Mid-Century Texas Tourism Photos
Preserved by State Archives – And You Can Browse Them Online!
he Texas Constitution of 1876 prohibited the state government from publishing literature designed to attract visitors. Despite this, tourism emerged as the state’s fifth largest industry by 1950. However, it was also discovered that Texas tourism was declining while tourism spending was increasing throughout the rest of the United States. A 1958 constitutional amendment finally allowed the use of tax funds to attract visitors, and the 56th Legislature created the Texas Development Board to develop strategies to do so. In 1963, the state’s first tourism advertising budget was allocated, and the Development Board became the Texas Tourist Development Agency (TTDA).
The TTDA’s goal was to increase Texas’ share of the national tourism market. The agency encouraged the development of new tourist attractions and facilities while advertising existing sites and promoting a positive image of Texas through advertising and public relations. The TTDA coordinated the efforts of several state entities, cooperating with the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and other agencies.
Texas was the first state to use national opinion polls and motivational research to develop tourism advertising. The Belden Associates opinion polling firm of Dallas conducted in-depth interviews, and the national Gallup Poll supplemented this research with quantitative data. Research determined that Americans had misconceptions about Texas, believing that it was largely a desert inhabited by cowboys and oilmen and that it was without appealing vacation attractions such as inland water, beaches, forests, mountains, historic sites, and cosmopolitan cities. In response to this, the agency strove to promote Texas’s cultural diversity, pleasant climate, abundant water, good accommodations, and sophisticated activities in radio, television, newspaper, and magazine advertising. The TTDA sponsored at least 19 tours for travel writers, editors, and agents that resulted in international publicity.
The State Archives holds some fun and fascinating records documenting both the TTDA’s work and popular Texas outdoor activities during the mid-to-late-twentieth century in its Texas Tourist Development Agency Photographs and Audiovisual Materials collection, which includes more than 30 cubit feet of records spanning 1964 to 1997. The collection preserves color slides, transparencies, negatives, photographic prints, videotapes, motion picture films, and audiotapes, as well as information about how the TTDA put together print advertising campaigns, revealing how the agency wished to portray Texas to potential visitors. There are hundreds of images of tourist attractions and accommodations, outdoor scenes and recreational activities, cities, towns, historic buildings, festivals, and cultural events, as well as print advertisements.
Here, we’ve pulled together a selection of undated photographs depicting popular Texas outdoor activities, most likely taken from the 1960s to the 1980s. Texans—and tourists—are seen enjoying camping, swimming, horseback riding, boating, and more, and the images and advertisements showcase the diverse variety of activities and landscapes available to visitors across our huge state, from sailing at South Padre to rafting at Big Bend, fishing in the East Texas piney woods to hiking in Palo Duro Canyon. View hundreds of these digitized tourism images and films in the Texas Digital Archive at https://bit.ly/TTDApics.
Since 2003, the TTDA’s functions have been within the remit of the Texas Economic Development and Tourism Office within the Governor’s Office. Official State of Texas tourism is now promoted by this team of researchers and advertising and marketing professionals under the “Travel Texas” brand (www.traveltexas.com).
Browse these and more than 10 million other records held by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission at www.tsl.texas.gov/texasdigital
archive! The Texas Digital Archive manages, preserves, and facilitates access to the State Archives’ electronic records collections, and all records visible in this portal are unrestricted and available for public use.
