News Film

The G. William Jones Film & Video Collection preserves television news, documentaries and broadcast media that document the history of Dallas-Fort Worth and the events that shaped Texas and the nation. Many recordings from our news film collections are available to watch online. Explore our collections on YouTube to view footage.

WFAA

The WFAA News Film Collection contains approximately 4,000 reels of 16mm film documenting local television news from 1960 to 1977. The collection captures a period of rapid change in Dallas and across the United States through coverage of major national and local events.

National stories include the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Ross Perot's efforts to secure the release of U.S. prisoners of war and President Richard Nixon's resignation. Local reporting documents school desegregation and integration, the Sharpstown scandal, the construction of Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport and the day-to-day work of local government.

The collection also covers arts, entertainment, sports, and community life. It includes footage of Jimi Hendrix, Willie Nelson, Omar Sharif, Warren Beatty, Andy Warhol and Big Bird, along with coverage of the Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Chaparrals, Dallas Blackhawks, Fort Worth Wings, the State Fair of Texas, Fair Park, Six Flags Over Texas and Southern Methodist University. Together, these stories provide a record of both major historical events and everyday life in North Texas.

KERA

The KERA Collection documents the history of Dallas' public television station from the mid-1960s through the 2010s. Film and videotape materials preserve news reporting, documentary productions, completed broadcasts, raw footage, and research materials from more than five decades of public television.

The collection includes reporting segments from "Newsroom," hosted by Jim Lehrer, along with documentaries such as "Jackalope," "David Allen Coe: The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Water Garden." It also includes episodes of "News Addition," "On the Record," "Between the Lines," "Think," "Frame of Mind" and "Swank in the Arts," as well as documentary features including "For a Deaf Son," "JFK: Breaking the News" and the Emmy Award-winning series "The U.S.-Mexican War, 1846-1848."

In addition to broadcast materials, the collection preserves KERA's organizational records, including production files, operations records, and marketing and promotional materials.

Journalists and Reporters

The G. William Jones Film & Video Collection also preserves the personal archives of local reporters, producers, and journalists. These collections document the work of people behind North Texas journalism. Notable collections include those of WFAA journalists Byron Harris, John Sparks, and Donna Witkowski, as well as KRLD-AM business analyst David Johnson.

Quin Mathews

The Quin Mathews Collection includes finished productions and raw camera footage spanning Mathews' career as a filmmaker, journalist, historian and WFAA-TV news anchor.

The collection preserves recordings from “Arts Matters,” Mathews' radio program that aired for 25 years. Created with Sharon Benge, the program featured nearly 2,500 interviews with local, national and international artists. The collection includes selected broadcasts as well as unedited interviews.