Tarrant County TXGenWeb - Holdings of West Library

Holdings of the

Eunice & James L. West Library

Texas Wesleyan University

Contributed by Louis Sherwood

Book Collections

Books useful to genealogists are located throughout the library and may be accessed using the library's online catalog. Books housed in Special Collections are only available by appointment.

Methodist History: The holdings include materials dealing with the history of Methodism in the United States with emphasis on Texas, but there are some general histories of Methodist work in other countries as well. There are general, state, annual conference, local church, and institutional histories, books of discipline, annual conference journals, general minutes, yearbooks, and clergy biographies.

State and Local History: The collection includes some of the standard references on Texas as well as a small collection of county and local history books representing many Texas counties. Much of the information covers Dallas-Fort Worth and the surrounding area with the emphasis on Fort Worth. The collection includes scattered holdings of the Fort Worth City Directory (1909-1995).

Special Collections

The Special Collections on the third floor include some limited local history archival information as well as other special collections and the university archives. An appointment is necessary to view the materials in the collection. Contact Louis Sherwood, Jr., University Archivist for more information about the collections or to make an appointment.

Local History: In addition to local history books, the collection also includes:

Abstracts of title for property in Polytechnic Heights

Dillow family records (Polytechnic Heights)

Hall Family papers (Polytechnic Heights)

The East Fort Worth Lions Club and the East Fort Worth Lady Lions Club records.

Newspapers: The library has the 1949 centennial issue of the Fort Worth Star Telegram as well as issues of The Polytechnic Herald (1945-1954) and The Meadowbrook Herald (1946-1969).

Library of American Civilization: According to the introduction found in the author catalog, this is "a collection of materials on microfiche relating to all aspects of American life and literature from their beginnings to the outbreak of World War I". The collection includes "pamphlets, periodicals, documents (both public and private), biographies and autobiographies, fictional works, poetry, collections of various kinds, material of foreign origin relating to America, and many rare books not generally available".

Dr. H. Howard Hughes Theater Collection: Dr. Hughes and his wife, Erin Connor Hughes, were on the faculty at Texas Wesleyan for many years. Together they attended over 6,000 theater performances from 1937-1987, thus setting a Guinness record as "The Most Ardent Theatergoers". The collection includes information about local theater companies and musical groups, Broadway theater companies, and some foreign theater companies. The groups represented include professional, college, high school and community theater groups. Productions run the gamut from Shakespeare to musicals to symphony and opera. Each file generally includes programs as well as newspaper articles about the production or individual actors.

The library has Dr. Hughes' personal papers as well. These include correspondence, some student papers and some materials on the history of the Sons of Sakkara, a fraternity he sponsored for most of 20 years. The Sakkara information includes some photographs of individual members.

Bobby Bragan Collection: This collection includes many histories of the major and minor leagues as well as statistical books, and biographies of notable major league players. Most of the material seems to be from the 1940s to the late 1990s.

Texas Wesleyan University Archives: The holdings include:

Histories of the college, 1891-1991. (Some of these are also in the general collection on the third floor)

College catalogs, 1891 to present

Yearbooks, 1906-1996: The yearbook began publication under the title The Panther City Parrot (1906-1910), and then became The Panther (1911-1913), The TXWOCO (1915-1934), Cavalcade (1935), The TXWECO (1936-1988) and finally The Ram's Horn (1989-1996). Copies of yearbooks from 1940-1996 are also available in the general collection on the third floor.

Student newspapers, 1917 to the present: The school paper was founded as The Handout (1917-1935). In 1935, it was renamed The Rambler (1935-present). All of the issues through April 2000 are available on microfiche in the Periodicals Department (second floor). Paper copies of all issues are only available in Special Collections.

Photograph collection: This includes photos of faculty, staff, students and events from the early 1900s through the 1990s (bulk of the collection from1968 to 1990s).

Handbooks and Directories: This includes handbooks issued for students, faculty and staff as well as campus telephone directories and alumni directories.

Faculty/staff newsletters, 1978 to present

Alumni publications, circa 1959 to the present: All issues are available 1966 to the present.

Newspaper clipping files, 1924-1929, 1941-1943, and 1978-1994 with limited coverage in the gaps

Texas Woman's College Committee on Recommendations: Each file includes the application(s) of the student, letters of recommendation, and frequently, a picture of the student. These may be accessed using an alphabetical listing of names.

United Methodist Records and Archives Center,
Central Texas Conference

This collection, located on the first floor, is operated by the Central Texas Conference and is separate from the library. The primary focus of the collection is records of the active and closed churches of the annual conference. The holdings also include conference journals, 1866-present, local church histories, general Methodist histories, and histories of Texas Methodism. The archive also holds microfilm of the Texas Christian Advocate, 1850-1917, with abstracts for 1850-1881. The holdings also include some journals for other Texas annual conferences including Northwest Texas, North Texas, Southwest Texas, Rio Grande Mission, the old West Texas conference and the Texas Conference. The archives are open Monday-Friday from 8 to 4. For more information, contact Carol Roszell, Archivist for the Central Texas Conference, at (817) 531-6550.

Library web page: http://department.txwes.edu/lib

This page was last modified 30 Dec 2005.