The Texas Collection

On this 82nd anniversary of D-Day, we present the story of Joseph "Joe" Turner Dawson.

A 1933 Baylor University graduate, U.S. Army Captain Joseph "Joe" Turner Dawson was one of nearly 160,000 troops who landed in Normandy for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Leading Company G of the 16th Infantry Regiment, he became one of the first American officers to successfully guide his men off "Omaha Beach" and breach the German ridge defenses.
His leadership in establishing a critical foothold on the bluffs—through a narrow ravine now known as "Dawson's Draw"—significantly contributed to the ultimate Allied victory in World War II. For these heroic efforts, Dawson earned the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. military’s second-highest award for valor.

From Private to Decorated Officer
Dawson enlisted as a private in May 1941, entered Officer Candidate School, and graduated as a second lieutenant in March 1942. His World War II service spanned the North African and Sicilian campaigns, as well as the Western Front. This included the Battle of Aachen in the fall of 1944, where he and his troops displayed great heroism against German reinforcements while sustaining heavy casualties.

By October 1944, he left his duty as commander of Company G following extensive combat and later suffered from "battle fatigue". He was reassigned to the Office of Strategic Services in 1945 for the remainder of the war. Dawson left active duty after World War II as a lieutenant colonel and returned to Texas, where he worked as a geologist.

A Deep Baylor Legacy
Beyond Joe’s own time as an alumnus, the Dawson family has permanent, deep ties to Baylor University and the Baptist faith:

•Joseph Martin Dawson (Father): The namesake of Baylor's J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, he was the longtime pastor of Waco's First Baptist Church and the first executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.

•Willy Turner Dawson (Mother): Mrs. Dawson was a highly sought-after national Baptist speaker and lecturer. Baylor’s Dawson Residence Hall is named in her honor.

•Judge Ralph “Matt” Dawson (Brother): Joe’s brother was a prominent lawyer who also served as a long-time Baylor Law School professor.

Our latest blog post from the BCPM is by seminary student Yeshi Lhamo on the impact of finding something unexpected in the archives.

(BCPM) The Day Women’s Equality Was Still Uncertain – Promoting Discovery: The Baylor Libraries Blog (BCPM) The Day Women’s Equality Was Still Uncertain by Eric Ames on May 29, 2026 in BCPM at Poage Library • 0 Comments This blog post was written by graduate assistant Yeshi Lhamo, a master’s student at Truett Seminary. I went into the archive thinking I would write about women’s curre...

We are excited to officially announce the acquisition of three-term Waco city councilman Josh Borderud’s archives! The materials – including correspondence, social media posts, and official paper documents – help illustrate his almost six years in office, starting in November of 2020 and concluding at the start of this month. Borderud's archives are among a growing list of local collections, including those of former Waco Mayor Mike Morrison and McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson.

Participating in the signing ceremony were Borderud; his wife, Jennifer; and Jeff Pirtle, Director of the Texas Collection, where the archives will live in the Baylor Collections of Political Materials after they have been organized and processed. They will be made available for research at a later date, but until then, join us in congratulating Josh Borderud on an impactful term of service to Waco and Central Texas!

Spring '26 finals are off and running, and nothing shows how much "the more things change, the more they stay the same" like this photo of students studying in Carroll Library!

This photograph taken on May 13, 1968, shows Baylor students studying inside of Carroll Library, Baylor University. The image was taken by Baylor University Photography.

Physical Collection: BU Records: Marketing and Communications: Baylor Photography, Accession .382, Box: Black_E_1202, 35mm film negative, The Texas Collection, Baylor University

Digital ID: tx-phoarch-neg_bu382_002818

This photograph from 1946 shows the former Baylor University Journalism Building on Speight Street, across from the F.L. Carroll Chapel and Library.

ID:
Baylor-Buildings-Journalism-Building

Source:
TC #4031 - General Film Collection, Digital ID: tx-phoarch-neg_4031_003916, The Texas Collection, Baylor University

Shout out to our student workers!!😁
Sending a HUGE thank you! We appreciate you and the work you do. We hope you had a great Student Appreciation week!

This photograph from 1988 shows Baylor University students at the Hankamer School of Business using IBM Personal Computers.

Physical Collection: BU Records: Marketing and Communications: Baylor Photography, Accession .382, Box: E_165, Slides

Digital ID:tx-phoarch-sld_bu382_002861

We're returning to one of our most popular recent posts - and the 1970s - with this week's random photo post!

These photographs show the interiors and a candid shot of a Baylor student inside of the Riverside Apartments dating to circa 1976. Baylor University built Riverside Apartments in the 1940s for married students and single men. They were located at the corner of University Parks Drive and Jones Street where they remained until 1980-1981.

Sources: General Photo File .3976, Baylor-Buildings-Riverside Apartments, Box 42, Folder 17; Digital ID's: tx-phoarch-pho_3976-bu-bls_003403; tx-phoarch-pho_3976-bu-bls_003404; fb_tx-phoarch-pho_3976-bu-bls_003405.

"Baylor Landing Rises from Riverside Ruins." The Baylor Lariat, vol. 83, no. 7, 26 Mar. 1981.

Our blog post this week was written by Emma Fenske, PhD candidate in the History Department. She explores books found in W. R. Poage's personal library that were written by female authors. https://blogs.baylor.edu/baylorlibraries/2026/03/19/bcpm-w-r-poages-bookshelf-female-authors-in-his-personal-collection/

This photograph taken by Fred Gildersleeve in circa 1914, shows a large student group at Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas. The school was once located at 1020 Elm Avenue, Waco, Texas. This African American institution has its origins in Austin, Texas, beginning in 1872, as the Connectional High School and Institute for Negro Youth. When it moved to Waco in 1877, on 8th and Mary Streets, it was known as Waco College and taught trades such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and tanning to newly freed slaves.

It became Paul Quinn College in 1881, and was named after Bishop William Paul Quinn, the fourth Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It was then relocated to Elm Avenue in east Waco on 20 acres of land that was once part of the Garrison Plantation. By 1979, the operating budget of the college was 2.5 million dollars and was funded by the A.M.E. Church, United Negro College Fund, federal funding, and private donations. In 1990, Paul Quinn College moved to Dallas, Texas, where it is still in operation to this day and is the oldest liberal arts college for African Americans in the state of Texas.
This image was created by digitizing Fred Gildersleeve’s original 8x10-inch glass plate negative from the Gildersleeve-Du Congé Collection #1149, located in The Texas Collection, Baylor University. Digital Image ID: tx-gildersleeve-1149-pho_b001-f07-i689.