As our archives staff work on an ongoing basis to arrange, preserve, describe, and make available to the public the materials under our care, we spotlight new additions to the website in a regular feature from Out of the Stacks. The column lists new and revised finding aids recently made available online, along with fresh uploads to the Texas Digital Archive, our repository of electronic items. For a comprehensive list of all recently added and updated finding aids visit Archives: Finding Aids (New & Revised)
New Finding Aids
State Records
Texas Department of Agriculture audiovisual materials – nearly all of these materials are part of the Texas Digital Archive
The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) promotes production agriculture, consumer protection, economic development, and healthy living. TDA’s Office of Communications provides media information and keeps the public informed of TDA activities and agriculture issues via traditional and social media channels. These 16 mm motion picture films and digital copies of the original audiotape and video recordings document the department’s activities, including many of the agency’s programs and events, public appearances of commissioners Jim Hightower and Rick Perry, and interviews with agricultural producers in Texas, dating 1969-1999 and undated. The majority of the 16 mm motion picture recordings have been digitized and along with the digital copies of the original recordings are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
Texas Department of Agriculture meeting minutes, agenda, and supporting documentation (replaces description of the portion of these records that had been included in our Texas Department of Agriculture records finding aid, which will be revised for this soon).
The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) promotes production agriculture, consumer protection, economic development, and healthy living. These TDA records, consisting of meeting minutes, agenda, and supporting documentation, 1924-2021, bulk 1960-1997, document the activities of various boards and committees operating under TDA oversight. The records include meeting minutes, agenda, transcripts, reports, and supporting documentation. Major topics include administration of programs that provide loans and grants to agriculture-related businesses, promotion of agricultural diversification in Texas, establishment of environmental rules and regulations, management of seed quality and development, pesticides and pest eradication, herbicides, and ground and surface water.
Texas Historical Commission Historic Sites Division presentations – includes electronic records that are part of the Texas Digital Archive
The Texas Historical Commission (THC) protects and preserves the state’s historic resources for the use, education, and enjoyment of present and future generations. THC’s Historic Sites Division is responsible for overseeing the agency’s thirty-six historic properties located throughout the state. Presentations created by the division, 2011-2015, consist of PowerPoint presentation slides and supplemental documentation. They were used to inform the public and conference attendees about the Historic Sites Division’s operations, its historic properties, and Texas history. The presentations cover topics such as the Historic Site Division’s programs at Casa Navarro, preservation and conservation efforts on the state’s historic structures and artifacts, and the lives of Texans during the 19th century.
Texas Historical Commission executive director files
The Texas Historical Commission (THC) protects and preserves the state’s historic resources for the use, education, and enjoyment of present and future generations. THC executive director files include correspondence, legislative bills, subject files, reports, memorandums, newsletters, programs, brochures, photographs, meeting agendas and minutes, dating 1953-2009, bulk 1976-1980. Correspondence from Executive Directors Truett Latimer and Curtis Tunnell make up the bulk of these records. Also included are correspondence and other materials regarding the Texas Conservation Fund, the Texas 1986 Sesquicentennial Commission, the State Historic Preservation Officers, and the purchase of the Crockett letter.
Texas Historical Commission Archeology Division records – including records that are part of the Texas Digital Archive
The Texas Historical Commission (THC) protects and preserves the state’s historic resources for the use, education, and enjoyment of present and future generations. THC’s Archeology Division works to identify, protect, and preserve Texas’s archeological heritage. These THC Archeology Division records, 1995-2001, bulk 1995-1997, primarily document the La Salle Shipwreck Project with logbooks, photographs, drawings, diving records, field notes, and other project materials. Also present are Antiquities Advisory Board meeting minutes, which include Archeology Committee agendas.
Texas Veterans Land Board records – includes electronic meeting files that are part of the Texas Digital Archive
The Texas Veterans Land Board was created by the Texas Legislature in 1946 in an amendment to Article III of the Constitution of the State of Texas as the executors of the Veterans Land Fund, created in the same amendment. The board uses bond funding for programs to help Texas veterans purchase land and homes and make home improvements, oversees Texas State Veterans Homes that provide long-term nursing care, and manages Texas State Veterans Cemeteries. 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 Department of Water Resources water planning files
The Texas Department of Water Resources (TDWR) was in existence from 1977 to 1985 and was responsible for developing the state’s water resources, maintaining the quality of water, and ensuring equitable distribution of water rights. These TDWR water planning files were produced by, or concern, the United States Study Commission on the Neches, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Nueces, and San Jacinto River Basins and Intervening Areas, also known as US Study Commission for Texas, established by the 85th Congress in August 1958. The records include surveys regarding water planning activities in Texas, maps, contracts, reports, memorandums, hearings, and correspondence, dating about 1954-1974.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Law Enforcement Division records
The Law Enforcement Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) manages a statewide law enforcement program for the protection and management of wildlife, natural resources, and the environment through the enforcement of state laws and regulations as applicable to commercial and recreational fishing, hunting, boating activities, natural resources, and the environment. These records of the division include Operation Game Thief Committee meeting records, program files, and photographic documentation of division officers and staff performing their duties. The records consist of correspondence, minutes, reports, agendas and other meeting materials, financial statements, copies of legislation, slides, transparencies, and microfilm, dating 1960-1996, and undated, bulk 1972-1979, 1982-1995. Topics covered include the establishment of Operation Game Thief and division efforts to create programs and corresponding legislation for the regulation, management, and control of wildlife and game.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Texas Sesquicentennial project files
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is responsible for the management and conservation of the state’s wildlife and fish resources; provision of outdoor recreational opportunities to the public; acquisition, development, and operation of wildlife management areas, fish hatcheries, state parks, historic sites, and other public lands; conservation education and outreach; cultural and historical interpretation; and the regulation of fishing, hunting, and boating activities. TPWD organized and conducted the “Texas 150 Celebration,” the official statewide observance commemorating the Texas Sesquicentennial, held on April 20-21, 1986, at San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Park. These records consist of TPWD’s project files from the celebration and include correspondence, meeting materials, memos, agendas, reports, programs, invitations, schedules of events, fact sheets, press releases, speeches, photographs, lists of participants, newspaper clippings, work plans, and budget materials, dating 1975, 1984-1987, and undated, bulk 1985-1986. Topics covered in these records include the creation and organization of Sesquicentennial activities at San Jacinto; TPWD’s participation in the Governor’s Planning Committee for the San Jacinto Celebration; the management of logistical, administrative, and financial plans with other government agencies, historical associations, universities, national organizations, vendors, and private corporations; fundraising endeavors; and efforts to disseminate information to the general public.
Texas Board for Supplying the Public Buildings and Grounds of the State with Water minutes and report
The Board for Supplying the Public Buildings and Grounds of the State with Water was established by an act of the Texas Legislature (Chapter 32, Special Laws for the 17th Regular Session, 1881) to facilitate a contract and provide funding to provide water to the state-owned asylums, the Governor’s Mansion, the General Land Office, the State Cemetery, and other incomplete construction projects at the Capitol and state university buildings. These minutes and report document the boards fulfillment of that mandate, dating January 31- July 3, 1883.
Revised Finding Aids
State Records
Texas Attorney General’s Office Hetty Green case file
As the chief legal officer of the state of Texas, the attorney general is charged by the Texas Constitution to defend the laws and the Constitution of the State of Texas, represent the State in litigation, and approve public bond issues. This Texas Attorney General’s Office case file concerns the legal residence and disposition of the estate of Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green, styled as The State of Texas v Florida et al. , and often referred to as the Hetty Green case, in reference to Col. Green’s mother. Texas, Florida, New York, and Massachusetts each claimed Col. Green as a resident and each state claimed a right to inheritance taxes after his death in 1936. The case was brought before a Special Master of the United States Supreme Court for resolution in March 1937. The Texas Attorney General’s Office compiled this litigation case file as it represented the state’s interests. Records include correspondence, poll tax receipts, bank statements, tax returns, property sale agreements, vehicle registrations, witness depositions and testimony, and photographs, some of which were submitted to the Special Master as exhibits. Also included are the bound volumes of bills of complaint, briefs, testimony, and transcripts of court proceedings prepared by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Attorney General’s Office. The records date from 1891-1941 and undated, bulk 1936-1939.
Texas Secretary of State candidate campaign contribution and expenditure records – updated restrictions on access and locations notice for portion of records stored at SRC.
The Texas Secretary of State is a constitutional officer of the executive branch of state government, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate for a term concurrent with the governor’s (a two-year term at first, a four-year term since 1974). The Secretary of State, as chief election officer of the state, has specific functions under the Election Code, which include receiving, examining, and filing the official certified returns of all general elections, special elections for members of the legislature, and constitutional amendment elections. Texas state legislation in 1919, 1951, and 1973 required candidates to file campaign contribution and expenditure statements with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office; these filings were originally administered by the Enforcement Division (later renamed the Campaign and Ethics Section of the Elections Division, then the Disclosure Filings Section). In 1992, the Texas Ethics Commission was created and assumed responsibility for this filing. These records consist of lists of contributions and expenditures, designations of campaign treasurer, correspondence, envelopes, card file indexes, and lists of ethics reports filed. They comprise the campaign contribution and expenditure statements of candidates for state and district offices (and some voluntary filings of candidates for county and municipal offices) filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, dating 1918-1992. Included are accounts from primary, general, and special elections.
Texas Secretary of State colonization records – includes link to alphabetical name card index for emigrating colonists (in Texas Index Card Collections) that is part of the Texas Digital Archive.
The Secretary of State is a constitutional officer of the executive branch of state government, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate for a term concurrent with the governor’s (a two-year term at first, a four-year term since 1974). The office was first created by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836 (Article VI, Section 10), and has been continued by each succeeding Constitution. Colonization records were created to document the efforts of the Republic of Texas to encourage the immigration of new citizens by the signing of contracts with agents, similar to the Mexican government’s empresario grants, and the enforcement of the agreements contained within those contracts. Types of records include lists of immigrants, contracts, correspondence, reports, resolutions, petitions, and proclamations. Dates covered are 1820-1879, undated, bulk 1836-1845. Alphabetical name card indexes of people emigrating to Texas as colonists under the Peters, Castro, and Fisher-Miller contracts have been digitized and are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
Texas Secretary of State political action committee campaign contribution and expenditure records – minor descriptive corrections only, no change to catalog record.
The Campaign Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1973 required political action committees (PACs) to file campaign contribution and expenditure statements with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. In 1992, the Texas Ethics Commission was created and assumed responsibility for this filing. These records consist of statements and lists of contributions and expenditures, designations of campaign treasurer, designations of final statement or specific-purpose of the committee, correspondence, envelopes, card file indexes, and lists of ethics reports filed. They comprise the financial statements of campaign contributions and expenditures for political action committees (PACs) filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, dating 1972-1993, bulk 1973-1991.
Texas Secretary of State voter registration lists – includes digitized microfilm of these records that are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
The Secretary of State, in accordance with the constitution of the Republic of Texas and affirmed by the 1st Texas Legislature, collected, arranged, and preserved all books, maps, parchments, records, documents, deeds, conveyances, and other papers belonging to the state. On March 23, 1867, the Unites States Congress passed legislation requiring states to compile registration of every qualified voter in each county. The completed registers were used to determine who would be eligible to vote for any proposed constitutional conventions. The Texas Secretary of State voter registration lists, compiled from 1867 to 1870, record the date of registration and the name of the registrant, along with place of residence; precinct number; length of residency in the state, county, and precinct; place of birth; naturalization information; signature; and general remarks by the military district commander. These records were previously referred to as the Texas Secretary of State voters’ registration of 1867-1869. The microfilm version of these records has been digitized and is part of the Texas Digital Archive.
Texas Education Agency Office of the Commissioner of Education records
The Texas Education Agency Office of the Commissioner manages the state education agency; provides leadership to schools; and coordinates with the state legislature, state agencies, and the US Department of Education. These records consist of inter-office memorandums, correspondence, committee and conference files, subject files, speeches, hearing and appeals files, legislative bills and committee reports, and budget materials from first Commissioner of Education Dr. J.W. Edgar and Deputy Commissioner J. Warren Hitt dating 1929, 1933-1937, 1940-1971, bulk 1949-1966.
Texas State Parks Board Civilian Conservation Corps drawings – has online application to search drawings.
The Texas State Parks Board was created in 1923 to investigate prospective park sites in the state, to report to the legislature with recommendations, and to solicit and accept donations of land for state park purposes. It later directed and managed state parks, except the historical parks that were managed by the Texas State Board of Control or several separate commissions. The Parks Board was also charged with locating, designating, and marking historic grounds, battlegrounds, and other historic sites in the state, and erecting markers and monuments at such sites. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program intended to employ jobless young men on labor projects related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments, as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program of economic recovery. Records comprise blueprints, maps, drawings, correspondence, and reports that detail the plans for additions, renovations, and construction of parks and park facilities in Texas by the CCC. Dates covered are undated, 1905-1974, undated, bulk 1933-1945. These records document designs intended for 40 sites across Texas that were for the most part developed to be state parks, though materials on several municipality-operated parks are also present. The designs describe a range of park facilities, including common buildings, landscaping, cabins, roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, dams, and site furniture.
Employees Retirement System of Texas records – with additional electronic records that are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
The Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) oversees retirement and health benefits for State of Texas employees to provide for, protect, and enhance the economic well-being of members, retirees, and their beneficiaries through effectively managing benefit programs, using sound actuarial principles and available resources consistent with applicable laws. The programs offered by ERS include benefit payments for both service-related and disability-related retirements and benefits for survivors of active and retired members. Records document the interests, activities, and functions of ERS and consist of correspondence, memoranda, memorandums of understanding, contracts, statements, meeting files, copies of legislation, action plans, proposed resolutions, notes, drafts, studies, reports, clippings, statistics, plans, financial records, publications, agreements, newsletters, press releases, pamphlets, and questionnaires, dating 1942-2022, and undated.
Texas Governor Mark White records – Governor’s Mansion function records series updated.
Mark White served as governor of Texas from January 18, 1983, to January 20, 1987. The governor of Texas serves as the chief executive officer of the state. These records were gathered, created, and maintained by the Texas Governor’s Office during Governor White’s term and consist of correspondence, subject files, legislative bill files, appointment files, staff files, audiovisual materials, artifacts, Linda Gale White’s files, campaign files, and other materials dating from 1947, 1962-1987, undated, bulk 1983-1986.
Texas State Board of Pharmacy records – now including electronic records that are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
The Texas State Board of Pharmacy is responsible for regulating pharmacists, pharmacies, and prescription drugs. Records documenting the agency’s activities consist of meeting minutes, agenda, logs, and supporting documentation; policies and procedures; speeches and presentations; pharmacist registration master cards, dating 1907-1949, 1969-1970, 1984-2023.
Texas Supreme Court records – with additional digitized records (Opinions, and M case files added periodically) that are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
The Texas Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices and serves as the highest civil court in the state. It has final appellate jurisdiction in most civil and juvenile cases. It also has the authority to conduct proceedings for the removal or involuntary retirement of state judges; supervises State Bar operations; promulgates rules and regulations for the discipline, supervision, and disbarment of lawyers; and has supervisory and administrative control over the judicial branch. The records consist of case files, applications, opinions, dockets, indexes, registers, and minutes covering the period 1840-2004. Also present are the records of the Texas Commission of Appeals, consisting of opinions, dockets, and minutes, dating 1879-1892, 1918-1943. The M case direct and reverse index card files and the 1890s case direct and reverse index card files described in
Indexes and registers, the Supreme Court dockets (circuit court period) described in Dockets , the Supreme Court opinions 201-122 through 201-178 described in Opinions, and a portion of the M case files described in Case files of this finding aid have been digitized and is part of the Texas Digital Archive.
Texas Department of Agriculture records
The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) promotes production agriculture, consumer protection, economic development, and healthy living. These records document the terms of various TDA commissioners, as well as the activities of related boards and committees from 1924 to 2021, undated, bulk 1960 to 2001. Types of records include meeting files, correspondence, memoranda, notes, manuals, transcripts, rules, clippings, drafts, notices, witness logs, registration cards, organization charts, reports, contracts, complaint and request forms, financial statements, bonds, oaths, election results, legal documents, press releases, speeches, pamphlets, computer tapes and disks, database printouts, photographs, contact sheets, negatives, slides, printed materials, digital copies of original audiotape and video recordings, and motion picture film. Major topics covered include the administration of programs that provide loans and grants to agriculture-related businesses, the promotion of agricultural diversification in Texas, the establishment of environmental rules and regulations, the management of seed quality and development, pesticides and pest eradication, herbicides, and ground and surface water.
Texas State Board of Control records
The primary functions of the Texas State Board of Control were controlling and supervising the state eleemosynary institutions (state schools, hospitals and sanatoriums, orphanages, juvenile training schools), the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation, the Confederate Homes, and the State Cemetery; serving as the purchasing agent for state institutions and agencies; having joint supervision and maintenance of certain historical parks; and having charge of the custody and maintenance of the Capitol and other state office buildings and grounds. Additional short-term duties have included the administration of child welfare, operation of the Texas Relief Commission, preparation of the state’s budget, and operation of the Bureau of Records. Types of records include minutes and meeting files, orders of the Board, correspondence and memoranda, reports from divisions of the Board, audit and status reports from eleemosynary institutions and state agencies, statistical compilations, parole statements from the state juvenile schools, copies of legislation, press releases, questionnaires and survey results, inventories, budget materials, invoices, brochures and other printed material, photographs, building specifications, plats, deeds, contracts and leases, routine administrative files, and stenographer’s shorthand notebooks. Dates covered are 1854, 1885-1890, 1909-1979, 1987, and undated, with the bulk dating 1935-1953. Most of the material dating after 1950 consists of minutes and meeting files.
Local Records
Galveston County (Tex.) County Court records
The Congress of the Republic of Texas established Galveston County in 1838. The Texas Constitutions of 1846 and 1876 established the county-level court system for all Texas counties, including the county courts. The county court judge tried civil and criminal cases and handled probate matters. These records were created by the judges of the Galveston County Court and various county clerks as recorders for the court. Civil court records include civil court dockets; civil case papers; citation, execution, jury, and motion dockets; court cost registers; and receipts books for case papers. Probate court records include registers of probate estate numbers; probate court dockets; executors and administrators dockets; inventories of estates; a probate claim docket; fee and cost registers; indexes to probate minute books, executors and administrators bonds and letters, will books, and return sales; probate case files; and exhibits to a probate case. The records date 1838-1956.
Galveston County (Tex.) Justice of the Peace records
The Constitution of 1876 established the county-level court system for all Texas counties, including the justice of the peace courts of Galveston County. The justices of the peace performed both judicial and non-judicial functions. Records created by various Galveston County justices of the peace include civil and criminal court dockets, civil and criminal case files, fee books, receipt books, inquest records, marriage records, registers of tax assessments, and correspondence and information files dating 1870-1976.
Manuscripts
Joseph Dillard Gates collection – majority of the materials now digitized and part of the Texas Digital Archive
The Gates family were landowning Anglo-Texans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with members who served in the Texas Revolution and in the Civil War for the Confederacy, and who were first based in Gonzales County, where they were active in ranching and local politics. The Joseph Dillard Gates collection, dating 1818-1925, undated, bulk 1870-1921, primarily documents the financial and business lives of Samuel Hardin Gates, his son, Joseph Dillard Gates, and his grandson, Amos Hardin Gates, as they amassed an estate of over 644 acres between 1852 and 1920. The collection consists mainly of business and financial documents, estate records and files, and handwritten and typed correspondence. The bulk of the collection documents Joseph Dillard Gates’s role as the head of the family estate and records his life as an active member of the Gonzales, Texas, community from 1870-1919. His military service in the Civil War and on the Texas frontier is represented through personal correspondence as well as official records and correspondence. The process of dispersing estate land to heirs following Joseph Dillard Gates’s death in 1920 is documented in correspondence, land appraisals, deeds, maps, and field notes of the estate property. The majority of these items have been digitized and are part of the Texas Digital Archive.
To find out more about the collections at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, contact reference staff at 512-463-545 or ref@tsl.texas.gov.