The Sparkling Jewel in Our Digital Crown
On April 08, we did a thing. Well, more accurately, we announced a thing we did.
At the magnificent Hall of State, in partnership with the Dallas Historical Society, surrounded by a few of our closest friends, we hosted Revolution Rekindled. We ate and sipped. Then we talked about how Texas History Trust had secured exclusive rights to republish the rarest resource on the Texas Revolution…and how we turned those rights into a digital edition for all Texans in the world to explore and read.
Papers of the Texas Revolution. In your pocket. Free of charge. That’s a thing now!
Fifty years ago, Gen. Jay A. Matthews began this project with a big idea. He set out to compile every order, letter, receipt — every scrap of paper pertaining to the Texas Revolution — to provide scholars with a ready reference on the conflict. When he was finished tracking them down and transcribing the material, he had created a ten-volume set of books. His big idea became this hefty reference work.
On Easter weekend, we celebrated his dedication to Texas military history and the rollout of our digital edition of the books. My heart leapt as I watched people in the audience scanning a QR code with their phones and being taken instantly to Papers of the Texas Revolution!
The cherry on top of it all? Three generations of Gen. Matthews’s descendants were on hand to talk about and learn more about the epic achievements of their dad/granddad/great-granddad! Knowing those beautiful kiddos will someday search the internet for their great-grandfather and will find one of his achievements, in its entirety, right here on the Trust website…well, that’s priceless.
I gave a talk about the thousands of clicks it took to make this project a reality and what an honor it is to be able to carry Gen. Matthews’s work into a new medium. Drs. Stephen L. Hardin and Richard McCaslin talked about why document collections matter and how PTR, a foundational text for Texas history research, is woefully scarce in its original format.
The good doctors spill the beans on Papers of the Texas Revolution, past and present.
This was an enormous undertaking for the Trust. It represents a considerable time and energy investment. We believe we’ve not only done a good turn for Texas, but have changed the research landscape with our digital archive. We’ve democratized tens of thousands of pages of primary source material and we’re just getting started.
It’s been fifty years since Papers of the Texas Revolution was this available to the public. What are you waiting for? Go start your own Texas history adventure now!
Click HERE to say “howdy” the new PTR.
Let us know what you think!
