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 will spotlight new additions to the website in a regular feature from Out of the Stacks. The column will list new and revised finding aids recently made available online. We will close out the piece with a list of fresh uploads to the Texas Digital Archive, our repository of electronic items.
Archivists create finding aids for collections once they are processed and add these descriptive guides to Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO). TARO hosts finding aids from institutions around the state so researchers may determine whether or not to limit searches to the State Archives. Not all collections have been processed and therefore the list of finding aids does not represent the entirety of our holdings. The Archives & Manuscripts page of the TSLAC website provides more information and guidance on how to access archival collections. Contact ref@tsl.texas.gov or 512-463-5455 with questions about using TSLAC’s archival resources. For a comprehensive list of all recently added and updated finding aids visit Archives: Finding Aids (New & Revised).
New Finding Aids
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE LITIGATION CASE FILES – AG II.17 (includes external spreadsheet inventory—link at end of finding aid)
ABSTRACT:
The attorney general is the lawyer for the people of Texas and 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. Records consist of selected working files relating to litigation and major investigations handled by the Office of the Texas Attorney General (OAG), closed in or before 1985 and closed in 2004. Materials date 1959-1985, 1995-2004, bulk 1967-1985.
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL CRAWFORD C. MARTIN AUDIOTAPE – AG II.18
ABSTRACT:
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. Crawford Martin served as attorney general of Texas from 1967 to 1972. He filed successful litigation against commercial drug manufacturers for price-fixing of antibiotics and encouraged Texas consumers to file claims for a refund from money awarded in the suit. This 1969 recording informs Texas consumers how to file for the refund.
New in TDA: This audiotape has been digitized and is part of the Texas Digital Archive.
Revised Finding Aids
TEXAS ADJUTANT GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT RECONSTRUCTION RECORDS – ADG II.0
ABSTRACT:
The Texas Adjutant General’s Department oversees the military interests of Texas to serve the state civil authorities and the citizens of Texas. During the Congressional phase of Reconstruction, the military affairs of the State of Texas, and many aspects of civil government, were controlled by the commander of the District of Texas (1866-1868) or of the 5th Military District (1868-1870). These records are of those districts, and of the State Police and the State Guard and Reserve Militia, both created in 1870 and commanded by a newly restored state adjutant general. Types of records include military orders; correspondence, petitions, and sworn statements; reports of crimes, arrests, and fugitives from justice; certificates of disability; court martial proceedings; annual militia returns; militia rolls; a hospital report; affidavits of loss and damage; quartermaster records (especially vouchers), pay vouchers, ordnance records, and accounts for moneys collected and disbursed; and other financial records, dating 1865-1874, and undated.
New in TDA: One letterpress volume—Record of murders and assaults—has been digitized and is available in the Texas Digital Archive.
TEXAS LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL AUTHORITY RECORDS – ECW I.08
ABSTRACT:
The objectives of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority (TLLRWDA) were to update existing statutes governing radioactive materials and to establish a state-operated low-level radioactive waste disposal program. Records include correspondence, memorandums, environmental monitoring and experimental data, minutes and agenda, reports, studies,news clippings, maps and drawings, photographs, land records, contracts, publications, public relations materials, planning documents, board orders and resolutions, court documents, manuals, organizational charts, audio and video recordings, magnetic media, and other background material related to the various stages of the site selection process, dating 1917, 1920, 1933-1999, undated, bulk 1992-1998.
Subjects include the site characterization and selection process, low-level radioactive waste disposal trends, waste management planning, public perception of TLLRWDA and similar entities, development of Hudspeth County infrastructure, legislation related to agency operations, geological features of Texas, collection and analysis of environmental data, status of the agency’s license application, quality assurance tasks and audits, TLLRWDA’s relationships to external entities, socio-economic impacts of the project, and environmental justice issues. Electronic records are present in addition to analog materials.
TEXAS SUPREME COURT RECORDS – SC I.01
A new partial list of missing Supreme Court M case files is now available in PDF and .xls format.
ABSTRACT:
The Texas Supreme Court 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. A portion of these materials has been digitized and is part of the Texas Digital Archive.
TEXAS DEPARTMENT ON AGING RECORDS – OAH IV.073
ABSTRACT:
The Texas Department on Aging was responsible for addressing the social and physical well-being of Texans aged 60 years and older through the development, coordination, oversight, and advocacy of aging services. Records include meeting documents, correspondence and memoranda, legislative documents, legal documents, financial documents, reports, grant applications, media documents, responses to surveys, organization charts, and resumes, dating 1957-2004, bulk 1979-1999. They comprise records of the Texas Department on Aging, its predecessor the Governor’s Committee on Aging, and the affiliated State Citizens Advisory Council. Also well-represented are the records documenting Texas’ participation in the White House Conferences on Aging of 1971 and 1981.
More Items Recently Added to the Texas Digital Archive
Jacob de Cordova Letter Book, 1851-1856:
Copies of outgoing correspondence from de Cordova relating to his business as a land agent, dating from 1851 to 1856. The book consists of two sections: “Assessors and Collectors” and “Letters to Phineas de Cordova and Commissioner of the General Land Office Austin and other persons,” each with an alphabetized index of correspondents.
Texas Governors’ Letterpress Copybooks:
Letterpress was a method of creating copies by pressing the original text, with the ink still wet, onto a thin paper in a bound book. Records from the 19th century, including those from Texas governors, often contain such volumes. TSLAC has digitized the following:
Sam Houston (1859 -1861)
Francis Lubbock (1861-1863)
Pendleton Murrah (1863-1865)
Texas Historical Commission Meeting :
The State Archives collects records of Texas state agencies like the Texas Historical Commission. This item is a packet from a 2010 meeting in Laredo.
Explore more items available online from the homepage of the Texas Digital Archive.