Special Collections & Archives Department

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$50,000 Grant from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission

DPPP logo

$50,000 Grant from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission

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In January 2024, the Digital PV Panther Project (DPPP) worked with the John B. Coleman Library and the Waller County Historical Commission (WCHC) to submit a $50,000 TexTreasures grant to the Texas State Library & Archives Commission (TSLAC).

This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to the State Library and Archives Commission (Grant# TXT-25009 – 2024 – Preventing the Erasure of Black History in Texas)

In 2021, DPPP received a $25,000 TexTreasures award from TSLAC to hire two archival consultants and create processing plans for over 30 manuscript collections in the archives. The 2024 TexTreasures grant will fund:

  1. the hiring of 4 students majoring in Social Sciences for one year
  2. the purchase of a 32 Terabyte server for digital storage
  3. the purchase of archival supplies to process and digitize several manuscript collections in the archives.

The 2024 TexTreasures grant can be extended for three years and $150,000 total.

It’s the 6th external grant awarded to the DPPP since 2021.

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Grant Abstract

To build upon the success of a previous TexTreasures grant, the Digital PV Panther Project (DPPP) will collaborate with the John B. Coleman Library and Waller County Historical Commission to hire four undergraduates at PVAMU to finish processing, digitizing, and creating finding aids for the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection. The team will submit the finding aids to TARO and publish digital finding aids on our websites. The team will also digitize the remaining manuscript collections of former PVAMU professors and administrators, which were processed for a previous 2021-22 TexTreasures grant. Moreover, the team will procure archival supplies, process, and create finding aids for the PV Educational Conference Collection, the TAMU System Board of Regents Collection, and the Woolfolk Collection—all of which have processing plans created during previous NEH grant projects.

The 2021 TexTreasures grant proved transformational at PVAMU. It allowed the DPPP to process, rehouse, and create findings aids for more than 30 collections of former professors and administrators at PVAMU. Until that time, the PVAMU archives had no processed collections or finding aids.

Today, the archives has processed and created finding aids for almost 100 collections as well as submitted the original 30+ collections from the TexTreasures grant to Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO). DPPP digitized 18 of the collections and created interactive finding aids with hyperlinks on the project website, which allow researchers to examine the manuscript collections from the comfort of their homes.

For example, the John Henley Williams Collection documents his activities as a Cooperative Extension agent in Texas from 1932 to 1947. While it contains mostly correspondence with other agents, the collection also features certificates, annual reports, and meeting minutes from the U.S.  War and Food Administration.

Since 2021, DPPP has worked tirelessly to make archival collections available to researchers at PVAMU. 

Processed Collections

90+

Digitized Collections

18

Digitized Photographs

10,000+

Case 3
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Veteran’s Day Exhibit in Coleman Library

Veteran’s Day Exhibition

November 2023

In early November 2023, Acquisitions Librarian Sharon Barnes and Library Associate Sabrina Francis coordinated the efforts of a host of students, staff, and, scholars to curate an exhibition for Veteran’s Day in the John B. Coleman Library.

The exhibition was truly a team effort. It included contributions from Delorse Hawkins, Cesselly Churchill, Ruben Nchama, Karl Henson, Musa Olaka, Phyllis Earles, Evelyn Davis, Susan Streety, Neal Bostwick, James Williams, and Digital PV Panther Project team leader Noah Jackson, who created a slideshow of digital images pertaining to military history on campus.

On November 16, Sharon Barnes sent a congratulatory email to the team, which exclaimed:

I cannot express how honored I am to have worked with you all on this project. The Veterans Day display was a hit! None of this could have been possible without you.  😊

Thanks,

Sharon

Case 5
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023
Case 4
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023
Book Display 1
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023
Case 1
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023
Case 2
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023
Case 3
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023
Vet Slide Show
Photo © Sharon Barnes 2023

Thank You!

We want to thank Sharon Barnes and Sabrina Francis for coordinating this effort, and we look forward to working together in the future to put the history of PVAMU on display for the public!

George Ruble Woolfolk
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Dr. George Ruble Woolfolk, “Prairie View: A Success Story” – 1981 Homecoming Convocation

The Golden

Anniversary

Homecoming

Convocation

 

October 29th, 1981

Dr. George Ruble Woolfolk – “Prairie View: A Success Story”

George Ruble Woolfolk circa 1950s
George Ruble Woolfolk circa 1950s

 

Analog tape digitized by Michael Lee at Rare Records in Winchester, TN in Fall 2022

Digital audio transferred from the Google Drive to Microsoft Teams by Lindsay Boknight on February 10, 2023

Edited by Jaylynn Brantley on November 10, 2023  

Edited and Curated by T. DeWayne Moore on November 12, 2023

 

LINK to the 1981 Convocation Program

Alice Clemons, Miss Prairie View 1981-1982, delivers the introduction of Dr. Woolfolk.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to introduce our speaker for the occasion. I know the speaker was born, raised, and educated in Louisville, Kentucky. He earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Louisville Municipal College and the University of Louisville, the Master of Arts in History from Ohio State University, and the Doctor of Philosophy in History from the University of Wisconsin.

This learned historian is a member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, a member of the Board of Editors of The Journal of Negro History, a member of the Executive Council of the Texas State Historical Association, the technical advisor to the Waller County Historical Commission and vice chairman of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Texas. I could go on and on with his many professional involvements, but [I] would like to mention a few of his publications.

Included among his numerous publications are “Cotton, Capitalism, and Slave Labor in Texas” in the Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, June 1956; “Taxes and Slavery in the Antebellum South,” in the Journal of Southern History, May 1960; “Social Literacy, the Social Studies, and Negro Youth,” in The Texas Standard, June 1962; “And The Word Became Flesh,” in The Journal of Negro History, Spring 1966; a book entitled The Free Negro in Texas 1836-1890, published in 1976, and perhaps his most special treatise, published in 1962. Prairie View: A Study in Public Conscience, 1878-1946.

Our illustrious speaker, who is married to the former Douglas G. Perry, has one son, George Jr. At this time, I take great pride in presenting to you the chairman of the History program at Prairie View and an outstanding member of the Prairie View family since 1943, our speaker Dr. George Ruble Woolfolk.

[Pause for applause]
At 3 minutes and 3 seconds, Dr. Woolfolk begins his address:

I’d like to speak briefly this morning on the general subject, “Prairie View: A Success Story,” in keeping with the theme of the golden anniversary for this year. At the homecoming convocation, it is fitting that we review the accomplishments of this institution.

It is [fitting that we] take pride in its development, in what it has done, and how our students have contributed to the great development of the state, nation, and their particular localities. I said in some writing a few years ago, in thinking about the institution:

One hundred years is a long span in the life of a man or an institution. What do the years mean? For a man or an institution; if they are filled with the honest sweat of service to humanity–with the patient following of that higher law of unflinching fidelity to the dictates of a calling–the years are a benediction.

Prairie View is an institution. A public institution. But an institution is an empty thing without the beating hearts and the yearning souls of mortal men. And down the 100 years of Prairie View’s existence, men have lived and dreamed here until every blade of grass and every rock, in that wise primordial way in which the primitive earth knows and cares, has joined the choir invisible to bless their memory. For every man whose foot has touched his hallowed soil has found his spirit and has broadened and deepened it until what started out as an ambitionless meandering stream has become a purposeful river upon whose tide, now turbulent, now tranquil, floats the destiny of countless hopes and dreams.

The spirit of an institution is a compound of many things—a strange and often quixotic amalgam of unrelated, sometimes contradictory, elements. Founded, symbolically, upon the ruins of the slave plantation, this university was authorized in the spirit of fair play of the Constitutional Convention of 1876, where wisdom would not allow vengeance to triumph over justice. The men of the parent school at College Station, growing ever wiser with the years, have translated the sense of justice into an ever-broadening channel. The humble student—from every nook and cranny in the land—has left the echo of his laughter upon the wind. His hopes within the lurking shadows of our halls and byways.

The giants [and] the world shakers have stood on our hill to mingle their search for truth with the fledging hopes for life. And men of dedication have worked here–worked to bring a new heaven and a new earth often with only faith and their hands–often without the spiritual and material compensation that their sacrifices merited–but always with a sense of mission–with a sense that somehow, someway, time would reward their efforts–would give to those to whom they had given their minds the victory of a new world–of an enlightened society.

And it is within the context of that quotation, which I wrote several years ago, that we would like to cast the evaluation of this Golden Anniversary Convocation. Because in it is to be seen the true thrust of the meaning of an institution, which is evaluated in spiritual terms, terms of the minds and the hearts of those who dream of it, who bring to it their vision and their awareness.

We have been very fortunate here in the dreams of the leadership of the men who have headed this institution. There have not been many. Some have been of long duration. But all of them had within their heart and their mind some concept of what our people might become, and we pay tribute to them today. Because those who will be returning over the next few days are a living memory of what they dreamed. They bear in their bodies the mark of those dreams.

Though L.W. Minor was not here long, he was the first of the dreamers. He opened the school in the plantation house. And here on Kirby’s acres, they planted the seed. And the two Anderson brothers. One [E.H. Anderson] died soon. L.C. [Anderson] dreamed of an institution that would lead…the leaders, the Black leaders of this state in a consortium of educational men, who would bring to bear their strength in the uplift of their people.  He created the state teachers, the Black State Teachers Association. And he gave a long arm to the institution. He would leave here and go on to Austin, where they named Anderson High School in Austin for him. And his name is Laurine. Our Anderson Hall is named for him.

And then came our Edward Lavoisier Blackshear. The immortal Blackshear. Dreaming the Tuskegee dream. Are the people capable, strong, able because they could come to grips with economic realities of poverty and lack of opportunity? Blackshear wrought well and was well-loved.

And then [came] John Granville Osborne, who created the four-year college here. His tenure was short. But for the first time, this institution operated under his management as a college institution. And I told his family that were here for the last convocation in the spring, how fortunate they were to join in the continuing recognition here on this path of their relatives. It made such a signal contribution to the ongoing of this institution. His was a great dream. He dreamed of medical schools here. He was a medical man. He brought the hospital here. He brought the nursing program here. He brought the four-year college here. His was a dream of excellence, and his was the dream of total service.

And then he was followed by that tall, gaunt, determined man, William Willett Rutherford Banks, who claimed that the entire state of Texas was his campus. And whose motto, “Prairie View serves Texas,” became the byword. Who served…who sought to serve every need. Was it medical? Was it educational Was it spiritual? Whatever. Come to Prairie View. We will be the focal point of your program. Was it research? The first fledging research program merging as a dimension of the black educational ethos began with the Banks administration.

And then, of course, he was followed by another dreamer, Edward Bertram Evans, who carried the institution into the international realm…who himself personified what it meant to serve on the world scene. Recognized by both the federal government and the United Nations as an authority competent to operate in the international arena and to advise both in Africa and the [Middle East], he became a symbol of excellence in a period when Prairie View became the symbol of world significance.

 

We have never retreated from that position.

His successor, Alvin I. Thomas, has not retreated from that position. He dreams larger dreams than have ever been dreamed before on this campus—a dream of first class…of joining the mainstream of American life. He dreams beyond all dreams, a dream that has no limits of race, of color, of creed. This president has dared the lightning by dreaming a dream that says Black men have no limit, have no boundary. Black men have no barrier. We shall turn this institution into a place and into a situation where the world…and the concerns of the world, and the occupations of the world will be its concerns and its infancy.

And so all of the men who have headed the school have been pioneers. They have been a step ahead of the awareness of their people. They have dreamed for their people. Dreamed great dreams. Great thoughts. And those who come back, they come back to dreamland, and that truly is the function of an institution of higher learning. It is the place of dreams. Because the scriptures have truly said, “Without a vision, the people perish.” And, of course, Prairie View is a success story because the university continues to expand its interest in research. I dare say, from these fledgling days of the Banks administration, the administration of Dr. Thomas has emphasized strongly experimentation, research…both sponsored research by government and by foundation as a part of the normal program and the normal dimension of the institution of higher learning. Where we used to receive pittance, now we receive millions of dollars for research.

Because without the money to stimulate the mind of researchers, without the inquiring mind, an institution is sterile. Without the inquiring mind, an institution has nothing to put back into the stream of knowledge to justify its existence. Without the inquiring mind that can produce both theoretical and functional knowledge, an institution does not live.

And then we continue to contribute to society. We now know that we must stay on the frontier of opportunity for our people. If we will, if we ought to escape that peculiar position of becoming the underclass, where there are no job opportunities for our people at all, we must continue to pioneer in the economic arena. Opening more doors, expanding minority opportunity into new areas of opportunity. And we go forward now in the areas of engineering and the other new technological fields that are opening for Black people, and we must continue to go forward in these areas if we ought to, ought to keep abreast all the time, and to keep young black men and women alive and alert. If we do not pledge ourselves to continue our contribution of graduates both to our traditional areas and to new areas, we will die. The question of what we will do—our functional significant—will be settled.

So there is something fitting, therefore, in the fact that after 100 years or more, we are the university is returning to the full realization of its founding as an agricultural and mechanical emphasis. We are now operating in instructional areas, which the system to which we attach [had] better understand, admissions of the two institutions now coincide more and more with the better concern for creativity and knowledge than we had before. We have come from a small fledgling institution to a modern university with concerns which are worldwide.

We enter our 2nd century in this Golden Anniversary with a deep concern for our nation. And we hope those who come back to us for this convocation do the same. And we are also aware that we have a debt to our people, but our success is imperative. We must be a success because we serve Black youth and Black youth will only understand the success of Black men. We must be a success here, because our success is necessary. In the concept of success—as all youth know what success is—we must furnish the role model, because Black youth can understand the success of Black men. And to that success, we commend you. We are proud of the heritage of the success at this institution.

On this golden convocation, on this golden convocation anniversary, we present to those who come back to us a pride, a continuing pride in achievement, a heritage which they can come back and bask in the glory of, confident that their institution has a continuity, a purpose, and a function that will never die.

Photo by Michael Lee, 2022
Photo by Michael Lee, 2022
Richard Jackson, successful melon demonstrator of Sunny Side Community, Waller County 1937
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Summer RISE with the Digital PV Panther Project

Summer RISE with the Digital PV Panther Project

By Evelyn Kay Todd

Above: Richard Jackson standing in his melon field in the Sunny Side community, Waller County, 1937 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]

 

In June, the PVAMU Division of Research & Innovation provided me funding through the RISE program, and Assistant Professor of History DeWayne Moore gave me the opportunity to join the Digital PV Panther Project (DPPP) team! I had found out about the project through social media, when I began to pay attention to their Twitter posts. When I read the blog post of Malachi McMahon about the 1971 student uprising at PVAMU, I sent it to my family in shock. I learned that my mother and grandparents lived in Prairie View at that time while my grandfather attended the university. I had always known that my family had history with PVAMU, as I am a 3rd Generation PVAMU Alumnus, but I did not know how deep it ran. (I will tell you more about that in a different post.) Excited about the DPPP, I reached out to the team to share some of my family history, and I asked about how I might contribute to the project. Soon after, I was invited to join the DPPP team as a Graduate Research Assistant through the RISE Program.

What I Accomplished this Summer

I started to work in June 2023. For the first month, I focused on scanning documents, and I digitized and processed 154 archival folders from four counties using a CZUR Document Scanner from the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection. Following the archival processing system implemented by DPPP team prior to my arrival, I picked up where the students before me left off. Each one of the grey archival document boxes contains numerous acid-free folders filled with documents, maps, reports, and correspondence from Cooperative Extension agents. Using the metadata written on each  folder, I created names for each of the digitized documents in the CZUR Scanner system, and then, I would determine the appropriate settings to scan the documents. At the end of the day, once I had scanned all the documents in the folders, I copied them from the hard drive to the cloud in Microsoft Teams. The shared drive provides the team access to the digitized documents.

Texas Counties in the CE&HD Collection

Documents digitized and processed:

1. Matagorda County – Box 1, Box 2 (55 folders total)

2. Montgomery County – Box 1, Box 2 (63 folders total)

3. Nacogdoches County – Box 1 (6 folders total)

4. San Jacinto County – Box 1 (30 folders total)

4-H Club Dress Revue Models in 1959 Bowie County [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
4-H Club Dress Revue Models in 1959 Bowie County [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]

Proudly, I learned new skills on the DPPP. I had no idea that archival processing required specific tools for removing old paperclips and staples from documents, but it proved crucial to avoid tearing the often brittle old documents dating back the 1920s. I also discovered a host of misplaced documents, which had belonged in other boxes. As a student who appreciates an efficient research process, I made sure to bring the errors to the attention of Dr. Moore, and I kept an eye out for anything that might seem out of place.

About halfway through the summer, Dr. Moore decided to switch it up a bit, and I got to change my focus from document scanning to photographs. In the Fall semester, we plan to curate digital touchscreen exhibitions and display them on our new 86″ and 66″ touchscreen displays. Thus, I started using the Epson 12000XL flatbed scanner to scan all the maps, photographs, and newspaper articles from various counties in the CE&HD Collection. As of August 3, I have digitized almost 300 items from thirteen different counties. In addition, I created a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel and recorded the metadata about each item–name, location, date, and other information. The CZUR Document scanner looks very different than the Epson 12000XL, but each of them requires a similar settings process. The Epson, however, allows me to preview my scans and create boxes around each item on the scanner bed. I have scanned, for example, up to eight photographs at once using the Epson. It’s a efficient feature, because it allows me to scan the photographs while I enter the metadata in the spreadsheet. At the end of each day, once again, I uploaded the digital images to the cloud in Microsoft Teams. Not only does this provide the team access the images, but it also provides redundant storage in case the computer hard drive fails.

Digitized Images from 1937-1963

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Herman Arthur, of the Clear Creek Community, working on his pecan trees for summer budding, 1937 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
Mrs. Mattie Fuller shares cake baking tips
Mrs. Mattie Fuller shares cake baking tips, 1948 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
Richard Jackson, successful melon demonstrator of Sunny Side Community, Waller County 1937
Richard Jackson was a successful melon demonstrator from the Sunny Side Community in Waller County, 1937 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
4-H Club Dress Revue Models, Bowie County 1959
The women in a 4-H Club Dress Revue in Bowie County, 1959 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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A demonstration in setting out pine seedlings, January 18,1947 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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A pruning demonstration being conducted in Colony community on farm of Volnar Derry, in a demonstration orchard, 1937 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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Gregg County Home Demonstration Bake Show where seventy-five Cakes were exhibited, 1948 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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Winning Ladies of the first Bread Show for the Negro Home Demonstration Clubs in Guadalupe County, 1947 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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Mrs. Laila Watson is being given a demonstration on making a candlewick spread by her Home Agent, 1949 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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Handdrawn Map of Jasper County, 1959 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]
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Alpha Boys vaccinate hogs, Dallas County, 1942 [Courtesy of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, the Special Collections & Archives Department, John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View A&M University]

As the summer comes to an end, I stopped scanning photographs long enough to write this blog post. With funding from the RISE program, Dr. Moore and I moved forward historic preservation in the library. We intend to share the digitized documents, photographs, and maps on the DPPP website as well as the library’s Digital Commons, and I look forward to sharing more updates about our work on the DPPP. Our efforts to digitally preserve the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection is vitally important to the university. The PVAMU archives contain other rich manuscript collections that detail the institutional history of PVAMU, and I look forward to building upon our success this summer!

Visit the Office of Research & Innovation at PVAMU to find out more on the RISE Grant Program

Visit Research at PVAMU to find out more on the RISE Grant Program

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Promotional Article on PVAMU website

Substantial NEH grant helping to eliminate silences, erasures surrounding history of PVAMU
The Special Collections & Archives Department at Prairie View A&M University has received a $450,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The funds helped establish the Digital PV Panther Project, which aims to eliminate the silences and erasures surrounding the history of PVAMU. The project is taking deliberate and conscious steps towards what Princeton University digital archivist Jarrett Drake calls “a radically inclusive historical record.” By preserving, processing and promoting research in the archives, the project will begin to eliminate the silences and erasures surrounding the history of PVAMU.
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Caleb Brookins working on his computer
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Caleb Brookins: A Rewarding Experience

Caleb Brookins working on the Digital PV Panther Project - Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
Caleb Brookins working on the Digital PV Panther Project – Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022

Lucrative Work

When I first applied for the position of archival assistant on the Digital PV Panther Project, my goal was to generate an income stream while attending college. I had some available time in my schedule during the fall semester of 2022, and I wanted to fill it in a constructive manner. Prairie View A&M University sits in rural Waller County, Texas, and students do not have a multitude of work opportunities. Thus, I visited the website for student jobs, and I was excited about seeing a job that paid more than any other on campus.

Rewarding Experience

Little did I know the monumental impact the experience would have on my mindset moving forward. Indeed, I will always cherish my experience working on the Digital PV Panther Project.

Caleb Brookins - Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
Caleb Brookins – Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
(L to R) Caleb Brookins, Hannah Harden, Lindsay Boknight, and Noah Jackson - Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
(L to R) Caleb Brookins, Hannah Harden, Lindsay Boknight, and Noah Jackson – Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022

Learning Experience

So many students do not know about the rich history of Prairie View A&M University, and I was certainly one of them when I started working on the Digital PV Panther Project in August 2022. Over the course of six months working in the archives, I not only learned about the history of slavery at Alta Vista, the plantation once owned by Jared Ellison Kirby, but I had the opportunity to process and digitize manuscript collections that former professors and administrators had donated to the university.

Serious Impact 

It is amazing that I had the opportunity to preserve important documents in the university archives. Indeed, the importance of the work being done through the Digital PV Panther Project is the preservation of our history. There are countless boxes full of photos, documents, and audiotapes that convey stories about Prairie View. The digitization of this media will not only allow scholars and students to gain a better understanding of our history, but it will also enhance access to long-unexamined resources. This makes my contributions to the project stand the test of time.

Caleb Brookins - Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
Caleb Brookins – Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022

Ground Penetrating Radar

Caleb also helped document and map Prairie View Memorial Gardens, the cemetery to the north of campus that contains the graves of former PVAMU professors and administrators.

View the Cemetery Map

Forward Movement

Even though I am a Psychology major, this public history project captured my sincere interest, which demonstrates the impact that historic preservation at PVAMU can have on other students in the future. Though I must take advantage of new opportunities, I am proud to have spent the fall 2022 semester preventing the erasure of our history, and I am eternally grateful and honored to have had the opportunity.

Read Caleb's Previous Blog on the PV19
(L to R) Noah Jackson, Zynitra Durham, Caleb Brookins, and Kalayah Jammer during a photoshoot - Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
(L to R) Noah Jackson, Zynitra Durham, Caleb Brookins, and Kalayah Jammer during a photoshoot – Photo © T. DeWayne Moore 2022
Lucinda Slave
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Say My Name!

Say My Name!

Searching for the Names of the Enslaved at PVAMU

Original Post

 

In 2020, PVAMU President Ruth Simmons and Simmons Center for Race & Justice Director Melanye Price asked PVAMU History Professor Dr. Marco Robinson to begin conducting research into the early history of Prairie View A&M University. He asked a group of scholars in the Division of Social Sciences to conduct their own personal investigations and incorporate research projects into their American History survey courses. With no funding at his disposal, Dr. Robinson also worked with a newly-hired public historian, Dr. T. DeWayne Moore, and the PVAMU archivists–Phyllis Earles and Lisa Stafford–to write a series of grant proposals.

One of the most startling discoveries in the initial months was the fact that we did not know the name of a single person who had been enslaved on the plantation that later became PVAMU. Thus, we had no way to track down the descendants of the formerly enslaved people who lived at Alta Vista.

This blog post reveals the first name we discovered in 2021. 

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What’s in a Name?

For African Americans, the genealogical research process is painful. It reflects the blunt historical truth about hereditary chattel slavery. Historical researchers do not look for evidence about the existence of people. Instead, we need to trace the way property changed hands. Consider the documents associated with buying a house or vehicle in 2023. Slaves were considered property in the nineteenth century, and we can find records associated with slaves. But those records are in the owner’s name.

The 1850 and 1860 censuses included “slave schedules,” and the census  enumerators asked slaveowners to list the ages and genders of the enslaved people they held in bondage. The slave schedules, however, do not include their names. This fact has made it difficult to track down the descendants of the people enslaved at Alta Vista.

 

Jared Ellison Kirby

Slaveowner, Planter, and Confederate Soldier

 

One of the first steps in the research process was examining the life of Jared Ellison Kirby, the slaveowner and planter who owned the land on which the university sits before the Civil War. An excellent place to learn more about the lives of Americans in the nineteenth century is Ancestry.com, the world’s largest collection of online family history records and government documents.

The slave schedules in the 1860 United States Census reveal that J. E. Kirby owned 159 slaves–more than any other slave owner in Austin County at that time.

Besides census records and slave schedules, we located the manifest of the ship named Galveston, which transported slaves from New Orleans, Louisiana to Galveston, Texas in May 1858 for a domestic slave trading company, Fellows & Co. 

Though an 1807 law banned the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the United States as of 1 January 1808, slaves could still be bought and sold (and transported) within the country. The same law that banned the foreign slave trade also regulated the internal transportation of slaves, requiring masters of vessels carrying slaves in coastal waters to provide a manifest detailing their slave cargo when leaving (“outward”) or entering (“inward”) a port. 

The ship manifest contains the name of one person who likely lived at Kirby’s enslaved labor plantation, Alta Vista, in then-Austin County, Texas.

Source: The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Slave Manifests of Coastwise Vessels Filed at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1807-1860; Microfilm Serial: M1895; Microfilm Roll: 30.
Source: The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Slave Manifests of Coastwise Vessels Filed at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1807-1860; Microfilm Serial: M1895; Microfilm Roll: 30.

Slave Ship Galveston

Slave Ship Line Drawing 2

In May 1858, Captain Rathburn transported a fifteen year-old woman, who was five feet, one inch tall, on the Galveston.

Her name was Lucinda.

 

Lucinda Slave
 
No consolidated database of slave ship manifests exists, but Ancestry.com is an important online resource that brings some of these records together in searchable database. Other primary sources–such as wills, estate inventories, deeds, and probates–can also reveal how human property changed hands in the antebellum period, but these records are often difficult to read, and most of them are not digitized or indexed for easy searching. Yet, a couple of genealogists who work with the Waller County Historical Commission have been working hard to digitize the records in the basement of the Waller County courthouse in Hempstead. Since Waller County did not exist until 1873, however, this effort will not provide much insight into antebellum slavery.
 
Indeed, it will be very difficult to track down the descendants of people enslaved at Alta Vista, but the increased interest in university history and digital preservation has positively changed the prospects for institutional historians at PVAMU. If we try harder to make the archival collections at PVAMU available—and visible and searchable—online, and if white researchers who find evidence of slaveholding in their families will make family documents public, for Black researchers to access and use, we can discover the names of more enslaved people in Waller County. 

 

Our mission at the Digital PV Panther Project is to eliminate historical silences through digital storytelling and prevent the erasure of African American history through historic preservation at PVAMU.
DPPP Social Media
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Progress to Date

Microspatulas
Plastic clips
DPP logo.indd

The Digital PV

Panther Project

 

Plastic clips
Microspatulas

Accomplishments

We still have other collections to process and digitize, more skills to learn, and more research to publish, but the Digital PV Panther Project has established a strong foundation for the future of public history at PVAMU. This is a short list of our accomplishments in digital exhibition format for your viewing pleasure!

 

Archival Boxes

Archival Processing

We have rehoused over 60 linear feet of archival media in the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection, which had been stored in old, deteriorating boxes since the late 2000s. We have also rehoused and processed the manuscript collections of former 31 former PVAMU professors and administrators. Click HERE to view the finding aids.

View the Finding Aids
Phone Tiktok

Social Media – Community Engagement

We have established a social media presence on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. We have gained almost 200 followers on Twitter, and some of our Tweets have received over 100 likes and 20 shares. We have created and published over 20 videos on TikTok, some of which have received in upwards of 1,000 views. Moreover, we have curated 148 posts on Instagram and organically acquired 300 followers!

DPPP Social Media

Logo Design

The archival assistants working on the Digital PV Panther Project have also designed an official logo for the project.

The DPPP logo

December 12, 2022

 

31 Finding Aids Created

We processed, rehoused, and created finding aids for the manuscript collections of 31 former PVAMU professors and administrators.

Audio Digitization & Transcription

Audio Digitization & Transcription

We digitized 211 analog audio tapes of historic lectures and events at PVAMU, and we have also transcribed 70 of the digital recordings as of Dec 10, 2022.

December 10, 2022

 

December 6, 2022

 

Digital Exhibition Software

Digital Exhibition Software

We also purchased a subscription to Pass It Down software to create amazing digital storytelling experiences, engage visitors, and inspire research

86" & 66" Touchscreen Displays

86" & 66" Touchscreen Displays

We purchased a Newline 860IP 86″ 4K Ultra-HD LED (Capacitive Touch) display & two Newline 650IP 65″ 4K Ultra-HD LED (Capacitive Touch) displays to allow stakeholders to view digital archival media in John B. Coleman Library

December 1, 2022

 

November 19, 2022

 

i2S CopiBook OS A2 Book Scanner

i2S CopiBook OS A2 Book Scanner

We acquired a $35,000 i2S CopiBook OS A2 Book Scanner to digitize manuscript collections.

Epson 12000XL

Epson 12000XL

We acquired two Epson 12000XL flatbed scanners with backlights

October 1, 2022

 

October 1, 2022

 

Epson V850s

Epson V850s

We acquired two Epson V850 flatbed scanners with backlights

CZUR Book Scanner

CZUR Book Scanner

We acquired a CZUR Book Scanner to digitize manuscript collections

September 26, 2022

 

July 2022

 

Project Blog

Project Blog

In the summer of 2022, we launched the project blog to update stakeholders on our progress!

Website Launched

Website Launched

We built a state-of-the-art website using Wordpress 

June 2022

 

Spring 2022

 

The student workers on the Digital PV Panther Project

Archival Assistants

In the spring of 2022, we hired 12 undergraduates at PVAMU to work as archival assistants on the Digital PV Panther Project

Contact

[email protected]
936-261-3512
John B. Coleman Library, Room 111, Prairie View, Texas 77446
The Negro 4-H Club girls who received the State Fair of Texas Honor Awards at the Dallas Fair, October 13, 1947, are (reading from left to right) Willie Mae McDaniel, Jefferson County; Maxine Harris, Caldwell County; and Gladys Harrison, Smith County.; 7X9
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A Student’s Perspective inside the DPPP

A Student's Perspective From Inside the DPPP

DAsia 2

My name is D'Asia Johnson

I have worked on the Digital PV Panther Project for about two months as an archival assistant, and I have embraced the role of historic preservationist at my HBCU. Whether curating social media posts, taking inventory of the archives, processing manuscript collections, or digitizing photographs, my goal is to encourage research in the rich historical collections in the archives at PVAMU.

I spent a lot of time taking inventory on the manuscript collections of former PVAMU professors and administrators who worked in the Cooperative Extension Service. 

PF58B Demonstration in Agricultural
The Negro 4-H Club girls who received the State Fair of Texas Honor Awards at the Dallas Fair, October 13, 1947, are (reading from left to right) Willie Mae McDaniel, Jefferson County; Maxine Harris, Caldwell County; and Gladys Harrison, Smith County.; 7X9

The inventory sheets for most of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection were outdated, having been completed originally by students in the early 2000s. Thus, I spent a lot of time revising inventory sheets in Microsoft Excel. In each instance, we checked the titles of each folder and made sure it was accounted for in each box. After making sure the folders were placed in the correct location and listed correctly, we went back through the boxes and noted the presence special media–maps, photographs, diagrams, etc. We made sure to check the accuracy of our work, because we had to have all the media in order prior to processing the collection.

I also compiled lists of source material in the Digital Commons, and I wrote summaries of each source in preparation for writing biographies of former professors for finding aids.wrote a biography on one of the many professors that attended this school. While I did not have much experience writing memoirs, I was assigned to write one on a professor who made a remarkable impact on Prairie View A&M, specifically Professor Henry Seward Estelle. He had an incredible effect on the Agricultural department from the early to mid-1900s. In addition, he partook in much more positions and events that occurred at Prairie View. If you want more information on Prof. Estelle, you can find his biography here Henry Seward Estelle – The Digital PV Panther Project.

I also assist in maintaining our social media pages. Being a part of our social media team, I help my coworkers develop ideas for posts. You can find me on a few of our Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok posts. In addition, we have made many posts that depict the rich history of PVAMU using photographs, blog posts, blueprints, and maps.

Headshot of Henry Seward Estelle
@digitalpvpantherproject Massive! The manuscript collections in the PVAMU Archives are massive in their scope and breadth! The Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection contains more than 100 linear feet of photographs, maps, and documents that date back more than 100 years and cover over 45 counties in Texas! #dppp #digitalpvpantherproject #hbcu #pvamuhistory ##pvamu##hbcuhistory##digitalcommons##archives##media##campus##digital ♬ Mission Impossible Theme (Movie Trailer Mix) – Dominik Hauser
PF73 Wildlife Conservation Camp, Prairie View Tx

 

I have also contributed to meetings with out team leaders, Dr. Moore, Ms. Earles, Lindsay Boknight, and Noah Jackson. We discuss our progress, our strategies, our upcoming projects, and our plans for the future. Indeed, I am amazed at the way that Dr. Moore incorporates our ideas into the project. The Digital PV Panther Project does not have the usual sort of top-down administrative style. Rather, Dr. Moore relies heavily on the input from myself and the other archival assistants to light the way. Whether it’s the method of taking inventory or processing collections, Dr. Moore always listens to our ideas about the project, and he allows the team leaders to manage our workflow. 

Thus far, my work on the Digital PV Panther Project has been eye-opening. To have the opportunity to work with such remarkable people and partake in such a significant project is astounding, to say the least. I hope to be able to continue to work on this project and share the incredible history of Prairie View with my peers, university staff and faculty, and with those across the nation. There are so many collections in the archives to discover and share with the public, and I am very appreciative of having the opportunity ro work on the Digital PV Panther Project.

The history of our HBCU should not be forgotten.

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