In honor of Pride Month 2022, I wanted to give a behind-the-scenes look at the John Rechy papers which I’m currently processing. John Rechy is a native El Pasoan who is recognized as a pioneer LGBTQ author. In 1963 he published his landmark novel City of Night, a fictionalized account of his experiences as a …
Continue reading "Rechy archive illustrates our society’s changing views on the LGTBQIA community"
You may not know his name, but you would recognize his cartoons of talking animals, talking pasta, kings, and corporate bosses. Over the course of his career, Charles Barsotti published more than 1,300 cartoons in The New Yorker and thousands more in other publications including USA TODAY, Parade, Playboy, Texas Monthly, an array of …
Continue reading "Niceday: Charles Barsotti’s Commerical Pup"
Written by Wittliff archivist, Karen Sigler, This article was originally published in the Society of Southwestern Archivist and now resides in Texas State Universities digital archives. If the world were given your personal library, what would it tell them about you? What if you were known for your political observations and didn’t mind being blunt …
Continue reading "From Politics to Poodles: A Look into Molly Ivins’ Personal Library"
The earliest known surviving set of Jerry Jeff Walker’s handwritten lyrics for “Mr. Bojangles” exist because a plucky young guitar repairman in New Jersey asked Walker to write them down so he could learn the song. Walker wasn’t yet a star in 1968. But he did have an amazing folk song on the radio in the …
Continue reading "Original ‘Mr. Bojangles’ lyrics on display at The Wittliff"
The recording was unearthed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in January 2018, more than a half century after it was made. The audio captured on the portable reel-to-reel tape machine – a German-made UHER 4000 Report-L popular in the early 1960s – is still clear and crisp. “I’m gonna do the whole thing,” announces Jerry Jeff …
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Editor’s Note: For the past several years, the Austin Film Festival has been busy digitizing their recordings of the festival panels, which they’ve maintained since the first year in 1994. That’s over 25 years’ worth of conversations from the best in the business, including Shane Black, writer for Lethal Weapon and writer-director for the Predator …
Continue reading "Developing characters at the Austin Film Festival"
In 1950 the Wimberley, Texas artist James Buchanan “Buck” Winn was commissioned by the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio to paint The History of Ranching, a massive mural to adorn the walls of the Corral, the brewery’s oval-shaped hospitality room. At 280 feet, the mural was considered the longest in the world, depicting the story …
Continue reading "The long journey to restoring “The History of Ranching”"
By Wittliff staff member, Library Specialist, Sherri Turner-Herrmann. Rock and roll hit me like a freight train early on. When I was 8, my cousin introduced me to Alice Cooper and that’s when the first train hit. Shock rock, hard rock, heavy metal and punk! Alice Cooper, KISS, Judas Priest, ACDC, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, …
Continue reading "“It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” in Tennessee and Texas"
Texas music lovers hold ZZ Top especially dear. After 50 years, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard feel more like friends than rock icons. Here at The Wittliff Collections, we love ’em, too. The new Netflix documentary “ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas” sent lead archivist Katie Salzmann digging a little deeper …
Continue reading "The Moving Sidewalks meet Jimi Hendrix"
By Wittliff student worker, Eric Robertson-Gordon. Growing up, my childhood was filled with movies. My father would often show me and my sister movies that he remembered loving when he was a child. My dad was a cinephile and it percolated down to me and my sister as young children. Throughout those years, he would …
Continue reading "Re-discovering Peter Pan at The Wittliff"