TSHA Community

Great publications from our members and award recipients.

These books were authored by members of TSHA or received one of TSHA’s book awards. They are provided here for reference and support of the historical content they contain.

List of Publications (126 total) Page 11 of 11

River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado

Writer and artist Margie Crisp has traveled the length of Texas’ Colorado River, which rises in Dawson County, south of Lubbock, and flows 860 miles southeast across the state to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda Bay. Echoing the truth of Heraclitus’s ancient dictum, the river’s character changes dramatically from its dusty headwaters on the High Plains to its meandering presence on the coastal prairie. The Colorado is the longest river with both its source and its mouth in Texas, and its water, from beginning to end, provides for the state’s agricultural, municipal, and recreational needs.

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By Margie Crisp

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Ron Tyler Award for Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture.

Llano Estacado: An Island in the Sky

El Llano Estacado, a major new work of Western History, reveals the historical heart of one of the world’s unique regions--the enormous mesaland of the Southern High Plains in Texas and New Mexico. From the Canadian River in the north to the Edwards Plateau in the south, from the Pecos River in the west to the fantastic canyonlands of the Red, Pease, Brazos, and Colorado Rivers in the east, the 50,000 square miles of "the Llano" are chronicled over three centuries with an eye to the history and compelling mystery of this special land.

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By Stephen Bogener and William Tydeman

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Ron Tyler Award for Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture.

Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas & Mexico

In a work of sweeping breadth and beauty, Geoff Winningham has created a profusely illustrated, contemplative travel journal that showcases his talent as both a photographer and a writer and reveals his affection and respect for the two countries he calls home. In 2003, photographer Geoff Winningham saw for the first time both the southern coast of Veracruz, with its volcanoes, rain forests, and steep mountains, and the Texas coast near High Island, where the land seems to stretch endlessly, covered by a sea of salt grass. He decided that these two visually striking areas could be the beginning and end points of a photographic study that would also engage the two cultures in which he had lived for twenty years, the U.S. and Mexico.

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By Geoff Winningham

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Ron Tyler Award for Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture.

Colors on Clay: The San Jose Tile Workshops of San Antonio

Equal parts art, biography, and history, Colors on Clay brings to life the artistry, designers, and styles that brought the San José Workshops’ distinctive art pottery to international prominence. Author Susan Toomey Frost tells the story of how two colorful characters, Ethel Wilson Harris and her talented designer Fernando Ramos, revived a dying Mexican art and eventually became the driving forces behind three San Antonio art tile factories, known collectively as the San José Workshops. Produced from 1931 through 1977, the factories’ tiles and wares became celebrated throughout the world and prized in San Antonio for both public and private installations. In addition to historical and biographical information, Frost provides detailed information on authentic tiles, helping collectors steer clear of the many reproductions on the market. Featuring 300 full-color illustrations, including never-before-seen drawings, this exhaustively researched and eminently readable book is an important addition to any collector’s library.

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By Susan Toomey Frost

Recipient of the Ron Tyler Award for Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture.

Capturing Nature: The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodriquez

Over a period of some twenty years, Mexican-born artisan Dionicio Rodríguez created imaginative sculptures of reinforced concrete that imitated the natural forms and textures of trees and rocks. He worked in eight different states from 1924 through the early 1950s but spent much of his early career in San Antonio, where several of his creations have become beloved landmarks. More than a dozen of Rodríguez’s works have been included on the National Register of Historic Places. Patsy Pittman Light has spent a decade documenting the trabajo rústico (“rustic work”) of Rodríguez, along with its antecedents in Europe and Mexico, and the subsequent work of those Rodríguez trained in San Antonio. Rodríguez’s unique and unusual art will fascinate those new to it and delight those to whom it is familiar. San Antonio sites such as the bus stop on Broadway, the faux bois bridge in Brackenridge Park, and the “rocks” on the Miraflores Gate at the San Antonio Museum of Art, along with the Old Mill at T. R. Pugh Memorial Park in North Little Rock and Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, are just a few of the locations covered in this volume celebrating the life and work of a Latino artisan. Students and devotees of Texas and Southwestern art will welcome this book and its long-overdue appreciation of this artist. Additionally, this book will commend itself to those interested in Latino studies, art history, and folklore.

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By Patsy Pittman Light

Recipient of the Ron Tyler Award for Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture.

Country Houses of John F. Staub

In the early 1920s, architect John F. Staub, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, who had studied at MIT and worked in New York, came to the burgeoning city of Houston as an assistant to nationally prominent architect Harrie T. Lindeberg. Staub was charged with administering construction of three houses designed by Lindeberg for members of the city’s rapidly emerging elite. He would go on to establish one of the most influential architectural practices in Houston, where he would remain until his death in 1981.

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By Richard Cheek and Stephen Fox

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Ron Tyler Award for Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture.