COLLECTED

People traveling to Walt Disney World will have the chance to learn more about our nation’s 43rd president, George W. Bush, through the assistance of UTA Libraries.

A 1991 photo of the former president from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram collection, taken by photographer Ricky Moon and maintained in the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery, will be featured in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. At the time of the photo, January 1991, President Bush was a part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He later was elected governor of Texas and served two terms as president.

“Disney reached out to us and wanted to use one of our photos of George W. Bush when he was doing an event for the Texas Rangers baseball team,” says Sara Pezzoni, photo collections coordinator in Special Collections. “They were looking to display the photo in the Hall of Presidents at the Magic Kingdom right next to the jacket that he was wearing in the photo.”

The digital gallery photo description states that Bush was giving a speech at Arlington Stadium during the “Hands Around Arlington Day.” This event promoted a proposal for constructing a new baseball stadium for the Rangers.

Bush’s efforts succeeded. The Rangers moved into the Ballpark in Arlington, now Choctaw Stadium, for the 1994 season.

“It’s nice to see our collection materials being used beyond our wildest imagination,” Pezzoni says. “I’m just so pleased that the Digital Gallery is reaching people outside of UTA.”

The UTA Libraries Digital Gallery has thousands of photos spanning local, state, national, and UTA history that are free to access online. The gallery can be viewed at https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery.