The Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photograph collection is one of the most comprehensive and valuable Texas-related photography collections. It documents all aspects of Texas photography, including the various types practiced from its earliest introduction to the state: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, stereographs and paper print photographs in various formats. The online and physical collections depict a large array of subjects and styles, and examples by numerous photographers, both professional and itinerant, who documented Texas, the contiguous states and Mexico.
James Buckner 'Buck' Barry (1821-1906) was a Texas frontiersman who had a dangerous and distinguished career as a Texas Ranger, Indian fighter, scout, sheriff, and rancher. At the time this daguerreotype was made in 1853, Barry was serving as Navarro County treasurer and is the earliest known photographic image of a 'genuine' Texas Ranger. Source: Lawrence T. Jones III.
The Collection
The digital collection includes cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards, oversized photos, stereographs, and more. The subjects of the photos include Confederate and Union soldiers and officers in the Civil War; Mexicans, including ranking military officials from the Mexican Revolution; and a wide spectrum of Texan citizens, including African American, Indian, Hispanic, and Caucasian women, men, and children.
The complete Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs Collection can be viewed online on the SMU Central University Libraries Website:
http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/jtx/
The online collection mirrors the structure of the physical collection and is sorted by series. Items from the following series are available:
- Series 1: Cased Images
- Series 2: Cartes de Visite
- Series 3: Cabinet Card Photographs
- Series 4: Texas Locations and People
- Series 5: Albums and Books
- Series 6: Photographica
- Series 7: Stereographs
- Series 8: Postcards
- Series 9: Miscellaneous Additional Materials
A finding aid to the collection is available in the Texas Archival Resources Online.
The photographs and information related to photos provide a unique glimpse into the social and domestic history, architecture, transportation, ranching, agriculture, commerce, material culture, costume, and urban and rural history of Texas.
Lens on the Texas Frontier
In this book, prominent collector Lawrence T. Jones III showcases some of the most interesting and historically important glimpses of Texas history included among the five thousand photographs in the collection that bears his name at the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University.
Lawrence T Jones II has put some of these images in the collection into an incredible book called "Lens on the Texas Frontier". In this book, prominent collector Lawrence T. Jones III showcases some of the most interesting and historically important glimpses of Texas history included among the five thousand photographs in the collection that bears his name at the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University. One of the nation’s most comprehensive and valuable Texas-related photography collections, the Lawrence T. Jones III Collection documents all aspects of Texas photography from the years 1846–1945, including rare examples of the various techniques practiced from its earliest days in the state: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, and paper print photographs in various formats.
The selections in the book feature cartes de visite, cabinet cards, oversized photographs, stereographs, and more. The subjects of the photos include Confederate and Union soldiers and officers in the Civil War; Mexicans, including ranking military officials from the Mexican Revolution; and a wide spectrum of Texan citizens, including African American, Native American, Hispanic, and Caucasian women, men, and children.
Photographs of Texas’ frontier past are valuable as both art and artifact. Recording not only the lives and surroundings of days gone by, but also the artistry of those who captured the people and their times on camera, the rare images in Lens on the Texas Frontier offer a documentary record that is usually available to only a few dedicated collectors.
To purchase Lawrence T. Jones III book "Lens on the Texas Frontier you can click the link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Lens-Texas-Frontier-Lawrence-Jones/dp/1623491231
If you are a fan of Texas History or just history in general, I would definately purchase this book. It is the closest thing to a window to look into the past and see how people looked, lived and dressed. There are also many images of early Texas Towns and buildings. In the book Mr. Jones puts the story with some of the images from the collection which makes it very hard to put down...
Resource: SMU Central University Libraries - Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs