I was scurrying around the Internet today trying to make a list of history websites I use regularly for finding and researching old Texas crimes when I thought “Hey, my followers love Texas history sites, too!” So I decided to make a blog post and share them with you.
If you research old Texas Crimes long enough—whether the murder of a pecan heiress, a small town scandal about a banker holding a suitcase full of counterfeit money, or the Oak Cliff eyeball killer —you eventually find free Texas history sites you’ll need to refer to again and again.
And until we make use of them, they are just sitting there waiting to investigated.
Below are eleven free websites I have used for researching Texas crime stories. They cover archival newspapers, books and documents, photographs, maps, and even historic video. If you’re a writer, historian, genealogist, or true-crime researcher, these are worth bookmarking.
1. The Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas)
🔗 https://texashistory.unt.edu/
The Portal to Texas History is an enormous digital archive pulling material from libraries, museums, and historical societies across the state. Inside you’ll find digitized newspapers, rare books, letters, maps, photographs, oral histories, legal documents, and recordings.
Many small-town newspapers that vanish elsewhere still live here—making this site indispensable for reconstructing timelines and understanding how events were reported at the time.
2. Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP)
🔗 https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TDNP/
TDNP focuses specifically on digitized Texas newspapers, many dating back to the 1800s. These papers are searchable, downloadable, and often clearer than microfilm copies found in local libraries.
If you’re tracking a trial, death notice, or scandal as it unfolded, this site is essential.
3. Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI)
One of my favorites! TAMI is a streaming archive of Texas-related film and video—local TV broadcasts, educational films, home movies, and documentaries. Watching real footage of Texas towns and people adds context and atmosphere you can’t get from text alone.
Example: This is a video of the day JFK was assassinated.
4. KXAS–NBC 5 News Collection (via the Portal)
🔗 https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/KXAS/
I wish there was more footage, but I am happy to have the news scripts if nothing else!
This collection contains decades of North Texas television news footage, scripts, and photographs. It’s invaluable for researching crimes, disasters, and controversies from the mid-20th century forward—and for seeing how local media framed events in real time.
5. Texas Moving Image Archive Program (Texas Film Commission)
🔗 https://gov.texas.gov/film/page/texas_moving_image_archive
This statewide archive preserves Texas-related film produced by government agencies, filmmakers, and organizations.
You’ll find historical footage, documentaries, and public-information films that help ground stories in their proper time and place.
6. Chronicling America (Library of Congress – Texas Titles)
🔗 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/?state=Texas
Run by the Library of Congress, Chronicling America hosts digitized newspapers from across the United States. Its Texas holdings aren’t as extensive as the Portal, but it often includes papers unavailable anywhere else.
It’s also helpful for comparing Texas coverage with national reporting.
7. Texas General Land Office (GLO) Archives
🔗 https://www.glo.texas.gov/history/archives/index.html
🔗 https://www.glo.texas.gov/history/archives/land-grants/index.html
Land records don’t sound exciting—until you realize how much history they reveal.
The GLO provides free access to digitized land grants, maps, and property records, which can help identify who lived where, when land changed hands, and how communities developed or fractured.
8. Texas Beyond History (University of Texas at Austin)
🔗 https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/
Full disclosure: ChatGPT showed me this one today. I have never used it for my crime stories. This site focuses on Texas archaeology and cultural history, presented in accessible, narrative-driven exhibits.
It’s especially useful when you need to understand daily life—how people lived, worked, and moved through the world—rather than just headline events.
9. University of Houston Digital Collections
🔗 https://digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu/
I have looked at this collection, but have not learned to use it very well yet. UH’s collections include digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, and audio/video materials with a strong emphasis on Houston and the Gulf Coast.
If your research touches southeast Texas, ports, hurricanes, industry, or urban crime, this archive is invaluable.
10. SMU Libraries Digital Collections (DeGolyer Library)
🔗 https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/
Southern Methodist University hosts major Texas collections covering rare books, maps, photographs, and manuscripts.
The DeGolyer Library is especially strong in transportation, railroads, oil, and early development—topics that often intersect with crime and migration.
11. The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.
We began in 1996 by archiving the Internet itself, a medium that was just beginning to grow in use. Like newspapers, the content published on the web was ephemeral – but unlike newspapers, no one was saving it. Today we have 29+ years of web history accessible through the Wayback Machine and we work with 1,250+ library and other partners through our Archive-It program to identify important web pages.
As our web archive grew, so did our commitment to providing digital versions of other published works. Today our archive contains:
- 916 billion web pages
- 49 million books and texts
- 13 million audio recordings (including 268,000 live concerts)
- 10 million videos (including 3 million Television News programs)
- 5 million images
- 1 million software programs
Anyone with a free account can upload media to the Internet Archive. We work with thousands of partners globally to save copies of their work into special collections.