Here you can find a variety of newspapers and other primary sources for research related to Texas
The Portal to Texas History is A gateway to rare, historical, and primary source materials from or about Texas. They have over 700 collections, including newspapers, university/alumni materials, images, personal papers of noteworthy Texans., legal documents, art, and so much more. You can even find the blueprints of the Battleship Texas! If it is Texas History related, it is in here, available for your use.
The main job of the Texas Historical Commission is to preserve important features of Texas History. They research, curate, and preserve a wide variety of cultural features from cemeteries to highways. One thing they are most well-known for are historical markers. The THS provides a terrific tool called Thematic Marker Maps, that separates the markers based on topics such as African or Mexican American history or World War I.
Another excellent resource available through the THC are the Texas Heritage Trails. Texas is divided into ten different themed regions. Ranger College is in the Forts Trail region. The good people at the THC have taken the time to develop tours and travel guides as well as additional travel themes, such as the Bankhead Highway, which runs right through Ranger, and the Red River War of 1874-1875
This site is the Texas State Historical Association’s answer to Wikipedia. Each article contains an overview of a Texas person, place, or event with links to associated sites. These are excellent starters for assignments and there is even a ‘Take me to a random page’ link at the bottom. Wander around and explore.
A key Texas based resource, the DSpace (digital space) at Texas Tech houses an enormous collection of maps, oil history, music, books, images, oral histories, newspapers, and so much more - all keyword searchable. The newspaper section has papers from all over the state, including Eastland County, represented by Carbon, Cisco, Eastland, Gorman, Rising Star, and of course, Ranger. The Ranger Times issues included here date from 1919 to 1996, with the 1920s and 30s heavily represented. Other areas, such as the Southwest and Sowell Collections, contain records and documents of individuals, organizations, industries, and the state government.
Find photographs, manuscripts, imprints, works of art, and audio/video on many historical subjects. Subject list includes art, audio/video, business, Dallas, incunabula, lantern slides, Methodists, Mexico, military, postcards, railroads, sermons, SMU, Texana, and Wesley. This site contains collections from the Bridwell Library, Bywaters Special Collection, DeGolyer Library, Fondren Library, Hamon Arts Library, the SMU Archives, and the Underwood Law Library.
Some of the special features are 1930 and 1945 aerial photographs, documents from numerous notable Dallas families, historic government publications, and so many topics you can’t even think of. Just visit the homepage and explore the options.
The primary purpose of the East Texas Research Center (ETRC) is to collect, preserve, maintain, and make available archival materials that support the educational and research goals of Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) and the surrounding East Texas community. On this site, more than 2000 oral histories can be explored by topics such as growing up in Vidor, the Vietnam War, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and much more.
The Texas Folklore Society collects, preserves, and shares the practices and customs of the people of Texas and the Southwest. They do this through books and journals as well as curriculum and educational opportunities. Many of their books haven been digitized and are available through the Portal to Texas History. A searchable index can be found here so you can figure out which edition you need.
