The City of El Paso Public Library is excited to announce that U.S.-Mexico border history buffs can now consult newly digitized materials from signature archival collections held by the Library’s Border Heritage Center.
“We’re excited to showcase the depth and breadth of materials held at the Library’s Border Heritage Center,” said El Paso Public Library Director Norma Martinez. “Giving our patrons better access to these collections will give a better understanding of our unique history and culture.”
Maps spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the McGaw and Stockwell photograph collections, are among the first materials to be showcased in the Library’s new digital archive, which has been made possible by Humanities Texas Relief Grant funding awarded by Humanities Texas and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Aimed at supporting cultural and nonprofit organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the funding has enabled El Paso Public Library’s Border Heritage Center to launch a large-scale digitization project and acquire a digital collections platform to display digitized content.
The new digital collections database, facilitated through AM Quartex, allows library patrons to discover, access, and utilize Border Heritage Center (BHC) special collections remotely. The site will debut with five (5) collections featuring photographs, historic maps, postcards, and early publications of El Paso. Additional materials will continue to be added and made digitally available.
For more information about the Public Library, visit www.elpasolibrary.org.
