The Oscar Strahan Papers
The Oscar Strahan papers, which are housed in the Texas State University Archives, contain hundreds of photographs, postcards, and other items portraying the life and times of Oscar and Marion Strahan. The photographs within the papers range from professional headshots of Oscar and others, to Strahan's times in the army and at SWT, to candid snapshots of daily life. Many of the photographs have handwritten inscriptions on the back that identify the people, places and/or dates in the image. Other images are unidentified with no inscriptions.
Click on the photograph to see both sides of the letter
The postcards contained within the papers offer a glimpse into the lives of Oscar and Marion Strahan. The earliest postcard is postmarked from 1907 and is written by Oscar to his older sister Jennie describing his time traveling and playing football. This postcard has a photograph of Strahan with his football team on the front (this image can be seen to the right). There are several later postcards written by Marion to her sister Katherine with images of the places the Strahans visited in Europe in the early 1960s
Transcript from postcard
"Wed. Oct. 9.
Hello Jen. [indistinguishable] cards other day[.] We have got a swell football team this year. Myer our new science teacher is a grand coach[.] We went down to Missouri Valley Sept. 28 beat them 6 to 0, played Wall Lake the 9th beat them 16 to 0. We play Vail Fri. and Manilla over there Sat. I just heard from Mamma these at Suttons now[.]
Write soon O.W.S."
— Oscar Strahan