This collection of vintage photographs, numbering in the thousands and growing, covers a broad range of topics including sports, civic life, historic buildings, Waco and Baylor history, and more. Of particular note are photographs taken by famed Waco photographer Fred A. Gildersleeve, including numerous large-format and panoramic views.

The promotional materials in this collection were created by various groups and individuals all intent on the same goal: bringing people to live in Texas. Railroad companies looking to lay their tracks further west were in need of passengers as well as produce to ship to city markets, and tailored their promotionals to farmers and their families. Fledgling Texas towns hoping to become more established sang the praises of their region and the unique activities available to those looking to settle or just visit.

Drawn from the extensive cartographic holdings of The Texas Collection, the items in this collection focus primarily on North America and, specifically, Texas. Maps from French, Spanish, German and American sources detail the evolving geography and human settlement of North America over the course of more than 200 years.

This collection features issues of newspapers released in Waco, Texas between the years 1875-1923. This unparalleled look at Waco's history is made available from the archival holdings of The Texas Collection.

The Doris Miller Archive contains a compilation of information including Miller’s early years in his hometown of Waco, Texas, up to his heroic service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and his tragic death while serving on the USS Liscome Bay in 1943. Many of the documents have detailed accounts of Miller’s actions on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Peal Harbor when he bravely returned fire on several enemy aircraft and became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross, among many other honors.

The photographs that make up the Fred Gildersleeve Curated Collection are from multiple archival collections located throughout The Texas Collection & University Archives that contain Gildersleeve's photographs. The original formats that were digitized include silver gelatin prints, cellulose and glass plate negatives, and panoramic photographs. The geographical locations of the photos include not only Waco and other Texas cities, but many others throughout the U.S. as well as Mexico. Gildersleeve was also a contract photographer for Baylor University for many years and lots of images of the university are to be found among these photos as well.

The Jules Bledsoe papers consists of manuscripts collected by Jules (Julius) Bledsoe during the course of his musical career. These papers contain correspondence, diaries, financial papers, photographs, music, publicity materials, and other printed materials from his life and work.

When the War Department began to issue its 70 volume set of records generated by both the Union and Confederate Armies, it also created an atlas to accompany the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies, published in 1895. Its 175 plates contain more than 1,000 maps, illustrations, and diagrams detailing battlefield maps, scenes from the conflict, and military equipment. The Texas Collection at Baylor University is proud to house a pristine copy of the Atlas, and in 2010 the Digital Projects Group scanned the plates and placed them online in this collection. The maps are searchable by keywords, including military personnel, city, state, and geographic features.

The Waco City Directories are a rich resource for those interested in individuals, families and businesses located in Central Texas from 1876 to 1923. The directories alphabetically list residents of the city (usually by head of household), occupations, and addresses. Further, entries may also provide information on familial relationships, listing older children working or attending school but still in the household, as well as boarders with no familial relationship to the household.  Individual listings can also include information on ethnicity. Local advertising for goods and services is found on the covers and throughout the directories, providing a glimpse into daily life during these years.

The Robert Cortes Sr. papers contain correspondence and sermons related to his work as a Baptist pastor in Texas and Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s. These papers document the life and ministry of Robert Cortes Sr. as a Baptist pastor throughout Texas and Mexico.

The Marvin C. Griffin Preaching Collection includes both written [coming soon] and recorded materials pertaining to Reverend Marvin Griffin's ministerial research and sermons, his political involvement, and his leadership in the Baptist Convention on the state and national level.

Harding Black was a master American ceramics artist, who was active from the 1930s to the 1990s. Early in his career, he worked for the WPA and also taught ceramics classes to children at San Antonio's Witte Museum. Harding's greatest contribution to the ceramics community was his glaze research, primarily his attempts to recreate ancient Chinese glazes from the Song and Tang dynasties. He kept extensive notes on his glaze research, and it is possible to cross reference the glaze codes inscribed on most pieces of the test collection and look up the formulas in his notebooks, allowing researchers to recreate many of his most famous glazes. While he was alive, Harding Black freely shared his research, and this collection continues that tradition.

This collection of unique materials from the holdings of the Texas Collection will focus on pieces whose rarity or one-of-a-kind nature prevent their easy classification in other curated collections, with an emphasis on rare books.