Digital Collections

Cushing Historic Images Collection Historical Image


The Cushing Memorial Library and Archives maintains an extensive photographic collection of over 300,000 images. The collection continues to grow. These images are in a wide variety of formats and sizes, including negatives on glass plates, post cards, and various early types of prints. The collection is organized by subject and contains a visual representation of nearly every aspect of Texas A&M University’s long and storied past beginning with the opening of the school in 1876. Categories include such subjects as campus views, individual buildings, athletics, research, teaching, student life, members of the faculty, visiting dignitaries and important events. Most of the photographs were acquired through donation or from various units of the university.

Don Quixote Iconography Digital Archive Don Quixote cover

 
The Cervantes Project has created an innovative and unprecedented digital archive of images based on the textual iconography of the Quixote, i.e. interpretative illustrations included in published editions of the text. The archive provides free access to rare visual resources, restores the traditional connection between word and image, and facilitates a better appreciation and understanding of the impact of Cervantes’ masterpiece through 400 years, from several perspectives: textual, critical, artistic, bibliographical, and historical.   The Don Quixote Iconography Digital Archive is the result of a collaboration and NEH grant about the illustration of the Quixote.

Historic African American Farm Work

Toward a Better Living: African American Farming Communities in Mid-Century Texas


These historical photographs are from the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. In the early 1970s, the Texas A&M University archives acquired a large collection of photographs from the Agricultural Communications Office of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. This collection consists of nearly 7000 photographs (a selection is reproduced digitally here). The vast majority are black and white images ranging from the 1930s through the late 1970s, although some photographs date from earlier and later periods. These images were captured by photographers working throughout the state, and document many activities aimed at improving the lives and livelihood of rural Texans. Farming, home improvement, livestock raising, and other programs of the Extension Service were illustrated and the photographs were retained for educational and publicity initiatives. *This exhibition pays homage to a traveling photographic exhibit, Toward a Better Living for Rural Texas Blacks, 1930-1960, created by Charles Schultz.

Agricultural Communications photoImages of a Rural Past

In the early 1970s, the Texas A&M University archives acquired a large collection of photographs from the Agricultural Communications Office of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. This collection consists of nearly 7000 photographs. The vast majority are black and white images ranging from the 1930s through the late 1970s, although some photographs date from earlier and later periods. These images were captured by photographers working throughout the state, and document many activities aimed at improving the lives and livelihood of rural Texans. Farming, home improvement, livestock raising, and other programs of the Extension Service were illustrated and the photographs were retained for educational and publicity initiatives. Through a grant from the TexShare Access to Local Holdings program, the images have been digitized and the accompanying descriptive text entered into a searchable database.