In general, the photograph collection at the DeGolyer Library supports the study of the history of the American west, Mexico and transportation world-wide. There are more than 1,400 photograph accessions or groupings totaling over 400,000 images in all. Single images can be found in individual accessions, and in groupings of photographs, stereographs, real photographic postcards, negatives and film.
Collecting at the DeGolyer Library began with the interests of Everette Lee DeGolyer, Sr. (1886-1956) and was further defined by Everett L. DeGolyer, Jr. (1923-1977), who also served as director of the DeGolyer Foundation. While he was drawn to all forms of transportation, railroads were his passion, and he built one of the most comprehensive railroad photography collections in the country.
DeGolyer's collecting was broad based, however, and included mid-nineteenth century photographs of India by William Johnson and albums from Italy and Russia.
The DeGolyer has several rare accessions, including Alexander Gardner’s 1867 portfolio, Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad (Route of the 35th Parallel), which is one of only four known copies of this early, significant western landscape project. There are also major collections of works by William Henry Jackson, Andrew Russell, George Barnard, Carleton Watkins, Charles Roscoe Savage and Robert Benecke as well as by photographers working in Mexico, Abel Briquet, Hugo Brehme and Charles B. Waite among others. The Banks McLaurin, Jr. Stereograph Collection consists of over 9,000 stereo cards and viewers, from all over the world. The DeGolyer also houses large collections that include both prints and negatives. The Jules A. Bourquin Collection has vintage prints and negatives of Horton, Kansas and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. The Richard Steinheimer Collection contains thousands of negatives and is particularly strong in western railroad lines. Also related to the railroads are the Roland Collons Collection of more than 100 scrapbooks and 10,000 negatives and the H.D. Conner Railroad Depot Collection consisting of negatives of thousands of U.S. depots. The Robert Yarnall Richie Collection has hundreds of images from years of commercial work in the fields of oil production and railroads to name a few. His imagery is significant for its documentary information as well as artistic qualities. The George A. McAfee Collection relates to Dallas, Texas history with turn-of-the-century commercial city views. Lynn Lennon’s collection contains a wonderful series of photographs of the Texas State Fair, images of the Big Thicket in East Texas, Louisiana, Mexico, China, the Aaron Islands, cats, dogs and self-portraits. Jack Kilby, a Texas Instruments engineer, whose invention of the microchip changed the world, was also an accomplished photographer and his collection is at the DeGolyer. Using a Hasselblad camera, not surprisingly, Kilby experimented with a fascinating variety of styles and subjects: abstractions and experimentation, people, urban views and landscapes.
In addition to photograph collections, another strength at the DeGolyer is photographically illustrated books on a variety of subjects. For example, the DeGolyer owns the first book illustrated by original stereographs, Teneriffe, an Astronomer’s Experiment, by C. Piazzi Smyth, 1858.
Although smaller in number than the photograph holdings, there are also important graphic printed materials and art work at the DeGolyer related to the American West, railroads and Mexico. Among them are the African-American Film Collection, McMurtry in Film Collection, Gene Autry Film Collection, and the Janak Western Print Collection. The Alvin Colt Neiman-Marcus Fortnight Design Collection consists of original drawings, blueprints, photographs and correspondence with Stanley Marcus related to the annual cultural event, 1963-1986.
