Prints & Photographs

Prints & Photographs

Our Prints and Photographs collections consist of over one million images, including a broad range of formats, from the daguerreotype to gelatin silver prints, stereographs, postcards, digital photographs and negatives. These collections support research on the history of photography, the U.S. West, Mexico and transportation worldwide, with particular strength in railroads.

Major Collections

• The Jack and Beverly Wilgus history of photography collection - about 30,000 photographs depicting a range of processes, equipment, and objects from pre-photography to the late 20th century, collected over 50+ years  
• The Lawrence T. Jones III collection - documents all aspects of Texas photography from circa 1846 to 1940, featuring a variety of subjects by professional and amateur photographers, with rich research potential  
• The Robert Yarnall Richie collection - consists of approximately 10,000 photographic prints and thousands of negatives comprising the lifework of a commercial photographer, 1932-1970  
• The George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection - over 2,200 photographs and 15,000 postcards, significant manuscripts, and more related to the city of Dallas and Texas
• The Collection of Jack Kilby – documents the life of the engineer who invented the microchip while at Texas Instruments, and was also a skilled photographer
• Richard Steinheimer Photograph Collection features the work of a pioneering railroad photographer known as the “Ansel Adams of railroad photography.” Spanning 1946–1970, it includes prints and about 14,000 negatives that capture the shift from steam to diesel trains, often set against dramatic western landscapes, night scenes, and rugged weather.

Transportation

The library is home to one of the most comprehensive railroad photography collections in the United States. At the heart of this resource is Everett L. DeGolyer Jr.’s collection of railroad photographs, organized by rail line and frequently consulted by researchers.

The library also holds many other remarkable collections:

• Richard Steinheimer Collection – thousands of negatives, especially strong in western railroad lines
• David Goodyear Collection of Foreign Railroad Photographs – photographic prints from around the world
• Jules A. Bourquin Collection – vintage prints and negatives from Horton, Kansas, and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad
• William Middleton Collection – notable for its focus on Midwestern and Eastern railroads
• Roland Collons Collection – over 100 scrapbooks and 10,000 negatives documenting railroads
• H.D. Conner Railroad Depot Collection – negatives of U.S. railroad depots

In addition to its railroad collections, the library holds the Eric Steinfeldt Collection of Maritime Views, a significant photographic archive of ships and maritime activity worldwide, with special emphasis on the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. West

DeGolyer holdings include several rare accessions, including Union Pacific Railroad Illustrations, taken by Civil War photographer Andrew J. Russell, and Alexander Gardner’s 1867 western landscape survey, Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad (Route of the 35th Parallel), one of only a few copies of this early landscape project from Kansas to California. We have works by noted 19th-century photographers such as Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, Andrew Russell, William Henry Jackson and others. The Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photography Collection captures Texas life from 1846 to 1940, offering a vivid record of the state’s history and culture.

Mexico

DeGolyer is particularly strong in images by photographers working in Mexico. Holdings include:

• One of the largest collections of photographs by Alfred Briquet, a Frenchman photographing Mexico from ca. 1870 until 1911
• The Elmer and Diane Powell Collection on the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920 contains many images of the Mexican Revolution by photographers on the border and throughout Mexico

Photojournalism

The Andy Hanson collection contains thousands of photographs taken in Dallas between 1960 and 2008. These photographs highlight the political and social scene in the city, particularly while he worked at the Dallas Times Herald. 

The Shelly Katz collection contains photographs by Katz, who lived in Dallas but worked for Life, Time, Newsweek, Look, People and other major magazines, and traveled extensively. Katz photographed U.S. presidents, celebrities, sports figures, Benji the dog and more.

International Collections

Highlights of our international collections include William Johnson’s Photographs of Western India (ca. 1858), Les Travaux Publics de la France (1883) with collotypes by Édouard Baldus, and the Sir Ellice Victor Elias Sassoon Collection of diaries, correspondence, and photograph albums from Shanghai, India, and beyond. Other notable holdings include a rare World War I album of German-occupied Ukraine, and extensive stereograph collections—over 15,000 cards and viewers—along with magic lantern slides and View-Master reels dating from the 1850s to 1950s.

Prints and Drawings

Although smaller in number than the photograph accessions, there are also important graphic materials, artwork and posters at the DeGolyer, including:

• The Alvin Colt Neiman-Marcus Fortnight Design Collection, which consists of original drawings and blueprints for the annual Fortnight cultural event in Dallas
• The African American Film Collection, featuring promotional posters
• Prints by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose broadsides reflect social and political events around the time of the Mexican Revolution