SMU Archives Finding Aids: Overview

Dorothy Amann, one of the first staff members of Southern Methodist University, joined SMU in 1913 as secretary to President Robert Hyer. In 1915, she became the first librarian of SMU. Her papers include correspondence, programs, personal documents, snapshots, and university memorabilia.

Robert T. Anderson, widely known as RTA, was an internationally renowned organist who taught at Southern Methodist University from 1960-1996. He was the service organist for Perkins Chapel from 1960-1995, Chair of the Organ Department, first Meadows Distinguished Teaching Professor, University Distinguished Professor, and served as organ consultant for the C.B. Fisk organs opp. 100 and 101 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and Caruth Auditorium. This collection includes correspondence, teaching files, photographs and slides, audio, video, programs, and posters.

Layton W. Bailey worked as a business administrator for SMU for over thirty years. This collection contains programs, pamphlets, news clippings, and full-size newspaper editions detailing various campus events: convocations, building dedications, dinners, athletics, and the inaugurations of Umphrey Lee and Willis Tate. The ephemera in this collection covers roughly a forty-year time period, from the mid-1920s through the late 1960s.

Contains the papers of Dr. John Beaty, English professor at Southern Methodist University from 1919 to 1957. The papers pertain to controversy surrounding his 1954 publication of a pamphlet entitled "How to Capture a University," which asserted that un-Christian and even communist influences were infiltrating SMU. This collection includes copies of that pamphlet, in addition to depositions and exhibits taken by a school committee, newspaper clippings, and letters both condemning and supporting his charges.

Fred Benners played football and baseball for Southern Methodist University and graduated in 1952. His scrapbooks and clippings reflect his athletic career.

Jephthah W. Blanton was a member of the Educational Commission of 1910 which established Southern Methodist University. He remained a friend and donor to the university for many decades. This collection includes correspondence, papers and signed notes by J.W. Blanton, Sr. concerning SMU and its financial history, two scrapbooks given to Robert Hyer and Umphrey Lee by Blanton. Especially note that Dr. Lee's scrapbooks contain photographs of campus buildings circa 1938.

This collection is comprised of papers from Southern Methodist University history professor James Breeden on administration, academic, campus life, and athletic issues at SMU from the 1970s through the early 1990s. Most of the collection is made up of correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, and other papers related to university operations. Of particular interest in this collection is material on courses and curriculum development (including some of Dr. Breeden’s history courses), faculty compensation and benefits during this time period, university committees and groups such as the Faculty Senate, University Assembly, Undergraduate Council, Women’s Studies Council, and the Faculty Athletic Committee. Some material on the 1986-87 football "death penalty" is also included.

This collection is made up of papers on the history of Southern Methodist University written by undergraduate students in a history course taught by Dr. James Breeden. The papers cover a variety of topics, and are about twenty pages in length. Also included are manuscripts from SMU English professor Marshall Terry’s book From High on the Hilltop.

The Community Course was a non-profit lecture-concert-drama series co-sponsored by Southern Methodist University and Temple Emanu-El, the largest Reformed Jewish temple in Dallas. The organization presented cultural events on the SMU campus, usually in McFarlin Auditorium from 1939 to 1981. The collection includes administrative records, ephemera, and extensive correspondence related to the SMU Community Course and its director, Ronald C. Knickerbocker.