HMRC is home to over 4 million images that highlight day-to-day activity in Houston and Texas, with coverage from the 1860s to the 1980s. The collection covers subjects such as farming, industry, oil exploration, transportation, architecture, and natural disasters, as well as festivals, parades, and cultural, civic, and sporting events. Particular strengths of the collection are news and commercial photography.
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Yolita Schmidt Moderne Style Architecture in Houston Photographs - MSS 0097
Yolita Schmidt's photographs of Houston buildings designed in the style of Moderne Architecture
Frank Schlueter/Bank of the Southwest Photographs - MSS 0100
Images of skylines, construction, oil fields, industry, agriculture, rural life, Houston’s port and ship channel, social occasions, and Houston’s citizens, 1907-1943
Gregorio Torres Valerio Collection - MSS 0101
Images of everyday life in the postwar Mexican American community by the Valerio Photography Studio
John J. Herrera Papers - MSS 0160
Images of John Herrera and others related to his career as an attorney, involvement in LULAC, and his political activity, 1940s-1970s
William D. Murdy - MSS 0243
Commercial photographs of industrial and architectural views, including private residences, as well as commercial buildings
J. M. Heiser Jr. Environmental - MSS 0246
Papers, photographs, printed materials and clippings of Joseph Matthew Heiser Jr. 1897-1987
Domestic Architecture of Harris County 1824-1914/Junior League Collection - MSS 0248
Interior and exterior images of homes, 1824-1914
Lesley Lewis Walker Photographs - MSS 0253
Images of airplanes, racing cars, motorcycles, and scenes from Panama, 1900s-1940s
Benjamin C. Allin - MSS 0302
Images of U.S. Army Camp Logan, Port of Houston, and Benjamin C. Allin Family from 1917-1930s
Robert L . Browning Collection - MSS 1220
This collection consists of aerial photos of the Houston and Gulf Coast area taken between 1946 and 1950
Litterst-Dixon Photographs - MSS 1248
Images from the Houston commercial photography studio of Litterst and Dixon, 1850 through 1967
Evelyn Norton Anderson Papers - MSS 1465
Images of Evelyn N. Anderson’s design work including theatrical costumes and the uniforms for Houston's Colt 45 and Astrodome stadiums
Houston Post Photographs - RG D 0006
News photography from the Houston Post photo library, 1941-1989