Photographic collections in Texas

Richard Pearce-Moses

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 worldwide as well as national and regional interest. This 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 material it collects, including nonphotographic materials. Other important information provided by the guide includes: addresses, hours, assistance available, permission fee requirements, and finding aids; statements of scope and listings of the locales represented; listings of the subjects and people pictured in the collections; a bibliography of publications that reproduce the collection's photographs; tables showing the number from each time period of each type of photograph, negative, or album; photographer's names and studios and other corporate identities responsible for the photographs; descriptions of the record groups included in the collections, including reference numbers, titles, subjects, responsible agencies, physical descriptions, and span dates; separate indexes to institutions, 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.--Cover