Spooky Scenes and Stories from the Stacks: Halloween Edition

Posted on October 28, 2021 by ARIS Staff

Haunted House on West Avenue, Austin, Texas, n.d. William Deming Hornaday photograph collection, 1975/070-197. TSLAC. View in the TDA.

With Halloween on the horizon, we searched the collections with the filter set to “spooky” to see what mysterious and frightening historical items emerged from the stacks. Our Texas Digital Archive features a couple of haunted houses that appear creepy enough for the title, even if supporting evidence and/or a dramatic backstory are left to the imagination.

Murrell Place, Haunted House, near Paris, Texas, n.d. Fannie Ratchford photograph collection, 1970/101-1083. TSLAC. View in the TDA.

Ask anyone about haunted spots in Austin and the historic Driskill Hotel on the corner of Sixth and Brazos will be mentioned in short order. The legendary hotel still attracts tourists and locals alike. Tales of chairs rocking on their own, the smell of cigar smoke attributed to the original owner Jesse Driskill, and ghostly visions of women who took their own lives are some of the experiences that have become part of the lore.

The Driskill Hotel, 1894. *Art Work of Austin*, Chicago : W.H. Parish Pub. Co., 1894. View catalog record.

Another Austin site where, over the years, residents and visitors have reported interactions with the supernatural is the Governor’s Mansion. Located across the street from the Texas State Capitol, the Greek Revival style structure is home to the state’s executive and his or her families. Stories have included eerie incidences with lights and sounds and a wandering apparition bearing a resemblance to Governor Pendleton Murrah.

Governor’s Mansion, front view, about 1919. Places Collection,1/103-80, Prints and Photographs. TSLAC. View in the TDA.

The State Archives houses papers related to the Texas Governor’s Mansion, including the Jean Houston Daniel Texas Governor’s Mansion Collection, which is comprised of the materials the authors of the book, The Texas Governor’s Mansion: A History of the House and its Occupants compiled in the course of their research. Jean Houston Daniel, the wife of former Texas Governor Price Daniel, was the great-great-granddaughter of Sam Houston and worked on the book with her husband and the writer Dorothy Blodgett.

Search our library catalog for books with ghost stories from Texas:

Haunted Texas : famous phantoms, sinister sites, and lingering legends

Ghost stories of old Texas

Black cats, hoot owls, and water witches : beliefs, superstitions, and sayings from Texas

Ghost lore : a collection of ghost, phantom and legendary mysteries, chiefly of Texas and of old Mexico

Legends & lore of the Texas Capitol

Chills in the night : tales that will haunt you

El Rinche : the ghost ranger of the Rio Grande

Texas ghost stories : fifty favorites for the telling

Ghost lore : a collection of ghost, phantom and legendary mysteries, chiefly of Texas and of old Mexico

More spooky Texas tales

For more information about the collections held at the Texas State Library and Archives contact ref@tsl.texas.gov or 512-463-5455.

Postcard Puzzlers for Holiday Fun: The Don Kelly Southeast Texas Postcard Collection

Posted on November 25, 2020 by ARIS Staff

Our Don Kelly Southeast Texas Postcard Collection offers the ideal imagery for the meditative pastime of assembling jigsaw puzzles. The collection captures the scenery of twentieth century life in that region of the state and adds a bit of nostalgia to the pleasure of piecing together a moment in time. Choose your favorite postcard and start your online puzzle. Come back when you feel like taking on another scene!

A color-added photograph of Green Avenue in Orange. The street itself is not visible, only a sidewalk and the adjacent buildings. The First Presbyterian Church is visible in the center background. Don Kelly Southeast Texas postcard collection,1991.183-840. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission. [View in TDA]

Browse the Don Kelly Southeast Texas Postcard Collection in the Texas Digital Archive.

SHC Museum Activity Book Available Online

Posted on July 2, 2020 by ARIS Staff

*Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas* is the permanent exhibit on display at the Sam Houston Center. The exhibit is currently closed to visitors due to the coronavirus. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

While our Sam Houston Center exhibit, Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas is not currently open due to the coronavirus, we are offering a bit of off-site fun and games for kids with a museum activity book available for download. Atascosito chronicles the region’s past through informative displays from the Center’s collections of artifacts, photographs, maps, and historical documents. Although the exhibit appeals to an audience of all ages, the displays serve as engaging educational tools for teaching the history of the area. Interactive devices built into the exhibit are aimed at capturing the attention of younger visitors. TSLAC celebrated in 2018 the museum renovation with a “grand reopening” party and tours. View images of that event here.

Interior view of *Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas*. The large volume on display in the first exhibit case is the executive record book from Sam Houston’s second term as president of the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

The exhibit showcases the developments of this corner of Texas, including its river economy, timber industry, rice agriculture, and expansive oil fields, while also sharing stories of the thousands of years of growth and movement of people through what has become the ten-county region of Jasper, Jefferson, Hardin, Liberty, Orange, San Jacinto, Polk, Newton, Chambers, and Tyler. Two bases of Clovis points dated to around 11,000 B.C.E. that offer the earliest evidence of human activity in the region are highlights of the exhibit, along with a tooth fragment from a Columbian mammoth. More recent items on view are an executive record book kept by Texas Republic President Sam Houston and artifacts from 19th century steamboats. The museum activity book references subjects covered in the exhibit and other Texas themes in word puzzles, coloring pages, and more.

DIY Museum Activity Book

Explore themes related to the Atascosito District of Texas with the puzzles, games, and coloring pages inside. Click on the image or the link below and print out your own color copy.

Download

For more information about the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, visit: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/shc. Contact via email at SamHoustonCenter@tsl.texas.gov or call 936-336-8821.

Piece Together Texas History: State Archives Mural Now an Online Puzzle

Posted on June 3, 2020 by ARIS Staff

Now a puzzle! Click the image and piece together this tribute to Texas history, *Texas Moves Toward Statehood*, with the online puzzle player.

We are on the edge of summer and many students and educators are starting to put their books away and perhaps log off Zoom for a while. Why not take a break and have a little fun with our images? Explore the detail of the mural Texas Moves Toward Statehood, featured in the lobby of the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building, while clicking together the pieces in an online puzzle.

The mural *Texas Moves Toward Statehood* greets visitors to the Lorenzo de Zavala State Archives and Library Building in Austin. Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston and Anson Jones are a few of the figures featured in the artwork. For details of the mural, visit https://www.tsl.texas.gov/lobbyexhibits/mural-detail.

Learn more about Texas Moves Toward Statehood

Get the image: Would you like to print your own copy of the image? Visit this page.

Who are these people? Find out who the figures are and what the other elements indicate in the mural with a handy guide here.

Who painted the mural? The story of how Texas Moves Toward Statehood came to be is a fascinating one and who better to share it than the artist himself? Visit our online exhibit for that story and more details about the work in our online exhibit here.