An all-star collection of 23 Texas writers along with an acclaimed artist gathered at the Wittliff Collections on Mother’s Day to celebrate a sparkling new literary anthology devoted to Texas Rivers. Viva Texas Rivers! Adventures, Misadventures & Glimpses of Nirvana …
Niceday: Charles Barsotti’s Commerical Pup
You may not know his name, but you would recognize his cartoons of talking animals, talking pasta, kings, and corporate bosses. Over the course of his career, Charles Barsotti published more than 1,300 cartoons in The New Yorker and thousands …
Stevie Ray Vaughan comes to The Wittliff
The recent acquisition of a substantive Steve Ray Vaughan archive is the latest gem preserved at The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, home of more than 500 historic literary, photographic, film and music collections. The new SRV collection offers …
Inhabiting Darkness (Habitar La Oscuridad): The photography of Marco Antonio Cruz shines a light on compassion
By Kimberly Conner To experience Inhabiting Darkness (Habitar La Oscuridad) is to understand that whether we navigate the world with sight, or without it, we are united by a shared humanity. This collection of stunning black and white images offers …
From Politics to Poodles: A Look into Molly Ivins’ Personal Library
Written by Wittliff archivist, Karen Sigler, This article was originally published in the Society of Southwestern Archivist and now resides in Texas State Universities digital archives. If the world were given your personal library, what would it tell them about …
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9/11: A Reflective Pause
Photographer Eric O’Connell photographed the chaos and atrocities of September 11, 2001 and survived. Speaking with him recently about the upcoming twentieth anniversary, he said “it brings him reflective pause on what happened to him personally” and added, “that all …
Looking into the face of the Grey Ghost
In 1994, sculptor Cindy Debold met the Grey Ghost. Her first impression of the legendary blues pianist born Roosevelt Williams was that he was rather frail and shy. He was 90 at the time. The Grey Ghost arrived at Debold’s …
Who was Mr. Bojangles?
Polka Dot Slim. Pork Chops. Babe Stovall. Re-Pete. They are the nicknames of African American street performers who worked the New Orleans’ French Quarter in the early and mid-1960s. One of them is likely Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles.” The …
Jerry Jeff Walker memorial was like a deep dive into his archives
Tales of a pilfered puppy in Nashville, campfire songs in Ohio, sangria wine in Coconut Grove. Jerry Jeff Walker was remembered with affection and honored in song at an outdoor memorial tribute concert for 1,000 fans and friends in Luckenbach …
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Original ‘Mr. Bojangles’ lyrics on display at The Wittliff
The earliest known surviving set of Jerry Jeff Walker’s handwritten lyrics for “Mr. Bojangles” exist because a plucky young guitar repairman in New Jersey asked Walker to write them down so he could learn the song. Walker wasn’t yet a …
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THE KEYSTONE 