935.
©H2L2 Architects/Planners, Paul Philippe Cret collection, Alexander Architectural Archives, The University of Texas Libraries.

TARO finding aid, Guide to the Digitized Maps of the Southwest Collection, 1657-1988 and undated: https://txarchives.org/ttusw/finding_aids/00445.xml
Map, Mexico, 1832. Arrowsmith, John, 1790-1873. Southwest Collection Maps, Southwest Collection/Special Collections, Texas Tech University.

Finding aids recently added to TARO

Knolle Family Genealogical Chart, 1992
The Knolle family genealogical chart consists of the Knolle family history, created by Ernst Knolle in 1992.
Briscoe Center for American History

Harrison Kerr Collection
Audio recordings.
University of North Texas Music Library Special Collections

Euterpean Club Collection
Opera scores and literature.
University of North Texas Music Library Special Collections

Frances Starr: An Inventory of Her Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
This collection includes mainly incoming correspondence and some scripts for the American stage, film, and television actress Frances Starr. Starr’s collection was formerly a part of the Center’s Theater Arts Manuscripts Collection, but now forms a separate, discrete collection.
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Floyd Tillman and Clyde Brewer Oral History, undated
The Floyd Tillman and Clyde Brewer oral history comprises one sound-reel of John Wheat interviewing Tillman and Brewer.
Briscoe Center for American History

Texas Veterans Land Board Records: An Inventory of Veterans Land Board Records at the Texas State Archives, 1968-2019
These Texas Veterans Land Board records consist of meeting agendas, minutes, exhibits, information about bonds, lists of land parcels for sale, publications, and press releases, dating 1968-2019.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Larry McMurtry: An Inventory of His Collection in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
The Larry McMurtry Collection consists of typed manuscript drafts for several of his works dating from the 1960s and 1970s, correspondence related to those works, and contracts and royalty statements.
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

BL Lacerta Collection
Audio recordings.
University of North Texas Music Library Special Collections