Executive Record Books (1835-1917)

Keeping a record of the proceedings and correspondence of the Executive Office was first required by the General Council, the governing body created during the Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas Constitution of 1836 continued this law as it was not repealed or otherwise ended.

Starting with the 1846 law defining the duties of the Secretary of State  and continuing with each constitution of the State of Texas, the Texas Secretary of State is required to keep a complete register of all official acts and proceedings of the Texas Governor and to provide these to the legislature when required.

These records comprise the executive record books maintained by the Texas Secretary of State. TSLAC holds Texas Secretary of State executive record books  dating 1835-1917.

The executive record books include the following:

• Correspondence (mostly outgoing) of the Presidents of the Republic of Texas and Governors of the state, primarily with other Texas and U.S. officials
• Inaugural and valedictory addresses
• Executive messages
• Indian treaties
• Proclamations (including clemency proclamations)
• Appointments and resignations
• Passports
• Pardons and remissions
• Extraditions
• Rewards
• Reports of state agencies

Some Texas Department of State (later Texas Secretary of State) records are also present, consisting primarily of election returns. Staff prepared a detailed list of election returns found within the Executive Record Books microfilm reels 2-10.

• Download Election Returns in Executive Record Books (PDF format, 278 KB)
• You can browse the list by reel number or search the text by keyword.

Let us know if you have trouble downloading or opening the file. More information about accessing the microfilm is below. 

Images of the original Executive Record Books volumes have been digitized and are available online through the Texas Digital Archive .

• Once you enter the digitized records, the images are listed by the name(s) from the title of each entry in the record book.
• Use the filters on the left panel to refine results by office and/or term, or you can search by keyword within the collection.

If the digitized records above do not meet your needs, the microfilm is available for researchers to use in person or request through interlibrary loan (ILL). Please note that the images available online through the Texas Digital Archive were digitized from these microfilm reels.

The reels are organized chronologically by the date of the entry in the record book. The online finding aid  lists the records by title, reel number, and date(s).

To request to view or borrow a specific reel number from the finding aid, match the archives reel number to the equivalent library call number using the following chart:

Archives reel number:	Library catalog call number:
3472	353.91 T312E EX-1
3473	353.91 T312E EX-2
3474	353.91 T312E EX-3
3475	353.91 T312E EX-4
3476	353.91 T312E EX-5
3477	353.91 T312E EX-6
3478	353.91 T312E EX-7
3479	353.91 T312E EX-8
3480	353.91 T312E EX-9
3481	353.91 T312E EX-10
3482	353.91 T312E EX-11
3483	353.91 T312E EX-12
3484	353.91 T312E EX-13
3485	353.91 T312E EX-14

In person use. To request a hold in advance of your visit, call 512-463-5455 or email [email protected] with the specific reel number(s).

Interlibrary loan. If you're unable to visit us in person, your local library may submit a request on your behalf for up to five (5) microfilm reels from our collection. When requesting microfilm, please provide your library with OCLC #21926288 and the TSLAC library catalog call number for the reel you wish to request. Find Texas libraries near you using our Find a Library tool.

Although we are unable to provide photocopies of records from this collection, patrons are welcome to print or save images from the Texas Digital Archive or the microfilm.

Because the original ledgers are extremely fragile, we will not pull them for research needs unless the requested image is completely illegible.

In addition to the election returns found in the Executive Record Books, other sources for state and local election returns are listed in our Historical Elections and Election Registers research guides.

Governors’ records from the time period of interest may include information helpful to your research. Online finding aids to records of Texas governors and similar topics in our archival holdings are available on our Processed State and Local Records webpage.