Ruby Schmidt Collection

Tarrant County Archives > Holdings > Named Collections > S > Schmidt, Ruby

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Ruby Schmidt was a local historian and genealogist who taught genealogy, oral history, and history courses at local colleges. She served on numerous committees, including the Six Flags Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Fort Worth Genealogical Society, Tarrant County Historical Society, Tarrant County Historical Commission, and cemetery associations. As an early member of the Commission, she helped establish the Tarrant County Archives. 

Schmidt spent her life studying Tarrant County history and nearby towns, and she shared her interest with the public by offering public tours of Fort Worth. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she assisted with many local history projects, and she spent years researching and conducting oral histories in Thurber, Texas. In 1984, Schmidt worked with the Tarrant County Historical Society to publish a historic sites guidebook titled Fort Worth & Tarrant County: a Historical Guide. Schmidt received multiple awards for her work.

Photograph of H. C. Schmidt Jr., S. Minshall, and a third unidentified man standing outside the Fort Worth Mercantile Company building, date circa 1895

H. C. Schmidt, Jr., S. Minshall, and an unidentified man in front of the Fort Worth Mercantile Company, circa 1895

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The Ruby Schmidt Collection contains articles, letters, and notes created in preparation for the publication of Fort Worth & Tarrant County: a Historical Guide as well as a copy of the finished manuscript. It also contains her family photographs and copies of photographs of the former 1939 Fort Worth Public Library. The materials are dated from 1894 to the 1984. 

View the Ruby Schmidt image gallery.

Book

  • Fort Worth and Tarrant County: A Historical Guide, edited and revised by Ruby Schmidt, A Project of the Tarrant County Historical Society, Texas Christian University Press, 1984

Documents

  • Manuscript, letters, notes, and citations for the book titled Fort Worth & Tarrant County: a Historical Guide
  • Oral history transcripts of 40 people from Tarrant County who were interviewed for a United States Bicentennial Project, 1975-1977

Photographs

  • 20 family photographs of early Fort Worth businesses, schools, and events, dated 1894-1920
  • Copies of photographs dated from around 1939 of the interior and exterior of the Fort Worth Public Library at 915 Throckmorton, built in 1939 and demolished in 1990