The Portal to Texas History is a gateway to rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas.

The Portal to Texas History

A gateway to rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas.

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This section provides ways for you to get periodic updates about the site, and links to share it on popular social media networks.

Collection Highlights

This section provides a sampling of some of our collections.

Texas Digital Newspaper Program

Check out the News from:

 25 years ago in October, 1993 50 years ago in October, 1968 75 years ago in October, 1943 100 years ago in October, 1918 150 years ago in October, 1868 This day in history

More Collections

Matthews Family and Lambshead Ranch

These photos showcase ranching history, ranching practices and changes in the land. Lambshead Ranch is still owned and operated by ...

Canadian Record

"Devoted to the interests of Canadian and the Surrounding Country", as its masthead once declared early in the publication's ...

UNT Legends: a Century of Mean Green Football

These photos depict more than 100 years of UNT football history and legendary players such as Ray Renfro, Abner Hayes ...

Mount Vernon Optic-Herald

The oldest business in Franklin County is the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald. It began in 1874 when W. J. Johnson of ...

Explore all 568 Collections

Featured Partner

Every time you visit this page, we'll highlight a different partner in this section.

Grand Prairie Genealogical Society

The Grand Prairie Genealogical Society is an Educational and Cultural organization whose purpose is the fostering of education in genealogical research, encouraging new interest in research and compiling, collecting and encouraging the preservation of research materials.

About This Partner Browse Contributed Items
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News and Announcements

Horse Photos Featured in New Book

The UNT Libraries recently published Through the Lenses of Ray Bankston and Don Shugart, a captivating sample of the extensive collection of prints and negatives held in the Libraries’ Special Collections.

Ray Bankston and Don Shugart were two of the most prolific photographers of American Quarter Horses and horse show events in the South and Southwest during the last four decades of the twentieth century.

Their work is also featured in The Portal to Texas History’s Ray and Joyce Bankston Dalco Photography and Don Shugart Photography Collections.

What we do: Educate, Preserve, Build

Hundreds of years of Texas' cultural heritage exist in the physical holdings of communities across the state. The Portal seeks to digitize originals, preserving and presenting online copies for the long-term. Doing so highlights hidden collections, builds statewide connections, and provides access to you, regardless of the time or your location.

Resources4 Educators

We offer teaching materials that connect K-12 students with primary source historical documents to dramatically enrich their learning.

"We are very excited about the outstanding lessons on your site and plan to use it as one of the cornerstones of implementing a long needed overhaul on the method of instruction for Texas history."

Daniel M. Reyes, San Antonio ISD
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Texas Digital Newspaper Program

Learners of all ages can use TDNP to stand in the shoes of people from over 180 years ago to the present. Through our newspaper collection, we provide an understanding of the lives of Texans across history and miles.

"The newspaper digitization project places our library in position to reach out toward the future. By taking a piece of the past and bringing it with us, we are sure to grow and learn, appreciate and respect what was, what is and what will be."

Leslie Whitaker, Claude Public Library
About the Program

Rescuing Texas History

The Portal to Texas History periodically offers mini-grants for its Rescuing Texas History series. Each grant provides up to $1,000 of digitization services to libraries, museums, historical societies, and other groups that house historical materials. All of the materials are scanned at UNT Libraries and hosted on the Portal.

"I collect old Texas photographs. Thanks to the Portal, they can now be viewed by the world."

Brad Willis — T. B. Willis Photograph Collection
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Help Us Save Texas History!

Last month, we counted 993,027 uses of items on the Portal by people all over the world. Many were provided by small communities and funded by the generosity of donors like you.

Become a Partner

Information for libraries, museums, schools, historical societies, civic groups, and individuals interested in the digital preservation and sharing of cultural heritage materials on this site.

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On-line Giving

You can support the preservation of small, disappearing, and at-risk communities and provide free access to them for students, educators, and researchers of all ages and abilities.

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