The Wittliff acquires Tejano Music collection of Ramón Hernández

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San Marcos, TX – As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University have acquired one of the largest known collections of Tejano Music materials and memorabilia in existence from renowned musicologist and collector Ramón Hernández. “Hernández is universally respected in the Tejano music community,” said Wittliff Collections director Dr. David …

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“It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll” now digitized

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Forty-one issues of the indie music newspaper It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll have been digitally preserved by The Wittlliff Collections at Texas State University. You can view the inventory here. Published in San Antonio by music journalist Ron Young, the preserved issues cover the period from March 1978 to April 1982.  It’s Only Rock ’N’ …

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The unvarnished outlaw country collection of Sam Kindrick

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It’s been nearly 50 years since the birth of the outlaw country music scene in Texas. At the beginning of the 1970s, it was known as progressive country, redneck rock and cosmic cowboy music. Its earliest proponents were Michael Martin Murphey, B.W. Stevenson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doug Sahm, Freda & the Firedogs with singer Marcia Ball …

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Keith Carter: Fifty Years

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We are honored to feature Keith Carter’s retrospective exhibition, which opened at The Wittliff on August 27. With over 140 photographs on view, the exhibit features work from every phase of his career. Like the powerful photograph of a Mexican boy on a windowsill, taken in 1968 or the 2017 portrait of his neighbor, Mr. …

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Willie Nelson OBJECTified

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(by Katie Salzmann) We never know who might request to use material from our archives, and earlier this summer the folks at the television show “OBJECTified” reached out to us for images of Willie Nelson to complement their hour-long interview with him. We provided 33 photos of Willie throughout his career, and we are curious …

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Masters of Historical Fiction Honored in The Wittliff’s New Exhibition

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The epic sweep of Texas history has inspired classic novels by many of our greatest writers, and the Wittliff Collections showcases the best of this work in its new exhibition, Literary Frontiers: Historical Fiction & the Creative Imagination. Texas writers have illuminated the human stories at the heart of legends and myths, from the trail …

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Breathing new life into Cabeza de Vaca’s La relación

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Scholars of Texas, U.S. and world history can now access an innovative online resource that showcases the earliest written account of Texas and the Southwest. Texas State University Libraries and The Wittliff Collections today launched a website celebrating La relación, a book written by Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and originally published in …

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VIDEO: A Conversation With Jerry Jeff and Susan Walker

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In June of 2018, The Wittliff Collections’ curator of Texas Music, Hector Saldaña sat down for a candid conversation with Texas music legend Jerry Jeff Walker and his wife / manager Susan. This event was in celebration of The Wittliff’s exhibition, “¡Viva Jerry Jeff: The Origins and Wild Times of a Texas Icon.” Music was …

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Public History Students Gain Hands-on Experience in the Archives

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(by Katie Salzmann) This fall semester, twelve graduate students from Texas State University’s Public History program have been processing several archival collections at the Wittliff as part of the “Archival Management” course.  Lead Archivist Katie Salzmann teaches the seminar class that is designed to introduce students to the principles and theories of archives. In addition …

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Sandra Cisneros’ archive opens to eager researchers

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In summer 2015, the Wittliff Collections acquired the major literary archive of author, Sandra Cisneros. As one of America’s leading writers, Cisneros helped launch the Latino literary boom and is the author of poetry, a memoir, essays, children’s books, and fiction – including the internationally acclaimed The House on Mango Street. In October – just …

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