New Collection Available Digitally
DeGolyer Library's Texas National Bank Note collection
The 972 National Bank Notes from the DeGolyer Library’s Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency are now available online. This “TexTreasures” digitization project was funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services through a grant to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The largest known collection of paper currency specific to Texas, the Rowe-Barr Collection was assembled and donated to SMU’s DeGolyer Library by John N. Rowe III and B. B. Barr, brothers-in-law, business partners, and avid numismatists with differing collecting interests. Rowe’s portion of the collection comprising nearly 1500 examples of obsolete and canceled Texas currency produced from the 1830s to the end of the U. S. Civil War. Barr’s contribution consists of National Bank Notes dating from Reconstruction to the Great Depression.
Every series of National Bank Note is represented: the original series, the 1875 series, the 1882 series and its many variants, the 1902 series, and the 1929 series. Each note contains imprints from issuing banks in Texas and the signatures of bank cashiers and presidents who endorsed the notes. When taken together, the completed collection exemplifies the monetary history of Texas.
For more information, contact Cindy Boeke, Digital Collections Librarian (214-768-4361) or email degolyer@smu.edu.