Most days you can find 82-year-old J.W. Dunlop sitting on a covered porch swing in front of his home a few blocks east of campus.

It started as a modest hobby in the mid-1940s. J.W. Dunlop collected his first historical photographs, mostly of old Arlington schools, from his mother-in-law. He stockpiled others from a couple of local studios and then began asking longtime residents for their pictures.

“I robbed every grandma’s trunk in town,” says the 82-year-old retired Arlington fire marshal. But he quickly adds that he didn’t actually take the photos; he copied them.

By the time he donated his treasures to the UTA Libraries Special Collections Division last June, Dunlop had amassed more than 1,000 images dating from the late 1800s—street scenes, businesses, parades, houses, dignitaries, churches, rallies, soldiers and more.

“I wanted to put them somewhere where people could see them,” he says of his gift to the University. The collection is housed on the sixth floor of the Central Library.

Enjoy a brief journey through Arlington’s past with this sampling. »