Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas is the permanent exhibit on display at the Sam Houston Center. The exhibit is currently closed to visitors due to the coronavirus. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
While our Sam Houston Center exhibit, Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas is not currently open due to the coronavirus, we are offering a bit of off-site fun and games for kids with a museum activity book available for download. Atascosito chronicles the region’s past through informative displays from the Center’s collections of artifacts, photographs, maps, and historical documents. Although the exhibit appeals to an audience of all ages, the displays serve as engaging educational tools for teaching the history of the area. Interactive devices built into the exhibit are aimed at capturing the attention of younger visitors. TSLAC celebrated in 2018 the museum renovation with a “grand reopening” party and tours. View images of that event here.
Interior view of Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas. The large volume on display in the first exhibit case is the executive record book from Sam Houston’s second term as president of the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The exhibit showcases the developments of this corner of Texas, including its river economy, timber industry, rice agriculture, and expansive oil fields, while also sharing stories of the thousands of years of growth and movement of people through what has become the ten-county region of Jasper, Jefferson, Hardin, Liberty, Orange, San Jacinto, Polk, Newton, Chambers, and Tyler. Two bases of Clovis points dated to around 11,000 B.C.E. that offer the earliest evidence of human activity in the region are highlights of the exhibit, along with a tooth fragment from a Columbian mammoth. More recent items on view are an executive record book kept by Texas Republic President Sam Houston and artifacts from 19th century steamboats. The museum activity book references subjects covered in the exhibit and other Texas themes in word puzzles, coloring pages, and more.
DIY Museum Activity Book
Explore themes related to the Atascosito District of Texas with the puzzles, games, and coloring pages inside. Click on the image or the link below and print out your own color copy.
Dachau was the first regular concentration camp set up by the Nazi government. It was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the northeastern part of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich, Germany. The internees were initially political opponents of the Nazi regime, such as German Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists. Over time, other groups including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, and Jews were also interned there. The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 188,000, and the number who died there between January 1940 and May 1945 was at least 28,000. It is unlikely that the total number of Dachau victims will ever be known.
Seventy-five years ago, on April 29, 1945, as World War II was drawing to a close in Europe, the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by the United States Army. In early May, Army medical corps units entered the camp to care for the ill and emaciated survivors, many of whom were suffering from typhus, tuberculosis, or other diseases. One of the first such units was the 116th Evacuation Hospital, to which Liberty, Texas, native Thomas Samuel (Sam) Partlow was assigned.
Sam Partlow compiled a scrapbook documenting his military experiences in Europe, including his unit’s time at Dachau. It includes numerous photographs along with details of his service and some clippings concerning the Nazi concentration camps. Entitled “Snaps and Scraps: My Life in the Army,” the scrapbook is one that was created especially for service members. This scrapbook is housed at the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center.
Sam Partlow (center) with “Buzz” Volpin (left) and Janie Wilt (right) after arriving in Germany. Thomas Samuel Partlow U.S. Army Scrapbook. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.Continue reading →
Meet the Staff is a Q&A series on Out of the Stacks that highlights the Archives and Information Services staff of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Sam Houston Center Maintenance Worker Terry Carroll.
In 50 words or less, describe what you do. I am the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center’s maintenance worker responsible for cleaning the archives, museum, and historic buildings. I make small repairs, from replacing doorknobs to toilet handles, and maintain the grounds so visitors can enjoy them, trimming trees, mowing, weed-eating and more.
Why did you choose your profession? I chose my profession because I enjoy working on multiple things. My job always keeps things interesting.
What is your favorite document, photo, or artifact in TSLAC’s collection? My favorite building is the Jean and Price Daniel Home and Archives, with all its beauty and history. The home and its contents document the Daniels’ lives and years of public service.
The Jean and Price Daniel Home and Archives, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center (Liberty), Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
One of my favorite things in the house is a sleigh bed with swan heads carved into the footboard.
The sleigh bed is one of many antique pieces the Daniels collected on display in the home. Above the bed is a portrait of Jeanie Daniel, Price and Jean Daniels’ daughter, at age 14.
Sleigh Bed, Jean and Price Daniel Home and Archives, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission
When you are not busy what do you like to do for fun? I enjoy reading, playing with my grandkids, and traveling.
Unidentified American Indian women. Richard Niles Graham Collection, 1964/306-301. Prints and Photographs Collection, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The Texas State Archives maintains a wealth of material relating to the Native American peoples of Texas. The holdings, which range from the colonial era of Spanish rule during the eighteenth century through the years of the Republic and to the present day, depict the cultures and histories of those tribes which once resided, and in some instances still live, in Texas.
Rich collections such as the Nacogdoches Archives and the Texas Indian Papers provide narrative and statistical evidence concerning the encounters and varied relationships that colonists, settlers, and well-known historical figures had with the indigenous peoples of Texas. Other collections from the nineteenth century such as the Mirabeau B. Lamar Papers and the Andrew Jackson Houston Papers contain plentiful correspondence that details the differing perspectives of Mirabeau Lamar, Sam Houston, and other leaders concerning the status of Indians during and after the Republic.
Letter from Sam Houston to Captain of the Cherokee Rangers, September 23, 1836, authorizing him to recruit 25 Cherokees to range upon the Brazos, Page 1. Document 548, Andrew Jackson Houston collection, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Records produced by state agencies that provided economic and material aid to those
tribes remaining in Texas following the nineteenth century are especially
informative. The assistance provided by the State Board of Control and its
successor, the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools, to help the
Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation gain economic sustenance and political control
of their affairs from the early through the middle of the twentieth century is well
documented, with correspondence and reports providing daily snapshots of the
challenges and achievements stemming from this era.
Management of Native American reservations and other affairs in Texas during the later twentieth century can be found in the administrative, financial, and legal records of the Texas Indian Commission. The political emergence of the Tigua and Kickapoo Indians in Texas after decades of political neglect and administrative oversight, as well as the timely assistance provided to these tribes by the Commission, are just two of the compelling events recorded within the agency’s history.
Other collections in the State Archives provide records and materials that give glimpses into the cultures of the state’s tribes. One of the goals of the Texas Tourist Development Agency was to make various tourist attractions and facilities more widely known to the general population in and out of Texas; its visual records of Alabama-Coushatta and Tigua villages are instances of such an effort.
Another collection, the James L.D. Sylestine papers, contains considerable amounts of stories, legends, and songs from the Alabama and Coushatta tribes in both textual and audio form. Lastly, the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, a branch of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Liberty, Texas, has a large collection of arrowheads and spear-points from tribes that once lived in southeastern Texas; there are also collections of handcrafts and baskets made by the nearby Alabama-Coushatta tribe.
These collections and others with entries in this guide are just some of the larger and well-known holdings in the State Archives pertaining to Native American tribes in Texas. Additional collections are available at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), most available through this website, for those interested in accessing material not mentioned in this guide. A “Subject Guide to Native American Holdings at the Texas State Archives, about 1700-2004” is available in full online at https://txarchives.org/tslac/finding_aids/90021.xml.
Artifacts at the Texas State Archives, pre-1900
Nacogdoches Archives, 1736-1838, bulk 1820-1836
The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, 1825-1916, bulk 1838-1870
Texas Governor George W. Bush General Counsel’s legal opinions and advice, 1995-2000
Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center (SHRLRC) holdings related to Native Americans, about 10,000 BCE – 2000 CE, bulk about 10,000 BCE – 1800 CE
For more information about the holdings at the State Archives and conducting research in our collections, contact the Reference Desk at ref@tsl.texas.gov or 512-463-5455.
The Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center presents the exhibit, “Wish You Were Here!” now on display in the Center’s museum. “Wish You Were Here!” highlights historic Southeast Texas vacation spots, industry, culture and recreational opportunities through a selection of postcards, tourism publications and historic documents curated from the research collections.
Among other sources, the exhibit pulls from the substantial Don Kelly Southeast Texas Postcard Collection, which covers almost the entirety of the 20th century and features visual documentation of the Southeast Texas oil refineries, architecture, rivers, railroads and much more.
An illustration of the front of the Pleasure Pier amusement complex in Port Arthur, located on Lake Sabine. The pier is pictured as completed, even though it was unfinished at the time of publication. 1991.183-964, Don Kelly Southeast Texas postcard collection. Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Postcards promoted tourist attractions in the region and tell us about what appealed to those seeking leisurely adventure at a particular moment in time. Pleasure Pier in Port Arthur entertained visitors to the Gulf Coast and became a hot-spot for the local young people after the Pleasure Pier bridge was constructed in 1931. The amusements included a roller coaster, midway games and a dance hall with live music.
Built in 1927, Beaumont’s historic Jefferson Theater was the site of a world premier of the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” twenty years later. The lovely theater is still in operation and stands as an impressive reminder of the glamorous era of film in the United States.
Sour Lake’s springs and hotel were a draw because of the purported health benefits of the sulphur in the water. The sulphur was also an indicator of oil in the area and the petroleum industry transformed the community into a boomtown in the early 1900s.
Postcards and promotional materials contribute to our material culture and reveal how people interacted with their environment and each other. Visit “Wish You Were Here!” for a fascinating view of the past.
A component of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center houses local government records, rare books, manuscripts, archival materials, photographs and other media formats covering a wide range of Southeast Texas history. In addition to the archives and museum, four historic buildings and the Jean Price Daniel Home and Archives are located on the Center’s grounds. Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit https://www.tsl.texas.gov/shc for more information.
Summer spread, by Margaret Lea Houston, ca. mid-19th century [Cotton textile, 98 x 80 1/4. 1983.125.0007, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, TSLAC].
Margaret Lea Houston, the wife of famed Texas politician and war hero Sam Houston, is thought to have sewn this lightweight “summer spread” decorated with imagery from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Similar to a quilt but without the batting, the spread consists of 45 hexagonal blocks and measures 80 1/4 x 98 inches long. Art historian Lynne Adele analyzed the imagery and determined that, since some of the symbols were removed from the Fraternal Order in 1880, the spread was made before that year.
Imagery included on the spread are a lamb, symbolizing innocence; three links of chain, indicating friendship, love, and truth; and the sun, representing God and the soul. The heart on the palm of the hand symbolizes sincerity and the cornucopia, abundance.
Close-up of imagery used on the summer spread. Here we see the lamb, the chain links of truth, love, and friendship, and a bow and quiver. Edges of the hexagonal blocks are visible.
The interest in the Odd Fellows symbolism is unclear, as Sam Houston was a member of another fraternal organization, the Freemasons. The provenance of the spread has been attributed to Margaret through family history and now belongs to TSLAC’s Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty, TX. Visitors to the Center may view the spread on display as part of a new museum exhibit through December 2018.
The grand reopening of our museum at the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center was June 9, and we were so happy to celebrate this wonderful new space and its exhibit showcasing the history of Southeast Texas with so many members of the community. Here are some photos of the event, and some before and after shots to show the amazing transformation of the museum. Thank you to everyone who came out! And if you haven’t made the trip to Liberty to see the new exhibit, we hope you’ll visit soon!
A component of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty, Texas will hold a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the opening of its renovated museum on June 9, 2018. The new exhibit, Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas traces the development of the 10-county area from prehistoric times to the modern age and is the centerpiece of the celebration. The exhibition chronicles the history of the region through dynamic displays of artifacts, photographs, and historical documents that are part of the Center’s collections. Find out more and let us know you are coming by clicking on the link below!
