Davy Crockett

In Texas, Davy Crockett is famous for having fought and died at the Alamo on March 6, 1836. However, he was a known adventurer and political figure before he came to Texas. Crockett was born in Tennessee on August 17, 1786. At the age of twelve he was hired out by his father to work

Indigenous Peoples Month

November is Indigenous Peoples Month. In the US it is celebrated as Native American Heritage Month. Timeline of Native American HistoryDates listed before 1492 are estimates and shouldn’t be considered exact.  15,000 BC – Ancestors of Native Americans migrated from Asia to North America via the Beringia land bridge during the last ice age. In recent decades archaeological and

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King Jr. 1964Nobel Foundation [Public domain]via Wikimedia Commons Martin Luther King Jr. Day (also known as MLK Day) is a federal holiday commemorating the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr. It is held on the 3rd Monday of January each year, which falls on or near King\’s birthday of January 15th. The push

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. You can celebrate by checking out these recently published titles on Native American history and culture available at the library: An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 by Benjamin Madley.\”Provides an account of the government-sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule.\” –

Constitution Day

Monday September 17th was Constitution Day. On that day in 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the proposed Constitution and submitted it to the Congress for consideration. Signatures on the US Constitution, 1787.By Constitutional Convention of 1787 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The library has a large collection of items for

Independence Day

On July 4th we celebrate Independence Day. On this day in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which formally declared that the United States was free of any connection to Great Britain. However, actual independence was not achieved until the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War and the signing of the Treaty

Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15th through October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage month. This is the time to recognize the contributions and experiences of Americans of Hispanic heritage. According to the National Hispanic Heritage Month website, hosted by the Library of Congress, \”September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of the independence for Latin American countries

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

May is the month to recognize the experiences and contributions of Americans of Asian or Pacific Islander heritage. Originally established as a heritage week in 1978, it was upgraded to a month in 1990. According to the Library of Congress\’ Asia Pacific Heritage Month website, \”May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to

#NativismSyllabus – Guest post by Dr. Michael Landis, Assistant Professor of History

Introduction On June 17, 2015, neo-Confederate white supremacist Dylan Roof entered the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, SC and murdered nine black parishioners.  The event, though sadly not unusual in the history of the United States, sparked immediate and profound national outrage.  In the aftermath, symbols of the Confederacy began to be removed

Find Old Newspapers with This Cool Tool!

At the recent Texas State Genealogical Society conference, I attended a presentation by Lisa Louise Cook, who showed us some \”cool tools\” for finding old newspapers.  I\’m just going to talk about one of them in this post, the Stanford Newspaper Data Visualization. According to its website, \”This visualization plots over 140,000 newspapers published over