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online exhibit



TSLAC now has a new web exhibit on the public website. The McArdle Notebooks
can be found at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle
<http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle> .
TSLAC [Texas State Library and Archives Commission] now has a new web
exhibit on the public website. The McArdle Notebooks can be found at
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle <http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle>

Here is some additional information about the exhibit. Feel free to forward
this message on to anyone who might be interested.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Born in 1836, the year of the Texas Revolution, Henry McArdle made it his
life's work to paint the historic events of Texas history. Today, his
enormous battle paintings Dawn at the Alamo and The Battle of San Jacinto
hang in the Texas Senate chamber, impressing generations of visitors with
their sweep and incredible detail.

In 1929, the Texas State Library acquired the exhaustive research done by
Mr. McArdle over a period of 40 years, from the 1870s to the early 1900s.
The artist's papers took a singular form. McArdle's son had compiled the
research and had it bound into two huge leather volumes, one for each
painting. Officially entitled, "McArdle Companion Battle Paintings," they
became known simply as the "McArdle Notebooks."

The latest on-line exhibit at the Texas State Library and Archives makes
these now-fragile rarities available for scholars and the general public
alike. The notebooks are presented in their entirety, fully navigable so
users can explore the notebooks much as if they were sitting down with the
actual volumes.

"The McArdle Notebooks presented some challenges for digitization," says Liz
Clare, digital imaging specialist for ARIS. "The beautiful leather bindings
have deteriorated significantly over time, and now the sheer weight of the
volumes threatens to tear them apart when handled. Plus, some of the papers
inside are now well over a hundred years old and very brittle. We used a
book scanner that supports the weight of the open book while taking the scan
from above. This enabled us to get legible scans of most of the pages while
not putting the notebooks at risk."

ARIS director Chris LaPlante is also pleased with the exhibit, saying, "The
paintings, and these notebooks, are absolutely unique and extremely
historically significant. This was a man who worked when many of the
survivors and veterans of these events were still living. McArdle even
corresponded with Santa Anna. We're very pleased to make the notebooks
available on-line to students of history and art alike."

You can check out the new exhibit at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle
<http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle> .


Tonia J. Wood
Appraisal Archivist
Archives & Information Services Division
Texas State Library & Archives Commission
512-475-3374
twood@tsl.state.tx.us

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