Digital Austin History Center Exhibits
Current Exhibits
Digital Austin History Center Exhibits
Art and Archives: Veronica Ceci at the Austin History Center
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents a selection of photographs, sketches, prints, archival materials, and artifacts documenting Austin artist Veronica Ceci's work on their public art projects Meander (2018) and Quinquagenary (2021).
Austin Icons of the 1980s: Selections from the Bill Leissner Photograph Collection
About the Exhibit
In 2016 Bill Leissner began the process of digitizing his 100,000-image archive of Austin performance, politics, and social culture. This exhibit is the first result of these efforts – a brief selection of 16 images from his archive (AR.2019.004) representing icons of 1980s Austin, at least icons through the lens of his camera.
Austin Proud: A History of Pride Parades in Austin, 1971-2002
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents photographs, flyers, and clippings from the Austin History Center collections documenting the history of Austin's LGBTQ Pride parades and marches from 1971-2002.
Backwards in High Heels: Getting Women Elected, 1842-1990
About the Exhibit
This exhibition is the Austin History Center’s look at the local women who have played a significant part in politics in Texas’ capital city.
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Clearing Stones Sowing Seeds: Photographs from the Travis County Negro Extension Service Collection
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents selections from the Travis County Negro Extension Service Photography Collection (AR.2000.025). The photographs, taken between 1940 and 1964, document the variety of services and educational programs offered by the Extension Service, including animal husbandry, crafts, domestic education, gardening and agriculture, and home improvement.
Discovering Place: Images from the St. Edward’s University Documentary Photography Project
About the Exhibit
The St. Edward's University Austin Documentary Photography Project is a partnership between St. Edward's University and the Austin History Center wherein students learned how to create visually engaging and intellectually challenging stories of the people and places of Austin. The partnership resulted in the St. Edward's University Austin Documentary Photography Project Collection (AR.2019.026), consisting primarily of digital photographs documenting various facets of the Austin area community as selected by the student photographers.
Early Chinese Families of Austin
About the Exhibit
Asian American families who ended up in Austin built a life for themselves by opening up businesses and immersing themselves into the community. All of their hard work paved the way for future immigrants and Asian Americans who settled down in Austin.
Fehr & Granger: Austin Modernists
About the Exhibit
This online exhibit explores the work of mid-century modern architects Arthur Fehr and Charles Granger (AR.2009.014) with photographs from the Austin History Center's collections.
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Our Community, Our Voice: Photographs from The Villager Newspaper
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents a selection of photographs from The Villager Newspaper Photograph Collection (AR.2001.002) that capture local community members in striking images, illustrating the vibrancy of Austin’s black population. Marching bands, community leaders, theater groups, protests, musicians, churches, and neighborhood groups portray life in black Austin through the decades.
Perlas ng Austin (The Pearls of Austin)
About the Exhibit
This exhibit was made in collaboration with the Austin Filipino-American Association (AFAA), Asian American Resource Center and the Austin History Center's Asian American Community Archives Program as a celebration of the Central Texas Filipino community.
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Seeking Community
About the Exhibit
A curated selection of photographs from the Austin American-Statesman Photographic Morgue collection housed at the Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. During a time when Austin’s Asian Pacific American population was small, international visitors, new immigrants, educators, and families had to be resourceful and resilient in the search of community. These images from the 1960s-1980s offer a rare glimpse into early moments of collaboration, education, and exchange.
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Taking it to the Streets: A Visual History of Protest and Demonstration in Austin
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents a snapshot look at how the public confronted the political and social issues of their time. Diverse images from a variety of Austin History Center collections highlight Austin residents in their earnest efforts to create social change in their communities
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Treat Me Like a Saturday Night: The Joe Ely Photographs from the Cindy Light Collection
About the Exhibit
Cindy Light is an Austin-based photographer who shot many performances of Austin musicians such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Ely, and Doug Sahm as well as international acts such as Sting, Michael Jackson, and Paul McCartney. This exhibit highlights photos from her collection (AR.2019.016) that span 1986-1990 and primarily feature Joe Ely with bandmates David Grissom, Jimmy Pettit, and Davis McLarty who represent Ely’s late 1980s – early 1990s heyday.
Tune In To Health: A Radio Program for Travis County Rural Schools
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents photograph selections from the Texas Extended School and Community Health Education Program Records (AR.2002.017) archived at the Austin History Center. The collection features over 200 black and white photographs from the 1949-1950 school year of the Healthy Living in Our County radio program, a public health education initiative tailored for Travis County rural school classrooms. The exhibit images provide a rare glimpse into these rural school communities, capturing student activity, school segregation, home living conditions, school infrastructure, and engagement with the Healthy Living in Our Country radio curriculum.
Vietnam to Austin: Restoring Community
About the Exhibit
Explore the history, transition, and contributions of local Vietnamese Americans in Austin. This exhibit presents a selection of powerful personal stories and photographs from the original large-scale 2009 exhibition.
We’ll Just Rock For Ourselves: Selections from the Lisa Davis Photograph Archive
About the Exhibit
This exhibit presents selections from the Lisa Davis Photograph Archive (AR.2010.022). The exhibition focuses on Davis’s documentation of the lesbian music community in Austin during the early 1990s.