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TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. The Texas State Historical Association, a nonprofit organization with offices on the University of Texas at Austin campus, developed from an interest in the history of the state shared by ten individuals who met on the campus of the University of Texas on February 13, 1897. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the founding of an organization to promote the discovery, collection, preservation, and publication of historical material pertaining to Texas. The assemblage included academic and lay historians, a blend of membership that has been preserved until the present. George P. Garrison,qv Eugene Digges, and Charles Corner drafted a constitution for the organization and invited 250 persons to attend a general organizational meeting held in Austin on March 2, 1897. Former governors Oran M. Roberts and Francis R. Lubbock,qv former congressman and railroad commissioner John H. Reagan, George T. Winston, A. J. Rose,qv and Garrison signed the letter of invitation. Approximately twenty-five persons attended the first formal meeting in the office of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics, and History in the Capitol.qv Roberts was elected president, and Dudley G. Wooten, Julia Lee Sinks, Guy M. Bryan,qv and Corner were elected vice presidents. Garrison was elected secretary and librarian, and Lester G. Bugbeeqv was named treasurer and corresponding secretary. The meeting was conducted by the light of two lanterns, since the lighting system failed; lanterns lighting the path of historical discovery have served as the symbol of the association ever since. Because those attending included Dora Fowler Arthur, Julia Lee Sinks, and Bride Neill Taylor,qv a spirited discussion over female membership developed. John S. Fordqv wanted to call the women "lady members" in the constitution, rather than just "members," and he grew especially concerned over the term Fellow, which he maintained could not apply to a woman. Garrison and the women were unable to change his mind, and Ford stormed from the meeting. The officers met at the University of Texas on May 23, 1897, to plan the first official annual meeting, which was held in Austin on June 17, 1897. In an address entitled "The Proper Work of the Association," Roberts observed that many of the members had been important figures in the making of Texas history and that their role was "not so much...the writing of a connected and complete history as to furnish the facts for that object in the future." In accord with this precept, the early issues of the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, which began publication in July 1897, contained numerous letters, diaries, journals, and memoirs. The title of the publication became Southwestern Historical Quarterlyqv in the volume for 1912-13, and it is now the oldest continuously published learned journal in the state. Garrison's original title, secretary of the association, in time became executive director as duties of the office multiplied. The executive director must be a faculty member of the University of Texas and is also director of the Center for Studies in Texas History, a university department. The university provides financial support for several staff positions; other positions are funded by the association. The association continued to host annual meetings, where members shared the results of research during the first week of March in Austin until 1968, when the meeting was held in San Antonio in conjunction with HemisFair '68.qv During the 1970s semi-annual meetings also were held in other Texas cities during the fall to give members in each section of the state a greater opportunity to participate. Since 1970 annual meetings have been held in Austin in even-numbered years and in other cities in alternate years. An important event at the annual meeting is an auction of donated books, artifacts, and works of art to raise funds for the association's activities. In addition to publishing the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, the association began publishing books of interest to Texas historians in 1918. The publication program proceeded on a case-by-case basis until 1940, when a formal endowment to support this activity was established. The association's members collected books and documents to improve the Texana collection in the library of the University of Texas, supported local and regional historical societies and associations, and in 1941 began the Junior Historians of Texasqv program to encourage an interest in the history of Texas among students in secondary schools. By 1980 this activity had become the Educational Division of the association, which publishes the Texas Historian, a forum for student writers, as well as educational materials for teachers of Texas history. The division also administers the Walter Prescott Webb Society for college-level students of Texas history. The most significant publication of the association has been The Handbook of Texas, edited by Walter P. Webb and H. Bailey Carrollqv and published in two volumes in 1952; a supplementary volume edited by Eldon S. Branda appeared in 1976. The original volumes were the first encyclopedia of a single state to appear, and contained over 16,500 articles on persons, places, and events of importance in many aspects of Texas history and life. The present revision of the Handbook began in 1982 and appeared in 1996. The association was quartered initially in the Department of History at the University of Texas. It moved in 1950 to the Barker Texas History Centerqv and in 1971 to Sid Richardson Hall, where it shares quarters with the Center for American History.qv The association had more than 3,500 members in 1995. Its high-standard publications and educational activities continued. The association's claim to be the "Oldest Learned Society in Texas" is a testimony to its endurance and successful service. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dorman Winfrey, Seventy-five Years of Texas History: The Texas State Historical Association, 1897-1972 (Austin: Jenkins, 1975).
Archie P. McDonald
The Handbook of Texas Online is a project of the Texas State Historical Association (http://www.tshaonline.org).
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