Texas History

"The Handbook of Texas is a digital state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) that is free and accessible on the Internet for students, teachers, scholars, and the general public. The Handbook consists of overview, general, and biographical entries focused on the entire history of Texas from the indigenous Native Americans and the Prehistoric Era to the state’s diverse population and the Modern Age."

"The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, continuously published since 1897, is the premier source of scholarly information about the history of Texas and the Southwest. The first 100 volumes of the Quarterly, more than 57,000 pages, are now available Online with searchable Tables of Contents."

A good source for information on Texas government, vital statistics and a variety of historical topics. Published since 1857, the early editions contain "many first-person accounts of the Texas Revolution and the early days of the Republic and statehood."

Provides historical information on over 3,000 towns and cites in Texas.

"The Atlas features nearly 300,000 site records, including data on Official Texas Historical Markers and National Register of Historic Places properties in Texas. Also included are courthouses, museums, and sawmills across the state. You can search by Historic Designation, Keyword, County, Address, or Site Name to get instant access to detailed textual descriptions, historic photographs, and interactive maps."

A project of Baylor University, this site chronicles the history of the city.

"The Waco History Project is a joint effort of the Waco community to provide a resource base on Waco history and to generate curricula and other learning resources for teaching local history in the Waco and surrounding communities."

The Texas Collection is Baylor University's oldest special collections library and serves as the University Archive that collects, preserves, and provides access to materials on the history, heritage and culture of Texas.

"The Briscoe Center strives to provide online access to its historical documentation. Through this page, the public can discover documents, photographs, illustrations, book excerpts, moving images, sound recordings, and even artifacts digitized by the Briscoe Center’s staff. The public can also learn more about born-digital resources acquired by the Briscoe Center. Access to some items may be restricted to the Briscoe Center’s reading room due to copyright concerns."

"The Robert Runyon Photograph Collection of the South Texas Border Area, a collection of over 8,000 items, is a unique visual resource documenting the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the early 1900s. It includes glass negatives, lantern slides, nitrate negatives, prints, and postcards, representing the life's work of commercial photographer Robert Runyon (1881-1968), a longtime resident of South Texas. His photographs document the history and development of South Texas and the border, including the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. military presence at Ft. Brown and along the border prior to and during World War I, and the growth and development of the Rio Grande Valley."

"The Portal is a gateway to Texas history materials. You may discover anything from an ancestor's picture to a rare historical map. From prehistory to the present day, you can explore unique collections from Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, and private family collections."

Designated as the "official repository for archives and memorabilia related to the Texas Rangers service." The museum "includes the service records of Rangers, criminal case files, photographs, correspondence, books and documents going back to the 1830s."

"The Texas State Archives preserves and documents the heritage and culture of Texas by identifying, collecting, and making available for research the permanently valuable official records of Texas government, as well as other significant historical resources. Maintaining the official history of Texas government, the State Archives includes archival government records dating back to the 18th century, as well as newspapers, journals, books, manuscripts, photographs, historical maps, and other historical resources." --TSLAC

Contains committee documents from the 1919 Texas Rangers Investigation, CCC drawings, military service records from 1836-1935, Texas Senate Recordings, 1972 - 2006, and other documents.

Created by the Texas State Library and Archives commission, this is "an online exhibit of historical artifacts and documents."

"In the 19th century, Texas artisans & artists created ceramics, furniture, textiles, metalworks, photographs, paintings, and works on paper in this growing region... Their lives, practices, and products are captured in the census records, city directories, newspapers and primary sources included in the Hill Archive."

"The OldMapsOnline Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution."

"The Texas State Archives Map Collection contains original, photoreproduced, and compiled maps covering the period from the early seventeenth through the late twentieth centuries."

Directory of links to online maps covering Texas cities, historical maps, park maps, Sanborn maps and topographic maps.