Haley Memorial Library and History Center

These images come from film reels captured by Jesse Caleb Williams, documenting scenes from the Battle of Shanghai in 1937.

Fought between August 13 and November 26, the battle was one of the earliest and most intense conflicts of the Second Sino-Japanese War. What began as a struggle for control of the city quickly grew into a prolonged and devastating urban battle, drawing in massive forces on both sides.

The footage reflects more than just military action. Ships line the harbor. Soldiers move through crowded streets. Civilians gather to watch, wait, and endure. Even small details—like posted notices—hint at how daily life was reshaped almost overnight.

Collections like this serve as a reminder that history is not only preserved in headlines and dates, but in the moments captured between them.

From the Permanent Collections at the Haley Memorial Library & History Center

Before modern equipment, moving a home was no small task.

Photographs like this capture a time when entire structures were relocated the hard way—lifted from their foundations and slowly pulled across open land by teams of horses. It took planning, manpower, and patience to move something as heavy and important as a family home.

Out on the Plains, rebuilding wasn’t always the best option. Materials were limited, time was valuable, and the land itself often dictated where a structure needed to be. So instead, they moved the house.

Moments like this remind us that the story of the West isn’t just about building—it’s about adapting.

From the Permanent Collections at the Haley Memorial Library & History Center

Before the day’s work began—and long after it ended—the chuckwagon was the center of camp.

Invented by Charles Goodnight in 1866, this mobile kitchen became an essential part of life on the trail. In the years following the Civil War, demand for beef surged as the West reopened. Goodnight, along with his business partner Oliver Loving, began driving cattle across the Southwest—making the chuckwagon a necessity, not a luxury.

More than just a place to cook, it carried everything needed to sustain a crew across long, dry distances: coffee, beans, biscuits, salted meats, dried fruit—and most importantly, water.

This photograph, from the Haley’s Chuckwagon Album, captures a quiet moment in that routine. Cowboys gather near their bedrolls for a meal, while a herd stretches across the landscape behind them—work paused, but never far from mind.

Though the great cattle drives have faded, the tradition hasn’t disappeared entirely. Some ranches still carry on the role of the chuckwagon cook today.

Curious how the chuckwagon lives on? Watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ou6CzdzrH4

From the Permanent Collections at the Haley Memorial Library & History Center

A collapsing structure, half-buried in drifting sand—this was not an isolated scene. It was the reality of the Dust Bowl.

While the devastation peaked in the 1930s, its roots reach back further. During World War I, demand for American wheat surged, and millions of acres of native prairie were plowed under to meet it. Those grasses had once anchored the soil with deep roots—but once removed, the land was left exposed.

When drought and relentless winds arrived, the results were catastrophic.

Topsoil lifted into the air with ease. Sandstorms swept across the Plains. Crops failed. Livestock starved. Families were forced to abandon homes that had been in their care for generations.

J. Evetts Haley and his family experienced these hardships firsthand. This photograph—taken by Haley and a companion across the Texas Panhandle and into Midland—captures just one moment in a much larger story.

At its peak, the Dust Bowl displaced over 2.5 million people and affected more than 150,000 square miles of land. It remains one of the most severe environmental and economic disasters in American history.

Images like this serve as a reminder: the land remembers how it is treated.

To learn more:
https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/

From the Permanent Collections at the Haley Memorial Library & History Center

This striking 1910 painting by Maynard Dixon was presented to Texas photographer Erwin E. Smith as a personal gift from the artist—a connection between two men who each captured the spirit of the American West in their own way.

Born in 1875, Dixon became one of the most recognized painters of the western United States. His work reflects a landscape in transition—wide open spaces, working cowboys, and a way of life that was already beginning to change. Though a California native, Dixon found lasting inspiration in Arizona, where the desert’s vastness and quiet strength shaped much of his artistic vision.

That same dedication to documenting the West is what ties his work so closely to Erwin E. Smith, whose photography preserved the realities of ranch life across Texas.

Today, Dixon’s work can be found in museums and galleries across the country, including his studio in Tucson, Arizona, and his legacy continues through the 2007 documentary “Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit.”

Pieces like this remind us that preserving history isn’t just about storing it—it’s about keeping these stories alive.