SC 1. Señor Alfredo Aguilar Library of Mexican History and Culture
Creator: Señor Licenciado Alfredo Aguilar; Donor: Señora Alicia M. Aguilar; Extent: Approximately 125 volumes; Inclusive Dates: 1829-1985; Language: Spanish; Formats: Books. Description: Books concern the history, biography, education, geography, literature, militarism, religion and anthropology of Mexico from the Spanish Colonial era to the late twentieth century.
SC 2. Felix D. Almaraz Papers
Creator: Felix D. Almaraz, Jr.; Extent: 20 cubic feet; Languages: English and Spanish; Formats: research and personal papers; Restrictions: permission of donor; Description: Felix Almaraz is a local historian and founder of the San Antonio Historical Association. He is a graduate of StMU (1959 BA, 1962 MA) and a former faculty member with a concentration is Spanish Borderland history. Dr. Almaraz has deposited his papers at his alma mater, St. Mary's University, in successive installments beginning with 2005. He is a descendant of the original Canary Island settlers of San Fernando de Bexar. These are a portion of the personal papers, lectures, speeches, articles and manuscript drafts for books of Dr. Felix Almaraz about Texas history. Series 1: Biographical information; Series 2: Writings, lectures and speeches; Series 3: Personages; Series 4: Books, publications, disks; Series 5: Photographs; Series 6: Correspondence; Series 7: Course materials; Series 8: Research findings; Series 9: University of Texas at San Antonio related. UTSA Libraries Special Collections; A guide to the Felix D. Almaraz Papers, 1963-2006 (https://txarchives.org/utsa/finding_aids/00175.xml). Identification Code: UA 99.0009; Extent 21.1 linear feet (21 boxes).
SC 3. Ned C. Bell Library
Creator: Ned C. Bell; Extent: 171 books; Inclusive Dates: 1788-1964; Bulk dates: 1891-1940; Languages: English, some German and Latin. Description: American biography, Texas history and literature, San Antonio history, European history and biography, English Common Law, the Catholic Church.
SC 4. Major Homer H. Burkett, USAF Collection
Donor: Major Homer H Burkett, USAF; Language: English. Description: This is a series of text books issued in 22 bound volumes titled The Economics of National Security Correspondence Course and published in support of a course offered by the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, School of Extension Studies, Washington, DC, 1962.
SC 5. Colonel Martin Crimmins Collection
Creator: Colonel Martin L. Crimmins (1874-1955); Inclusive Dates: 1737-1960; Language: English; Formats: Manuscripts, ephemera, news clippings, architectural drawings, maps, government documents, facsimiles, photographs, pictures, and a personal scrapbook. Description: The books concern mostly military subjects from Napoleon to World War II. The serial publications include herpetology, Southwest history and agriculture, military history and biography. Photos, maps and clippings concern 19th century military outposts of the Southwest and politics of the early 20th century. The architectural drawings are by Walter Lilly, the city engineer of San Antonio, including the River Walk (1939-1945), the Medina Lake Water Project, streets and sewers of Alamo Heights, and the San Antonio Master Plan of 1950.
SC 6. Jim Cullum Photograph Collection
Creator: Jim Cullum; Extent: 2 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: circa 1963 to 2010; Format: Photographs, 8 x 10 inch and 11 x 14 inch black and white. Description: The publicity photographs of the Jim Cullum jazz band that played at “The Landing” on the River Walk level of the Hyatt Regency Hotel beginning 1963 and extending to at least 2010.
SC 7. Harold Lenoir Davis Collection
Creator: Harold Lenoir Davis (1896-1960); Extent: one dozen items; Inclusive Dates: 1936-1960. Description: Autographed first edition of Honey in the Horn (New York 1935), news clippings, two photographs and personal documents relating to Mr. Davis’s career as a Texas novelist.
SC 8. David Donoghue Collection of Geology and Texana
Creator: David Donoghue; Extent: about 48 linear feet of books, about 600 slides; Language: English; Formats: books, pamphlets, and slides. Description: Books are the most important part of this collection and these represent two major interests of David Donoghue, petroleum geology and Texas history. The Texana cover every aspect of Texas history. The slides were taken by Mr. Donoghue from the 1953 to 1958 during the travels of Mr. and Mrs. Donoghue to North Africa and to South America.
SC 9. Schmitz Collection on the Diplomatic History of the Texas Republic (also known as the German Archives on the Texas Republic)
Donor: Brother Joseph Schmitz, SM; Extent: 1 cubic foot; Inclusive Dates: 1840-1844; Language: German and some French; Formats: Facsimiles of original documents with translations. Description: Two bound volumes of facsimiles prepared by the Staatsarchiv of Bremen and one volume prepared by the Staatsarchiv of Hamburg along with transcriptions and some translations regarding Germans in Texas.
SC 10. Sebron Wilcox Newspaper Collection, 1918-1974
Creator: Sebron Wilcox; Description: Consists of newspaper specimens from the Rio Grande Valley and other rural areas of Texas for the 1920s to the 1950s, as well as news clippings accumulated by Sebron Wilcox on local history subjects
SC 11. Charles Gruzevski Peninsular War Library
Creator: Charles Gruzevski (C L Gruzevski); Donor: Scientific Society of San Antonio; Extent: About 500 volumes; Languages: English, French and Spanish; Formats: Books. Description: 1) history and art of war on the land and sea (about 200 titles); 2) Napoleon, Wellington and the Peninsular War of 1807-1814, (about 200 titles); and 3) various wars of the 19th Century including the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the Crimean War, 1853-1856, the Polish and Hungarian uprisings and contemporary accounts of India and Africa in the 19th century.
SC 12. Edward W. Heusinger Library
Creator: Edward W. Heusinger, Senior (d 1959); Languages: English, French and German; Formats: Books, Scrapbooks; Description: A collection of English, French and German classics and works in history, science, general reference, Texas history, and philatelic and numismatic subjects.
SC 13. Saint Joseph Society Library (Sanct Joseph Verien Bibliothek)
Creator: Sanct Joseph Verein of San Antonio, Texas; Inclusive Dates: 19th-20th century; Languages: German and English; Formats: Books; Description: The St. Joseph’s German Society Library includes both general subject matter and Catholic religious content.
SC 14. Laredo Times (Texas) Newspaper Collection
Creator: Sebron Wilcox; Inclusive Dates: 1887-1959, 1981; Language: English; Format: Original Newspapers; Alternative Form: 58 rolls of microfilm; Restrictions: use microfilm to protect acidified originals. Description: The Laredo Times (1882-1925) was established by James S. Penn shortly before the railroads reached Laredo (Anita Saxine, Special Collections, 1979).
SC 15. Jo Mielziner Collection (Ge’ez Codex)
Creator: Jo Mielziner (1901-1976); Extent: 32 items; Inclusive Dates: 1945-1964; Language: English and Ge’ez; Description: The collection contains a book of prayers from Ethiopia handwritten in Ge’ez, an ancient Ethiopian language now used only for worship. There are also books and serial publications related to Mielziner’s career as a Broadway set designer.
SC 16. Pola Negri Collection
Creator: Pola Negri (né Appollonia Chalupec, 1894-1987); Extent: 5 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: 1920s-2008; Language: English, Polish, German; Description: Personal and family papers, photographs, religious devotional items, political items, albums of newspaper clippings, film festivals, awards received, video tapes of several of her movies, her personal music collection (on phono disks) titled Pola Negri Library of Collectors Recordings, and some books.
SC 17. Old Spanish Trail Association Records
Creator: Old Spanish Trail Association; Donors: Harral Ayres and Mrs. Henry Drought; Extent: 4 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: circa 1915-1932; Language: English; Description: The records describe the efforts of the Association to lobby local governments to link segments of county roads into a continuous route from San Augustine, Florida to San Diego, California.
A finding aid is available. Digitized images are also available.
SC 18. San Luis Potosi Archives on Microfilm
Creator: Ciudad de San Louis Potosi (New Spain and Mexico); Extent: 40 rolls; Inclusive Dates: 1500s to July 4, 1827; Language: Spanish and some Latin; Format: Microfilm. Description: Saint Mary’s University represented the consortium of nine Texas universities and colleges in an arrangement with the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi to microfilm the archives of San Luis Potosi because of their relevant to Texas and frontier history.
SC 19. Spanish Archives of Laredo
Donor: Sebron Wilcox; Extent: 3,245 items (approximately); Inclusive Dates: 1755-1848, 1880s; Language: Spanish, with some English after 1848; Formats: Unbound Manuscripts. Restrictions: Use microfilm. Description: Public records of the Pueblo (later Villa) of Laredo from its founding in 1755 until 1848 when it became part of the United States. Subjects: decrees of the governments of Spain and Mexico, allotment of land, boundary surveys, tax renditions, wills and probate proceedings, census reports, establishment of schools, churches, postal system, civil and criminal courts, Indian raids, and trade statistics. Additional records exist into the 1880s.
Digital images of the original documents are available through the Portal to Texas History.
Digital images of six indexes by Robert Wood to the Spanish Archives of Laredo are available through the Portal to Texas History, including Indexes to the Laredo Archives (2005), The History of Mexico in the Laredo Archives: 1809-1845, Archivos de Laredo: Documents for the History of Laredo, Archivos de Laredo: Documentos Referentes a Los Indios, Archivos de Laredo: Death and Taxes, Archivos de Laredo: Documentos Para La Genealogia, and Archivos de Laredo: Index to the Municipal Correspondence 1825-1845 and Verbal Arbitrations and Decisions 1832-1842.
SC 20. Henry Steinbomer Collection of Architectural Records
Creator: Henry Steinbomer; Formats: Architectural Drawings. Extent: 5 items. Description: Original tracings, sketches, photographs, and papers by Henry Steinbomer, architect of San Antonio. May 10, 1972
SC 21. Sullivan-Clem Estate Collection
Donors: John Cotter Sullivan (in 1963) and the Elizabeth Sullivan Clem Estate (in 1968); Extent: 5 cubic feet of papers, about 161 books, and about 336 objects; Inclusive Dates: 1854-1930; Language: English, with French, German, Spanish, Latin and Greek; Formats: Books, letters, school records, manuscript notebooks, sheet music, religious devotional objects, ephemera from Europe, the United States and Mexico, tourist maps, Victorian book cases, sculptured busts by Pompeo Coppini, oil paintings by Theodore Gentilz, and personal effects. Description: The personal papers of three generations of Sullivan family members prominent in San Antonio.
SC 22. Carmelo A. Tranchese, SJ Collection
Extent: 0.5 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: 1914, 1937-1956; Languages: English, Spanish, and Italian. The Blume library staff assembled this collection as paper photocopies and microfilm. Description: The personal papers of the Jesuit priest Carmelo Tranchese (1880- ) and his correspondence with Housing Authority in San Antonio during 1934-1955. Father Tranchese is described as the father of public housing in San Antonio.
SC 23. Dorothy Lobitz and Frank X Vance Collection on Henri Castro and the Castroville Alsatians
Creator: Frank X. Vance and Dorothy Lobitz Vance of Castroville, Texas; Extent: 266 folders; Inclusive Dates: 1844-1898; Language: English, French; Formats: original manuscripts and facsimiles. Description: This is a collection of research on the subject of Henri Castro and his colonizing enterprise in Medina County, Texas. It includes an index of settlers obtained from various sources such as ship passenger lists, news clippings, family bibles, and Medina County court records. Facsimiles of the court documents from 1844 to 1898 are arranged in a separate series alphabetically by surname of litigant. In addition, there are documents and ephemera collected either as originals or in facsimile arranged alphabetically by subject headings. Included are 12 of the 27 shipping lists recorded by Henri Castro. The research notes accumulated by Dorothy Vance are contained in six handwritten notebooks. The notes concern biographies of the Alsatian settlers and an inventory of records held in various repositories about Medina County and its pioneers. A seventh notebook is from the H. E. Haas Collection accumulated by Dorothy Vance and included among her papers. Finally, the collection includes the typescript for an unpublished historical novel, The Land of Promise. There are 120 photographs intended for illustrating the novel.
SC 24. Violland Collection of North American Indian Artifacts
Donor: Aurora Violland; Extent: 11 items; Inclusive Dates: 1860s to 1880s; Format: Leather and bead clothing, and handmade implements; Restrictions: extremely fragile bead work precludes handling. Description: Consists of items of apparel and implements made and used by Plains Indian tribes.
SC 25. Collection of Early Encyclopedias and Atlases
Languages: French, English, German, and Spanish. Description: The evolution of the genre from the three-volume Britannica (Edinburgh 1771), the Dictionnaire Universal (Paris 1810), the Real-Encyklopadie Conversations-Lexicon, (Leipzig, 1843), to the Americana (Philadelphia 1850) and Pierre Larousse’s Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXᵉ Siècle (Paris, 1866), and seven others from the 1875 to 1920.
SC 26. Collection of Catholic Church Imprints
Inclusive Dates: 1600s to 1900s; Language: Latin, English, French, German, Spanish, and Polish; Formats: Books. Description: Antiquarian and modern books in three groups: 1) devotional books in the vernacular languages used by Catholics in Texas, 2) liturgical books for public worship in Latin and English, and 3) liturgical music.
SC 27. Collection of Mexicana
Extent: 2 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: 1700s to 2000s; Language: English and Spanish; Formats: document facsimiles, ephemera, pamphlets, photographs, scrapbooks, posters and some original documents from New Spain and the Mexican Republic. Description: The materials concern the history, culture, art and society of Mexico and the Southwest borderlands that were at one time part of New Spain.
SC 28. Collection of Novels
Extent: 9 linear feet; Inclusive Dates: 19th and 20th centuries; Languages: English, German. Description: Historical novels, crime mysteries, science fiction, adventures, romances, and novels of manners. Some are autographed editions.
SC 29. Charles L. Cotrell Collection of Political Campaign Materials
Creator: Charles L. Cotrell; Extent: 2.5 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: 1950s to 1980s; Language: English. Description: The largest group concerns the 1960s campaigns of John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller, Hubert Humphrey, Edmund Muskie, George Corley Wallace, and Eugene McCarthy.
SC 30. Collection of Texana
The Texana Collection includes books, periodicals, serials, and pamphlets about Texas from the various donations to Blume library combined into one library. Material other than books including: records either original or in facsimile, ephemera, ledgers, manuscripts and photos are arranged alphabetically by subject heading.
SC 31. Hugo David Pohl Triptych
Creator: Hugo David Pohl (1878-1960), a San Antonio artist. Description: A set of three oil paintings on canvas (triptych) joined by a common wooden frame entitled: Mockery, His Last Appeal, and Ignorance, signed and dated 1934. The subject is an allegory using Classical and Biblical allusions.
SC 32. Collection of Newspapers
Inclusive dates: 1817-2008; Languages: English, French, Spanish, and Latin. Description: Collected from various sources, includes 19th century newspaper specimens (1817-1898), editions recording historical events from 1914 to 2008, souvenir editions, San Antonio Hispanic newspapers (1952-1985), and short-lived weeklies of San Antonio (1929-1986).
SC 33. Brother Paul Novosal, SM Personal Papers
Creator: Brother Paul Novosal, SM (1918-2009); Extent: 3 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: 1949-1974; Language: English; Formats: reports, memos, minutes, correspondence, manuals, annals, architectural drawings, construction documents, photographs, printed matter. Description: 1) History of Libraries at Saint Mary’s University 1952-1972; 2) Planning, design and construction of the Blume Library 1960-1971; and 3) Photographs of the construction of the “Centennial Library” in 1949-1950.
SC 34. Brother Charles Biehler Collection of Mathematics Imprints
Extent: 283 volumes comprising 151 titles and 46 extracts from learned societies; Inclusive Dates: 1799 to 1936; Languages: French and German. Description: Brother Charles Biehler, SM (1845-1906) assembled the nucleus of this collection while at Collège Stanislas in Paris where he circulated among learned circles in Paris during the late 19th century.
SC 35. Mariusz Kotowski Collection on Pola Negri
Creator and Donor: Mariusz Kotowski; Extent: 25 items; Inclusive Dates: 1921-2006; Language: English. Description: Mariusz Kotowski is the author of Pola Negri: Hollywood’s First Femme Fatale (2014). Kotowski used the materials in this collection for making, advertising and screening the film Pola Negri: Life Is a Dream in Cinema (2014).
SC 36. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and Navies: a Compilation
Creator: United States Secretary of War; Extent: 130 bound volumes; Inclusive Dates: January 19, 1861 to July 17, 1865; Language: English; Format: books and a portfolio of maps; Finding Aids: General Index and Additions and Corrections. Description: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, and of the Union and Confederate Navies; was prepared by the Government Printing Office from 1880 to 1901 in four series: I: Operations, Reports, Correspondence and Supplement; II: Prisoners of War; III: Union Correspondence; IV: Confederate Correspondence.
SC 37. Wilder/Dargent Collection about Peruvian Author Ricardo Palma (1833-1919)
Creator: William R. Wilder with Eduardo Dargent Chamot of Lima; Donor: Brother William R. Wilder, SM; Extent: 34 linear inches of books and 1 cubic foot of printed matter and notes; Inclusive Dates: 1860-1991; Language: Spanish. Description: Books either by or about poet-journalist Ricardo Palma of Peru and news clippings from Lima describing him as el poeta periodista y tradicionista.
SC 38. Collection of Saint Mary’s University Memorabilia
The items in this collection are from alumni and other private donors. Inclusive dates: 1894 to 2000. Description: Scrapbooks, clippings, medals, pennants, ephemera, and clothing from St. Mary’s University and its two predecessors St. Louis College and St. Mary’s College.
SC 39. Nick Carbo (Marianito Nick Carbo) Personal Papers
Creator: Nick Carbo (Carbó, Nick, 1964-); Extent: 1 cubic foot; Inclusive Dates: 1980-2010; Language: English with some Filipino and Spanish; Formats: Notebooks, correspondence, press releases and clippings, movie film (8mm, 16mm, 35mm), personally created artifacts. Description: Carbo was one of the students that published Angles in1987, the precursor to the Pecan Grove Press. Carbo was born October 10, 1964 in the Philippine Islands and began writing after moving to the United States to attend college.
SC 40. San Antonio Casino Club Records
Donor: Sullivan-Clem Estate, 1968 (SC 21); Extent: 2 cubic feet; Inclusive Dates: 1858-1960; Bulk: 1925-1957; Language: English and German. Description: The incorporation, membership, leases, mortgages and financial dealings of two private associations known as the San Antonio Club and the Casino Club which merged in 1925 and dissolved in 1953.
SC 41. Ruben Munguia Personal Papers
Creator: Ruben Munguia, Senior (1919-2003); Extent: 2 linear inches; Inclusive Dates: 1951-1988; Languages: English and Spanish; Formats: articles and speeches 1970s and 1980s, correspondence 1979-1986, campaign materials 1950s-1970s, public demonstrations 1983-1988, Westside Coalition documents 1970s. Description: Ruben Munguia, Sr. operated Munguia Printers and was active in electoral politics for fifty years in the campaigns of Maury Maverick, Sr., Henry B. Gonzalez, Lyndon B. Johnson, Adlai Stevenson and Munguia’s nephew Henry Cisneros.
SC 42. Berlin Wall Fragment
Description: This object is a chunk of gray concrete 5 inches long x 3 ½ inches high x 3 inches deep with one flat side on which is written in black felt tip marker: “Extracted from the Berlin Wall by CMSGT Bob Taylor.” The Berlin Wall (Berliner mauer) was a physical barrier that divided the city of Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
SC 43. Brother Joseph Schmitz, SM, PhD, History Courses
Extent: 3 cubic feet; Language: English. Description: Joseph Schmitz (born Feb 12, 1905 in Staceyville, Iowa; died Feb 16, 1966 in San Antonio, Texas), joined the Society of Mary in 1922. He obtained a Master of Arts degree in history at Loyola University in Chicago in1933 and a doctorate in 1939. He taught history at Saint Mary’s University until 1961, when he became vice president for academic affairs. He was the first administrator of the special collections department during the 1940s. He served as president of the Texas State Historical Association. His publications include: Thus They Lived, Daily Life in the Republic of Texas (1936), Texas Statecraft, 1836-1845 (1936), and The Society of Mary in Texas (1951). In 1960 a reprint edition of his first book was issued under the title Texas Culture, 1826-1845.
SC 44. San Jose de Palafox Book Publication Project
Extent: 2.5 cubic feet; Languages: English and Spanish. Description: Consists of the research, translations, and photographic prints of original Spanish documents for the publication of San Jose de Palafox: The Impossible Dream by the Rio Grande; a documented chronicle of the establishment and annihilation of San Jose de Palafox; translated and edited by Carmen Perry, archivist at Saint Mary’s University Library, San Antonio, Texas; published by Saint Mary’s University Press, 1971.
SC 45. Collection of Maps, Posters and Broadsides
Description: Maps posters and broadsides that are not part of a named collection.
SC 46. Collection of Manuscripts
Description: Handwritten documents including ledgers and notebooks that do not belong to any named collection
SC 47. Collection of Art
Description: Original works of art not part of a named collection