Texas State Historical Association

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Texas State Historical Association Mailing Address: PO Box 5428, Austin, TX 78763
Telephone: (512) 471-2600

Hispanic Heritage Month ends today, and we’re closing it with five Tejanos who shaped Texas.Juan N. Seguín led Tejano tr...
10/15/2026

Hispanic Heritage Month ends today, and we’re closing it with five Tejanos who shaped Texas.

Juan N. Seguín led Tejano troops at San Jacinto and later served as mayor of San Antonio. José Antonio Navarro signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. In Laredo, Jovita Idar used her newspaper to fight for the rights of Mexican Americans. Emma Tenayuca was just 21 when she led the 1938 pecan shellers’ strike in San Antonio. Dr. Héctor P. García founded the American GI Forum and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Their stories, and more than 1,200 others, are waiting in the Handbook of Tejano History. Who are your favorite Tejanos from Texas history?

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/projects/tejano-history

Attention Texas history community! Registration is now open for the 2027 TSHA Annual Meeting in Abilene, March 3–6. Regi...
10/14/2026

Attention Texas history community! Registration is now open for the 2027 TSHA Annual Meeting in Abilene, March 3–6. Register early for just $99, open to members and non-members.

We’ll kick things off at the Welcome Reception at Frontier Texas. The next morning, start your day at Coffee with the Camels, and from there you can explore a full program of Texas history sessions, screenings, and special events.

The early bird gets the best rate! Register at am.tsha.events

Join us tonight for the next Texas Talks presentation featuring Dr. Walter D. Kamphoefner, Texas A&M University History ...
10/13/2026

Join us tonight for the next Texas Talks presentation featuring Dr. Walter D. Kamphoefner, Texas A&M University History professor, jointly sponsored by TSHA, the German-Texan Heritage Society, and the Dallas Goethe Center.

Dr. Kamphoefner will speak on Texas’s multilingual heritage, putting the state’s multicultural and multilingual history into perspective. Texas was “officially” trilingual from its earliest days, with the state constitution and laws translated into Spanish and German, with Czech soon following. Sign up today, it’s free for everyone!

Register now: https://tsha.wildapricot.org/event-6771664

Today is DAF Day, the national giving day for donor-advised funds.If you have a DAF, you can make a gift to the Texas St...
10/08/2026

Today is DAF Day, the national giving day for donor-advised funds.

If you have a DAF, you can make a gift to the Texas State Historical Association in just a few minutes, right from our website. Your gift helps keep the Handbook of Texas free for everyone and supports Texas History Day and Junior Historians.

Give from your DAF: https://www.tshaonline.org/give-now/daf

On this day in 1946, the Dallas Health Museum opened its first exhibit to the public. The museum was founded by a group ...
10/05/2026

On this day in 1946, the Dallas Health Museum opened its first exhibit to the public. The museum was founded by a group of doctors, dentists, and lay people "to provide a common channel of enthusiastic effort for all the forces of health in Dallas and the Southwest." Dallas doctors Oscar Marchman and Milford Rouse were among the founders. The museum, which was the first to be devoted entirely to health in the Southwest and the second of its type in the nation, held its first exhibit at the State Fair of Texas. The Dallas Park Department supplied the building for this first exhibit, which borrowed items from area organizations and museums throughout the nation. During this first exhibition, held on October 5-20, 1946, 40,000 visitors attended the displays. On February 1, 1947, the museum opened full-time in a 10,000-square-foot space leased from the Dallas Park Department at Fair Park. In 1981 the museum was renamed the Science Place, and in 2006 it merged with the Dallas Museum of Natural History and the Dallas Children's Museum to form the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science. In 2012 a new primary campus, named in honor of philanthropists Ross and Margot Perot, opened in Victory Park. The original Fair Park location was consolidated and retained as a secondary campus.

Five hundred years of Texas history, one day at a time. Texas On This Day gives you stories from Texas history for every...
10/01/2026

Five hundred years of Texas history, one day at a time. Texas On This Day gives you stories from Texas history for every date on the calendar. Order it by tomorrow and we'll include the 2026–2027 Texas Almanac, the Official State Book of Texas, for free. Both books for $39.99. The offer ends October 2.

https://www.legacyoftexas.com/product/totd-and-texas-almanac-bundle

On this day in 1837, John P. Borden opened the General Land Office in Houston. John, with his brother Gail Borden Jr., h...
10/01/2026

On this day in 1837, John P. Borden opened the General Land Office in Houston. John, with his brother Gail Borden Jr., had surveyed and laid out the town of Houston in 1836. As first commissioner of the new land office, John Borden faced the monumental job of compiling and preserving the many Spanish and Mexican land titles issued before the republic. He began with no funds or employees to assist him, yet by the end of 1837 he had successfully acquired documents from all over Texas. He also registered and surveyed new grants. In 1839 he moved the General Land Office to Austin and transported almost 5,000 pounds of documents by wagon. The military bounties, veteran donations, headrights, and homestead preemptions issued by Borden and successive commissioners amounted to more than 75 million acres granted to individuals.

Anybody want to go hiking? On this day in 1972, Guadalupe Mountains National Park was established. The 76,293-acre park ...
09/30/2026

Anybody want to go hiking? On this day in 1972, Guadalupe Mountains National Park was established. The 76,293-acre park in Hudspeth and Culberson counties includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at over 8,700 feet. Indian rock art sites indicate Native American occupation as far back as 12,000 years, and the Apaches lived in the Guadalupe Mountains as late as the 1880s. In the 1920s J. C. Hunter purchased the Guadalupe Mountain Ranch and raised Angora goats there. Efforts to preserve the land as a park date to the 1930s when Hunter’s son offered to donate 300 acres of scenic McKittrick Canyon to the state of Texas. By the 1960s land donations and sales to the National Park Service paved the way for the establishment of a national park. Guadalupe Mountains National Park contains eighty miles of trails, and the maple and hardwood trees of McKittrick Canyon offer brilliant fiery hues for hikers in the autumn.

On this day in 1864, Milton Holland, of the Fifth United States Colored Troops, earned the Medal of Honor for action at ...
09/29/2026

On this day in 1864, Milton Holland, of the Fifth United States Colored Troops, earned the Medal of Honor for action at Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, Virginia. He was born a slave in either Carthage or Austin, Texas, in 1844. After enlisting in the United States Army in 1863, he rose to the rank of regimental sergeant major and led his regiment after all its white officers were either wounded or killed. He received the Medal of Honor on April 6, 1865, and was mustered out of the service on September 20 of that year.

Tonight in Austin: Gaylon Finklea Hecker and Marianne Odom present Growing Up in the Lone Star State: Notable Texans Rem...
09/24/2026

Tonight in Austin: Gaylon Finklea Hecker and Marianne Odom present Growing Up in the Lone Star State: Notable Texans Remember Their Childhoods, featuring interviews with Lady Bird Johnson, Dan Rather, Nolan Ryan, Tommy Tune and more.

The talk is the fall kick-off of the Austin Club's new Curated Book Collection & Speaker Series at the historic Millett's Opera House, 110 E. 9th Street. Light bites and punch at 5:30, program at 6:00. Signed copies will be available for purchase afterward.

RSVP to the Austin Club at 512-477-9496.

Address

3001 Lake Austin Boulevard, Ste 3. 116
Austin, TX
78703

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+15124712600

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