Photography and Visual Materials - University Libraries

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About

The Photography and Visual Materials Collection documents the history of photography and other visual mediums through the works of both traditional and vernacular artists. The Collection includes fine art photography, studio and commercial work, specimens of early photography and other types of visual art such as paintings, posters, illustrations, sculpture and folk art.

Primary collecting interests are samples of early photography (cased photography, carte-de-visite, and cabinet cards), historical photographs of Texas, large-format photography, collections of notable regional photographers, posters and broadsides, and examples of illustration techniques and processes.

Featured Collections

Photography Study Collection, 1971-2019

In collaboration with faculty from the College of Visual Arts and Design, Special Collections collects and provides access to vintage photographic prints representing different photographic printing techniques and technology. The collection contains photographs and portfolios by American photographers with ties to Texas. Photographs are a range of black and white and mixed-media depending on the artist. Artists represented in the Photography Study Collection include:

Photographic Archives

Clark Family Photography Collection, 1939-2000 - Joe Clark, his son Junebug Clark and other family members contributed to this collection spanning 60 years of photographic history with subjects as diverse as the automobile industry, the Cumberland Gap and the iconic Jack Daniel’s product photography series.

John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard Photography Collection, 1920-1997 - John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard were prolific photographers around Dallas-Fort Worth from the 1940s to the 1990s. The couple photographed the quickly changing Dallas architectural landscape, political events, and also did photography for local companies. Some major areas of interest include work for Neiman-Marcus, images for Architectural Digest, Dallas landmarks such as the Dallas Zoo, and images of celebrities and politicians visiting Dallas.

Byrd Williams Family Photography Collection, 1895-2013 - Four generations of photographers are documented in the Byrd Williams Family Photography Collection. Byrd Williams IV, an accomplished fine art and documentary photographer, was heavily influenced by the work of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, whose archives he maintained throughout his life. As a collection, these images tell a story of the history of this family, their work, and the development of the north Texas area over the last century.

Mildred Schaeffer Zichner Collection, 1968-1992 - The Mildred Schaeffer Zichner Collection contains over 40,000 slide photographs documenting her travels with her husband Walter Zichner. The Zichners traveled to Canada, South Africa, South America, Egypt, Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, Greece, Italy, England, Ireland, and many destinations within the United States, from the 1960s through the early 1990s.

Randy Mallory Collection, 1980-2012 - The collection consists of Randy Mallory's photographs, notes, research, and completed work with the Texas Highways magazine, as well as his travel notes, slides, photos, and contracts relating to his work for the Texas Historical Commission.

Luther Smith Collection, 1969-2018 - This collection contains the photography, negatives, slides, papers and publications of Luther Smith, an Emeritus Professor of Art Photography from Texas Christian University.

Richard Doherty Collection 1972-2021 - This collection contains the photographic work of Richard Doherty from the 1970s to present day. Included are Images of the people of Jefferson Boulevard and Oak Cliff in Dallas, Chicago, Fayetteville, Arkansas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which document the lives and places known to the photographer throughout his career.

Diane Williams Photography Collection, 2000-2006 - This collections contains the photography, writing and research of Diane Williams. Counties included as part of the Blackland Prairie are the Bell, Ellis, Milam, Navarro, Tarrant, Travis and Williamson areas.

Leonard Freed Photography Collection, 1954-2024 - Collection contains 60 photographic prints of variable sizes and 2 books written and photographed by Freed, Police Work and Black in White America.

Neill Whitlock Photogrpahy Collection, 1968-2022 - Collection of photographic work for primarily commercial clients with an emphasis on fashion, beauty, musicians, and culture.

Charles D. Fredricks Collection, 1860-1870 - The Charles Deforest Fredricks Collections is comprised of ambrotypes, cartes de visite, and correspondence.

Terry Cockerham Collection, 2002-2015 - The photographs in this collection are part of Cockerham’s Big Bend Project and from his visit to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010.

Bruce Wehman Photogrpahy Collection, 1964-2012 - Bruce Wehman was a commercial and fine arts photographer based in Rockford, Illinois. The photographs consist of landscape, nature, still images, and people depicted individually or in groups.

Visual Art Archives

John Abrams Collection, 1980-2000 - Collection of materials from John Abrams, a professional artist, who lived and work in Dallas, Texas since 1978. Material consists of papers, drawings, paintings and sculptures.

J.R. Compton Collection, 1949-2016 - This collection contains papers that relate to Compton's influence in the Dallas art scene and personal life, personal photos and photos from his career in photography, publications his work has been published in, and artwork created by himself and others.

Robert B. Toulouse Engravings Collection, 1766-1840 - The Collection consists of some commercial reproduction prints, featuring William Hogarth and B. Waterhouse Hawkins images. Original prints in the Collection come from well-known printers such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Luigi Rossini.

Alexander M. Troup Collection, 1970-1990

The expansive Alexander M. Troup Collection consists of materials gathered by Troup to preserve bits of Dallas history. Troup considers himself an archaeologist of the city, and has been collecting discarded materials from demolished buildings, ephemera, and household items. The Collection contains a large amount of folk art such as handmade pottery, whirly gigs, and penny dolls. Additionally, Troup’s own art is represented in the Collection, typically assemblages of collected materials.