McWhiney History Education Group

03/27/2025

Trouble, Trials, and Vexations: The Journal and Correspondence of Rachel Perry Moores, Texas Plantation Mistress. Edited By Thomas W. Cutrer. Kerrville, TX: State House Press, 2024. Paperback, 388 pp. $39.95. Reviewed by Greg M. Romaneck “I never felt sadder than when seeing my husband drive off t...

11/21/2024

On November 25, 2024 Texas A & M University will be offering most books for 50% off, including State House Press books. Just go to www.tamupress.com to order your books!

11/09/2024

“Landmark Maps of Texas” is indispensable, a must-read book." ⭐

Book review by Mark Lardas, October 27, 2024

“Landmark Maps of Texas: The Frank and Carol Holcomb Collection,” by Frank H. Holcomb, State House Press, September 2024, 256 pages, $100.00 (Hardcover)

"Computers in the 21st century have pretty much made printed atlases and paper maps obsolete. Yet pouring through a printed atlas or examining a well-printed, large paper map offers pleasure as tactile as visual.

“Landmark Maps of Texas: The Frank and Carol Holcomb Collection,” by Frank H. Holcomb exemplifies the pleasures a well-printed map collection offers. It contains maps of Texas and the United States from 1513 to 1904. These illustrate the discovery and development of Texas over that period, and put the state in context with the United States.

The book opens with three relatively short sections introducing the collection, discussing the role of maps and map-making. These sections offer chapters on six foundational maps of Texas, a discussion of its discovery and exploration, and a chapter on the shaping of modern Texas. These occupy about 45 of the books 256 pages.

This is followed by nearly 200 pages of maps. It opens with Martin Walseemüller’s 1513 Tabula Terre Nove, a first attempt to map the newly-discovered Americas. It closes with the 1904 map “The Scarborough Company’s New Railroad, Post Office and County Map of Texas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory,” a chromolithograph of Texas after the 1900 census. Between the two is a parade of maps demonstrating the evolution and development of both cartography and Texas.

The maps are gorgeous. There are over one hundred full-page, full color maps accompanied by a page of explanation. The creators are a who’s-who of cartography, history, and science. Besides Walseemüller, the book includes maps drawn or commissioned by Stephen Austin, Zebulon Pike, Alexander Humboldt, Karl Baedeker, and many more.

The history presented is as impressive as the maps. The book takes readers through the discovery of the New World. It shows how Texas was explored and settled, how it changed from Terra Incognita to New Spain to Mexico, to the Republic of Texas, and to the State of Texas. It shows how Texas grew from a frontier territory to a major industrial state. Along the way, it shows how cartography evolved, showing the changes in mapmaking and map printing over 400 years.

For those interested in Texas history, especially those who appreciate cartography and its art, “Landmark Maps of Texas” is indispensable, a must-read book. Although attractive, it is more than a coffee-table book. It is an important reference. Even those casually interested in Texas history will be informed by it."

Review by Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.

Thank you, Mark, for the wonderful review! ⭐

03/24/2024

Our author, Dave Dyer, talking about his book The Road To Jacinto.

03/22/2024

https://westernhorseman.com/culture/phil-collins-remembers-the-alamo/?fbclid=IwAR1OkFFoeSnS3u1zNTf3n-IAP0vS4CTCG4OCzLN_4Z6Cm63SurcHuQo_TAs_aem_AV_eImNXHJZ8_hAazn05AvdWHOO12czdV5Zs8UtCybfjovNTjWchY50S678r7VAEC9M

A rock music legend and Davy Crockett make an unusual Western pair. Phil Collins remembers the Alamo and Texas history.

02/21/2024

Join us next Wednesday for our annual TexS Talks brought to you by Schreiner University’s Texas Center! The theme for this year is Texas Energy. Hosted on campus at the Junkin Campus Ministry Center on February 28, from 6PM to 8PM. The event is free and open to the public!
The overarching theme of the event is to address what energy role Texas will play in not just the national economy, but also the global economy.
Each of the three speakers will present a short discussion followed by a Q&A session. We hope to see you there! ⚡️🐾

02/02/2024

Another installment from our E Pluribus, Texas project. We are going to be very focused this year. Subscribe to The Texas Center at Schreiner University YouTube channel to catch our content when it drops.

We talk a little about what happened to the dinosaurs after they kicked the bucket, the creation of fossil fuels, and the Ice Age in Texas!Image Courtesies:A...

01/10/2024

Here is a book by one of our authors.

Author: Robert L. Gulley

There was never any doubt that Emma Burgemeister shot and killed beer and real estate magnate Otto Koehler on November 12, 1914. The question remained: Why? The deceased was one of the wealthiest and most respected persons in the Southwest and a pillar of the community. As a result, his murder and trial drew national attention. Soon, the entire affair was one of the most famous murder cases ever tried in Bexar County—a part of Texas known to have some notorious characters. Now, for the first time ever, MONEY, MURDER, S*X, AND BEER presents testimony from the trial, legal analysis, and other information that allows the readers to draw their own conclusions regarding the guilt or innocence of the alleged murderer. What makes the story unique is the efforts of officials in San Antonio and friends of Otto Koehler—the victim—to subvert the judicial process to avoid having the case go to trial. For a dead man with a recently spurned mistress, who could predict what secrets might come to light on the witness stand?

11/09/2023

We’re really loving how the art from The Texas Center, McWhiney History Education Group, and multiple other departments from Schreiner University, looks under the gallery lights at Museum of Western Art. Be sure to check out “100 Years of Schreiner University Treasures,” on exhibit until December 16. Congratulations to the whole crew from the Schreiner University Logan Library and volunteers that put this exhibit together!

10/05/2023

Come see our State House Press authors this Saturday- October 7 at the Boerne Book Festival !
COMANCHES, CAPTIVES, AND GERMANS
11:30 A.M. | Panel Discussion Tent
Moderator: Kathryn Adam Hurst
Authors: Daniel Gelo, Bryden Moon, Christopher Wickham

08/18/2023

An interview with two of the four authors of Comanches, Captives, and Germans: Wilhelm Friedrich’s Drawings from the Texas Frontier. Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham are interviewed by The Bookmark.

https://www.amazon.com/Comanches-Captives-Germans-Friedrichs-Drawings/dp/1649670133

Comanches, Captives, and Germans: Wilhelm Friedrich’s Drawings from the Texas Frontier

08/07/2023

Book Review
Whiskey and Texas
Reviewed by Mark Lardas
August 6, 2023

“Fires, Floods, Explosions, and Bloodshed: A History of Texas Whiskey,” by Andrew Braunberg, State House Press, 2023, 202 pages, $16.95 (paperback)

Texas and whiskey go back to its beginnings. The Cherokee name of the Republic of Texas’s first President, Sam Houston, was “Big Drunk.” He did not get drunk on Chablis. He drank whiskey.

“Fires, Floods, Explosions, and Bloodshed: A History of Texas Whiskey,” by Andrew Braunberg tells the story of Texas and distillation. He starts at the beginning and takes the story forward to the present.

It starts earlier than most might imagine. Braunberg shows the first tipple distilled in Texas was brandy, starting in the 16th century. The product of Spanish vineyards along the Rio Grande it was big business through the end of the 1700s. Whiskey came later, after rum. It arrived with the Old 300, Moses Austin’s first Anglo colony. Sugar-based rum lost out to whiskey, because grain was easier to produce in Texas.

Braunberg describes what happened over the next century. The manufactories of the 19th century were small, undercapitalized enterprises, run by sole proprietors. The process involved steam engines (then little understood), volatile gases and manufacturers occasionally sampling the wares as they made them. Fires and explosions – with the resulting bloodshed – frequently resulted. Everyone was going to get rich making whiskey, but wealth rarely followed.

Braunberg takes readers into the mysteries of distilling. Part of the book describes the history of whiskey-making and the changes in the process developed during the 19th century. This includes a discussion of the role aging in charred barrels play. (Prior to aging all whiskey was “white lighting” a clear spirit with a mule’s kick.)

He shows the place whiskey played in Texas society. He presents its saloon culture, showing how whiskey mixed with and became part of the cowboy folklore. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the earlier parts of the book, most whiskey consumed in Texas between the Civil War and Prohibition was manufactured outside Texas.

He also shows how abolition grew in Texas, an outgrowth of the disorder caused by drunken behavior accompanying Texas’s saloon culture. The reaction was inevitable. Carry Nation, a leading abolitionist, started her crusade in Texas. Texas was one of the leading states in the movement, banning alcohol even before Prohibition.

While the book largely ends at Prohibition, Braunberg adds a small coda ending the book, showing the rise of the micro distillery industry in Texas. “Fires, Floods, Explosions, and Bloodshed” is and entertaining and informative book. Braunberg shows readers an underappreciated part of Texas history.

Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.

Mark Lardas
League City, TX