Category: From The Archives

From Politics to Poodles: A Look into Molly Ivins’ Personal Library

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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 …

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Original ‘Mr. Bojangles’ lyrics on display at The Wittliff

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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 …

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Jerry Jeff Walker: The First Demo

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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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Developing characters at the Austin Film Festival

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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 …

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The long journey to restoring “The History of Ranching”

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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 …

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“It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” in Tennessee and Texas

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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, …

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The Moving Sidewalks meet Jimi Hendrix

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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 …

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Re-discovering Peter Pan at The Wittliff

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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 …

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Waylon and Lefty: Marine Corps pitch men?

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The forgotten 60-second Marine Corps. recruiting spot fades in with the familiar symphonic chorus of “MacArthur Park” – “Someone left the cake out in the rain . . .”  But the voice is not that of actor Richard Harris, who sang the ubiquitous hit in 1968.  It’s Waylon Jennings singing his Grammy-winning, countrified version of …

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Digital Treasures: Here today, here tomorrow

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The Digital Preservation Coalition cites November 7th as World Digital Preservation Day. It is just another day here at The Wittliff Collections, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to share with you some of our ongoing digital preservation work. You may be familiar with some of The Wittliff materials that are available …

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