Texas Biography Series Announced

The Center for Texas Studies at TCU announces the TCU Texas Biography Series to encourage modern, scholarly biographies of notable Texas figures. While such high profile Texans as Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin have received recent and thorough study, many important Texans have not received the attention their lives or contributions merit. This series is made possible by a generous grant from the Houston Endowment, which provides a research stipend for authors whose proposals are accepted by the series editors and the TCU Press Editorial Board. For guidelines and further information, contact series editors and the TCU Press Editorial Board. For guidelines and further information, contact series editor Gregg Cantrell, TCU Box 297260, Fort Worth, Texas 76129, G.Cantrell@tcu.edu.

Cushing Library Exhibit Commemorates Lowman Collection

The Cushing Library commemorated the Al Lowman Collection with an exhibit that was on display through March 2005. Centered on Al Lowman’s work, “Printing Arts in Texas,” a history of fine printing in Texas until 1975, the exhibit featured materials related to book designers and printers discussed by Lowman. The exhibit displayed trade and special editions of exemplary books, as well as their many significant and unique features such as typography, layout, and illustrations. According to Steven Smith, Director of Cushing Library, “This exhibit is a ‘must see’ for those interested in the history of fine printing and book design in Texas. It illustrates that well-designed books merge form and content, elegantly matching the book itself with its subject. Rooted in Texas history, art, and culture, this exhibit appeals to all Texans, not just the book hounds.”

Member Activities

Richard White is the incoming president of the Organization of American Historians for 2007. His program chairs for the 2007 OAH conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota are Peggy Pascoe and John Mack Faragher. The 2006 OAH President is Vicki Ruiz.

Andrew Graybill, Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, received one of the Bill and Rita Clements Research Fellowships for the Study of Southwestern America. During his fellowship year at the Clements Center, he will revise his doctoral thesis for publication as a monograph, with the tentative title of “Instruments of Incorporation: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875–1910.”  Brian Frehner, who received his Ph.D. (2003) in history from the University of Oklahoma, is also one of the recipients of the Bill and Rita Clements Research Fellowships for the Study of Southwestern America. The manuscript he will work on during his fellowship year is derived from his dissertation, “From Creekology to Geology: Finding and Conserving Oil on the Southern Plains, 1860–1930.”

Elaine Showalter, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, was awarded the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellowship 2004–2005 research award to work on her research of American Women Writers, 1650–2000.

Stephen Aron and Paul Hutton, along with film historian Frank Thompson, provide the audio commentary for the new two-disc DVD release of the 1985 film Silverado.

Hal Rothman was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame on October 5, 2004, only the third historian to be so honored. In August, his Encyclopedia of the National Parks, co-authored with Sara Dant Ewert of Weber State, was published by M. E. Sharpe and Company.

John Porter Bloom received the 2004 Jeff Dykes Memorial Award, recognizing his notable contributions to Western affairs. The speaker at the presentation was Jo Tice Bloom.

Elaine M. Nelson received a $1,000 research grant from the Nebraska State Historical Society for the 2004 grant cycle. Her proposal is centered on Eunice Woodhall Stabler’s experiences as an Omaha Indian woman from 1885 to 1963. Her work will include research in the Stabler papers and other records held at the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Los Angeles playwright Mary F. Casey won the 2003 Butcher Scholar Award for her proposal, “Wide Open Spaces: Alternate Stories of the American Wests.”  Utilizing the Autry Library’s research archives and recent Western scholarship, Casey’s final project was a full-length play interweaving history and myth through five generations of three nontraditional Western women and their families. A staged reading of “Wide Open Spaces” was held in the Autry National Center’s Wells Fargo Theater in May 2004.

Malcolm Rohrbough, Professor at University of Iowa, was awarded an NEH Fellowship 2004–2005 to research the French and the California Gold Rush, 1849–1854.

Ramona Caplan was invited to be on the Board of Directors for the new Marmon Foundation for Education & Advancement of Native American Youth. Caplan is also the recipient of the Anderson Family Fellowship at the Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico.

Almonte’s Texas: Juan N. Almonte’s 1834 Inspections, Secret Report, and Role in the 1836 Campaign, edited by Jack Jackson, has won three different awards, including the TSHA’s Bates Award for the best book up to 1900, the Sons of the Republic of Texas Summerfield G. Roberts Award, and the Dallas Public Library Award for the most significant contribution to knowledge, awarded by the Texas Institute of Letters.

Samuel Truett, Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, was awarded the Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2004-2005 to work on his “Old New Worlds: Ruins, Nations, and Antiquity in the Borderlands.”

T. Lindsey Baker, director of the W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, a research facility of Tarleton State University, took part in the 50th anniversary celebration for the Texas Historical Commission held recently in Austin. Baker was one of several historians invited to speak. Baker moderated  a session on “Museums and Economic Development” at the annual meeting of the Texas Association of Museums in Waco. He chaired a second session in Abilene for a joint meeting of the Texas Map Society and the West Texas Historical Association. The May–June 2004 issue of The Medallion, published by the Texas Historical Commission, discusses Dr. Baker’s career in the third in a series of articles on important figures in Texas historic preservation.