Three Questions is an initiative to share the value that our faculty, students, and external patrons derive from using the Portal to Texas History at UNT Libraries.
1. How important is the Portal in your teaching, learning or research?
The Portal to Texas History, especially the Texas newspapers collection, is invaluable for my research in mid to late 19th century Texas history. My research interests include alternative Texas political parties of the 1870s and 1880s, the many attempts to create statewide labor organizations in the 1880s and 1890s and different tries to develop a socialist future for the state.
The Portal’s newspapers provide a wide variety of views and opinions on these topics from different regions of Texas. Because most newspapers of the period had short lives or ownership and editors constantly changed, the Portal’s newspaper directories and town directories are very helpful.
2. How has the Portal changed the way you approach your research, teaching or learning?
Newspapers of the period relied on their exchanges with other papers. They printed items from those papers to fill space in their own paper. Hence, with the number of papers available in the Portal you can piece together the views of papers no longer extant. Also, perhaps to fill space, most papers printed verbatim speeches, letters and minutes of innumerable citizen mass meetings without the filtering of a third party. As more papers are added to the Portal, new information can arise that could modify a prior conclusion. So, in a sense, your research is never complete.
3. What do you want others to know about your research, teaching or learning?
Research in the Portal can be addictively entertaining. You can find yourself tracking stories and people that lead you far from your original intent. The Portal to Texas History is UNT’s signal contribution to scholarship across Texas and beyond. It should be promoted and bragged on by the UNT academic community.
Gene Forst is retired and lives in Denton, Texas.
