University Centennial Exposition Press Releases

These scans comprise a large folder of original press releases (and a few staff bulletins) given out to the media during the University Centennial Exposition (part of the larger Texas Centennial Exposition) at the University of Texas campus in Austin, centered at Gregory Gym, from April to November, 1936. It is not known if they are complete, and it appears they were produced by the University Centennial Exposition body, run out of the President’s office and managed by William L. McGill, Journalism faculty, and head of the Ex-Student’s Association. They were discovered in an office cleanout in the 1990’s, and may, though there is no way to verify it, have belonged to Professor William Battle, as there were other miscellaneous materials associated with Professor Battle collocated with this folder. These raw press releases were intended to be used by the newspapers and other media to promote and guide their coverage of the Centennial Exhibition, and they contain many important details about what was exhibited on site that later became (or did not become) part of the Texas Memorial Museum or other UT collections. It is hoped that those investigating the Centennial Exposition and its contents may find specific details in these releases that might have been left out of media reports, and that might provide information to compare and contrast official descriptions with what eventually appeared in print. More information on the University Centennial Exposition may be found at the Briscoe Center in the collections William Lawrence McGill papers 1917-1958, and William James Battle Papers, 1870-1959.