Texas Museums Exhibit Record: A Directory of 2007

Following is the "Introduction" to the December issue of Will's Texana Monthy. We wondered, "What did our museums do this year?"

Introduction

The Texas Museums Exhibits Record: A Directory of 2007 was made possible by the growing sophistication and outreach of the Texas Association of Museums with
the electronic world and the broader bibliographic view of Will’s Texana. We wondered, “What did the museums exhibit this year?” The TAM website has a regular, monthly feature listing its members’ current exhibits as submitted for that purpose. The lists of August onward were captured and interfiled under their respective cities and Texas-based institutions for your inspection. The list is intriguing and inspiring to recognize the variety of productions across the state. December is a great time to visit your local museums.

Museums are curious creatures, for the public as well as for the museums’ staffs. The Texas museum heritage stretches far back. In homes and organizations at some time a few artifacts begin to gather, often for nostalgia, inspiration, merchandizing, or even a legal purpose. In time their location becomes stabilized on a chest of drawers, a cupboard, a shelf, or wrapped carefully away. The keeper began a casual patter for family members, customers, or visitors. Seniors begin jotting notes, enthusiastic youngsters start asking questions, and the ember of a museum begins it slow smolder toward formality. The Handbook of Texas Online offers a brief historical gesture at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/lbm3.html

Most museums’ subjects are local or state oriented and those that are not demonstrate the cosmopolitan nature of Texans as we visually touch the art, business, and technology of other lands. For the present compilation, all exhibits are included here whether they are Texana or not. Not all TAM members post their exhibits with TAM.

We found no current retrospective compilation of Texas museum exhibits, but the electronic world hastens communication and permits this compilation with some ease where previously it would have been onerous.

December exhibits are in red. Although some museums do not show a currently open exhibit they are open for business and your pleasure and edification for their ongoing exhibits and exhibits not reported here. TAM members who do not post their exhibit with TAM are not cited here.

TAM membership includes many institutional members, but some small museums are not members. Their connection to TAM would be beneficial. A brief history of TAM is on their website at “About TAM / History” at
http://www.prismnet.com/~tam/About/history.html

Locations and contact information for each museum can be found on the website at “Find a Museum / TAM Member Links” at http://www.prismnet.com/~tam/Museums/museumlinks.html

Directory of Texana Depositories in Texas

The Directory of Texana in Texas" was developed part of "Will's Texas Annual," and companion to the Monthly and the Parlor blog is being compiled. First released in March 2007, on CD, USB Flash Drive, and paper. Deadline was, Valentine's Day, send info to willstexana@yahoo.com

At present the Directory contains about 800 institutions spread over 125 pages. It is arranged by city. Intended for electronic use, address, telephone, etc are not supplied here, rather the most up to date information will be on the web sites supplied. Each entry often, but not always, contains

City'sName: Institution, web site, Revelevant Department Name, more specific web site address, summary description of depository collection strengths (some a mere line, some an inch or two, and some a page in length).

If you are readers of "Will's Texana Monthly, you've noticed, I'm compiling a Will's Texana Annual, a cumulation of the Monthly with some extra added attractions, including a "Directory of Texana Depositories in Texas ," and a variety of other works totalling about 600 pages.


Does your local institution have a mentionable collection? What about your neighbors?
The Directory is presently intended to include those institutions with Texana "as a subject matter," although I vary. Some institutions are small, some large. My descriptions vary - from a mere institutional mention, or up to a page; some are mine as original, some are taken from web sites, and some offered upon query from the institutions.

One method I used to collect information was to use some pre-existing organizational lists: including the institutional membership of Archivists of the Houston Area, the RHRD depository list, the institutional membership list of the Texas Association of Museums, the list of Texas State government depositories, the list of contributors to TARO, the list of contributors to UNT's Portal to Texas history. I've queried TLA's ALHRT listserv and several other units of TLA, as well as the Metropolitan Archivists (of DFW), the San Antonio Regional Archivists, and the Austin Archivists Association, and the Border Regional Archivist Group (BRAG). I visited a number of public, special, and academic library web sites, but certainly not all. And etc.

While the list has lengthened, it is certainly not comprehensive. I choose to not apply "too strict" a definition of inclusion or exclusion. Yes, the broadest definition would be maybe several thousand, but well, even I wish to enjoy a separate life. I'll collect what I collect and go from there, there after.

If you wish to email to me a separate description of your collection, do please do so. It'd be helpful if a website were named. I'm at willstexana @yahoo.com

If you wish to direct me to other depositories or provide a description of those, please do so.


SAMPLE ENTRIES (unedited as of 1/25) see below

Alpine: Sul Ross State University Museum of the Big Bend http://www.sulross.edu/~museum/ . Includes artifacts of the Big Bend region, including the Native Americans, Spanish, Mexicans, and Anglo-Americans who inhabited the area. “For more than 70 years the Museum of the Big Bend has been collecting and exhibiting artifacts of the vast Big Bend region. Encompassing the Davis Mountains to the north and the borderlands of Mexico, the Big Bend has been inhabited for over 11,000 years. Throughout that time, four distinct cultures emerged and shaped the history and heritage of the region. Together with the Center for Big Bend Studies, the Museum of the Big Bend's goal is to capture this human history that reflects contributions of the Native Americans, the Spanish, the Mexicans and the Anglo-Americans. Today at the Museum of the Big Bend, both adults and children enjoy experiencing and learning about yesterday in the Last Frontier of Texas.”
Alpine: Sul Ross State University Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library Documents Dept. This institution participates in the TSLAC State Government Publications Depository Program http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/statepubs/depositories.html.
ALVIN
Alvin: Alvin Museum Society Cummins-Smith House, Marguerite Rogers House Museum, Twin Oaks Cited by Tex Assn Museums
Alvin: Nolan Ryan Exhibit A baseball exhibit, chronicles the life and baseball career of Alvin's favorite son in many state-of-the-art exhibits. Cited by Tex Assn Museums
ALVORD
Alvord: Alvord Public Library / Portal to Texas History: Local history materials from town, church and business records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth Centuries. / View the Alvord Public Library materials.


If you get this information afterward, do still contribute the information in anticipation of the next edition.
Will Howard
willstexana@yahoo.com