Star of the Republic Museum

Purpose: Sustaining Cultural Heritage The Star of the Republic Museum is in Washington, Texas, at the site of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. The museum's mission is to preserve the material culture of Texas, especially for the period during which Texas was an independent republic (1836 to 1845). Its collection includes prints, maps, paintings, original manuscripts, rare books, and early historic documents, as well as the oldest known Lone Star flag and letters from Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston. In this project, the museum will digitize materials from the Republic period, making them accessible to students, researchers, and virtual visitors on the museum's Web site. The objectives of the project are to (1) prepare digital images of 3,150 three-dimensional objects; (2) scan 1,850 documents in-house and outsource scanning of 300 large items; (3) establish a database of the digital images and associated metadata; (4) implement Internet access to the images in collaboration with the University of North Texas Portal to Texas History project; and (5) provide public access to the collections and research of the Star of the Republic Museum.