Image by Falkenpost from Pixabay
Launched in 2004, “The Portal to Texas History is a gateway to rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas.” As of August 31, 2021, The Portal reported 96,890,052 total uses.
Contents & Navigation
“Created and maintained by the University of North Texas Libraries, the Portal leverages the power of hundreds of content partners across the state to provide a vibrant, growing collection of resources.” “By 2019, the Portal hosted more than 12.7 million digital images from some 408 partners.” The Portal currently has 709 collections, including various newspaper archives and the Texas Register collection, which includes current editions and back to 1976.
Regarding website navigation, The Portal offers four types of searches: basic, guided, advanced, and proximity. In addition, you can explore by collections, partners, locations, subjects, resource types, dates, and titles. Keep reading to learn more about three special programs with ties to The Portal.
Texas Digital Newspaper Program
“The Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) partners with communities, publishers, and institutions to promote standards-based digitization of Texas newspapers and to make them freely accessible via The Portal to Texas History.” The mission of the program is “to preserve and make freely accessible any Texas newspaper title, from any location, of any size, from any year.” TDNP can digitize newspapers from paper copies or microfilm, and it can work with PDF print masters “at no charge” with permission from the publisher.
Users of The Portal can explore all titles in the TDNP here: https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TDNP/titles/.
Rescuing Texas History (RTH) Program
UNT Libraries also use “the Rescuing Texas History (RTH) program to bring diverse collections into The Portal to Texas History.” The RTH program offers digitization “mini-grants,” the winners of which “receive services that include scanning, description, and hosting of their items on the Portal.” The last application cycle ended on August 9, 2021, and you can see past recipients here: https://texashistory.unt.edu/about/portal/rescuing-texas-history/.
Resources4Educators
Finally, in its Resources4Educators, The Portal “offers educational resources designed to help you get young minds thinking about history in new ways.” There are lesson plans, activities, and links for the following: