Texas History Trust

04/23/2024

This is the next front in the War for Texas History.

Texas is taking on DEI, but what about our museums?

03/30/2024

Here is the part of the thirteen day Siege of the Alamo you don't hear much about, days four through eleven. We call it the Middle Week. Give the video a watch. You will probably find some things you didn't know.

If you have the means, please consider making a donation to support this ongoing project TexasHistoryTrust.org.

The BattleCry Texas series covers the events of the Texas Revolution from the perspectives of the people who took part.

It will eventually be dozens of videos grounded in verifiable facts. In other words, real history.

https://youtu.be/W-YUQTokAbE?si=xDZ95IH6CfGaYj_0

We all know the basics of the Alamo story - large army under Santa Anna lays siege to a mission-turned-fort defended by fewer than 200 men in San Antonio. In...

03/24/2024

03/13/2024

We all know the basics of the Alamo story - large army under Santa Anna lays siege to a mission-turned-fort defended by fewer than 200 men in San Antonio.

The Texians were all smoked (literally) and the loss became a rallying point for the rest of the Texas Revolution. But what happened in the days before the final assault? This is the first in a series of videos that unpack the days of the siege.

Special thanks to James Boddie for permission to use his fantastic 3D renderings of the Alamo compound. Thanks to military artist, Gary Zaboly, for the use of some of his remarkable illustrations. You both helped bring the story to life.

The primary reference book for the details of the siege was Blood of Noble Men by COL. Alan Huffines.

We all know the basics of the Alamo story - large army under Santa Anna lays siege to a mission-turned-fort defended by fewer than 200 men in San Antonio. Th...

03/04/2024

DOUBLE GOOD NEWS

We have two significant bits of good news to share with you.

GOOD NEWS THE FIRST:

The Texas State Historical Association held its 128th annual meeting in College Station last week.

The turnout was excellent, and unlike recent meetings, no viewpoints were excluded and there was healthy debate in the sessions.

The membership met on Friday and elected a slate of new academic and non-academic board members. The board is now balanced as required by the bylaws.

The Association can once again carry out its important mission and continue as a trusted source of information about Texas history. Long may it be so.

Congratulations to Executive Director J. P. Bryan, President Ken Wise, the board and the hardworking staff on the most successful and productive meeting in years.

The contrast with the drama and dysfunction of 2023 could not be more stark.

GOOD NEWS THE SECOND:

The Texas Historical Commission, the state agency charged with the preservation and interpretation of state owned historic sites, has a new Executive Director. You may have seen his name on social media as he visits those historic sites.

Edward Lingel's impressive resume includes stints as director of the George Washington Papers Project, Chief Historian of the White House Historical Association, Chief Historian of the National Medal of Honor Museum, Revolutionary in Residence at Colonial Williamsburg and Senior Director of Programs at the National World War II Museum.

Dr. Lengel is the author of nine books including First Entrepreneur: How George Washington Built His - and the Nation's - Prosperity, as well as Thunder and Flames: Americans in the Crucible of Combat, 1917-1918 for which he won the Outstanding Book Award from the Army Historical Foundation.

He is the type of serious-minded historian and preservationist needed in this position. Texas History Trust salutes Chairman John Nau and the Texas Historical Commission for bucking the OOPSie trend and supporting fact-based history. Bravo for making a great choice for Texas.

We wish Dr. Lengel the best of luck in this pivotal role.

MORE TO COME...

In the coming days we'll be telling you about what's going on in our museums (hint: it ain’t good) and with that little Texas Monthly story, but for now, lets savor two big wins for history, scholarship, and viewpoint diversity.

03/04/2024

If you've ever driven into downtown Houston along N. Main you probably noticed this old building on the bayou at Allen's Landing. It was built in 1910 and was originally a coffee warehouse, It's been a lot of things since.

In the late 1960s it was a psychedelic hippie hangout called Love Street Light Circus Feel Good Machine. It featured go-go dancers and a "zonk out" room.

Bands like Bubble Puppy and the 13th Floor Elevators were on the venue. The Moving Sidewalks played there, then came back after Billy Gibbons reformed the band as ZZ Top. Jimi Hendrix jammed with them.

It was so successful that satellite locations were opened in San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Those didn't last long.

In Corpus Christi the cops camped out across the street and arrested all those re**er addicted South Texas flower-children as they left the building.

Love Street was run by David Adickes. He later became a sculptor. If you are driving into Huntsville from the south, that giant statue of Sam Houston is his work.

02/19/2024

Thomas G. Western, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Republic of Texas, wrote to President Anson Jones on Christmas eve, 1844.

His letter briefed the president on relations between Texas and the various tribes.

SOURCE: Texas History Trust - The Taproot Project
The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest - Vol. 2. - page 154

Click the link to read the entire letter:
https://archive.texashistorytrust.org/view/49753277/160/

02/17/2024

José de las Piedras, commander of Mexican forces in Nacogdoches, demonstrates his misunderstanding of how revolutions occur.

He was writing to the Ayuntamiento (council) of San Felipe directing them to use every means available to help quash the first of the Anahuac Disturbances.

You can read the entire letter here:
https://archive.texashistorytrust.org/view/183476762/100/
The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar - volume I, page 94

02/16/2024

A few lines from a letter written by Sam Houston to the chief of the Wacos in 1843, encouraging him to return horses taken from the Lipan and Tonkawas.

From The Writings of Sam Houston. Edited by Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker. Vol. 3. page 364. You can read the entire letter at the link below.
https://archive.texashistorytrust.org/view/728600718/390/

02/16/2024

We are now accepting applications for the 2024 TSLAC Research Fellowship in Texas History, a $2,000 stipend awarded for the best research proposal utilizing the collections of the State Archives in Austin or the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty, Texas.

Visit www.tsl.texas.gov/arc/researchfellowship to learn more and apply by March 31.

02/15/2024

Alexander Sweet, along with his partner, Armoy Knox, published Texas Siftings, one of the most popular magazines in the world during the 1880s and 90s.

02/11/2024

HOW DR PEPPER EMBRACED BEING DIFFERENT

This Texas original has always been a soft drink underdog. It's less fizzy than other soft drinks and has a unique flavor profile. The only way to understand what it tastes like is to drink a Dr Pepper. It's as different as the place it comes from.

Although the 23 flavors in a Pepper are top secret, the best educated guesses we've seen are as follows: amaretto, almond, blackberry, black licorice, carrot, clove, cherry, caramel, cola, ginger, juniper, lemon, molasses, nutmeg, orange, prune, plum, pepper, root beer, rum, raspberry, tomato, and vanilla.

On paper, those flavors ain't exactly harmonious but our taste buds tell us otherwise. Because it's a unique concoction, Dr Pepper always stood apart from its competitors. Today, we view that as a feature, not a bug, but it wasn't always that way. We can see that in its ad campaigns.

DP's first slogan (1889-1914) had characteristic Texas boldness: The King of Beverages!

For the next two decades, the brand promoted itself as a digestive aid and an energy drink. When new research showed that sugar gave humans a little jolt of energy, Dr Pepper minted a new slogan: "Drink a Bite to Eat at 10, 2, and 4 o'clock."

The feelings of prosperity and freedom in the post-WWII era ushered in a more pithy slogan, still staked to the sugar in the drink The 1950s ads called it the "Friendly Pepper Upper" and a new character appeared on the scene for the television age: Frosty Dog, whose beatnik catch phrase was, "Frosty, man. Frosty." A little subversive and different, while brands like Coca Cola were making appeals to the mainstream.

By the turbulent 1960s, Dr Pepper fully embraced being different. Its new slogan was "America's Most Misunderstood Soft Drink." This reflected public confusion about the beverage. People wondered - if it's not a cola, what in the hell is it? The folks at Dr. Pepper crafted a jingle to address these concerns. "It's not a cola, it's not a root beer" went the lyrics. Dr Pepper was and is very much its own thing.

Mind you, this was the same decade in which the soft drink once marketed as "frosty, man" advised the public to serve it hot with lemon slices in the winter. This new serving suggestion made it a drink for all seasons. You may know people who still drink it this way when a norther blows in.

In the early 1970s, Dr Pepper stood firm on its uniqueness with the slogan "The Most Original Soft Drink Ever." Later in the decade, disco was in and the Texas drink chimed in with its most famous jingle, encouraging Americans to be as unique as a DP:

I'm a Pepper! He's a Pepper!
She's a Pepper! We're a Pepper!
Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?
Be a Pepper.
Drink Dr Pepper.

This supremely singable jingle was so successful, it caused Coca Cola to sit up and take notice. Coke created a new product that tried to mimic the flavors of Dr Pepper. They called it "Peppo" and test marketed it on Dr Pepper's home turf: Waco, Temple, and Columbus. Dr Pepper wasn't having it. They sued over the name and won. So Coke rebranded Peppo as Mr. PIBB and poured millions into trying to squeeze Dr Pepper out of the market niche it had carves out for itself. PIBB failed.

As the Cola Wars raged in the 1980s, Dr Pepper stayed above the fray, reminding Americans that it was "Out of the Ordinary," implying, perhaps. that Coke and Pepsi were just two sides of the same sugar water cola coin.

Since the 1980s, the Texas original has made its way to other continents where ad campaigns invariably have tried to convey to consumers that the only way to understand what Dr Pepper tastes like is to drink one. It's a weird drink and that's precisely why we love it.