The Bryan Museum is proud to present, “Mardi Gras: Party By Design.” The exhibition will be on view at the Bryan Museum from February 10 through March 26, 2023. The sparkling costumes and capes worn by revelers during Mardi Gras season bathe the parties and parades in a dazzling wash of color. With the third...
Known as the Original Borden Map of the City of Houston, measuring 18 inches by 29 inches, this map was created in 1836 by mapmakers Gail and Tom Borden and Moses Lapham for city founders J.K. and A.C. Allen, brothers from New York who had come to Texas as land speculators. After the Texas Revolution,...
For almost 30 years, José Cisneros worked full time for El Paso City Lines. What had begun as a job in an essential industry during World War II became a career for the young artist. Although Cisneros had answered a draft notice in 1939, his color-blindness led to a military classification of 4-F (disabled and...
The burgeoning friendship between José Cisneros and El Paso artist Tom Lea not only marked the beginning of Cisneros’ professional career in the art community, but also granted him increased notoriety and an introduction to Carl Hertzog, an El Paso typographer and book designer. José Cisneros and Carl Hertzog both met Tom Lea in 1937....
In 1937, José Cisneros was employed as a window dresser at White House Department Store. At the federal courthouse in El Paso, just six blocks from his work, an artist named Tom Lea had begun work on a mural to honor the people who had come to the Pass of the North throughout its history....
This week, we learned a bit about Charles Franklin “Frank” Reaugh (pronounced ray), the cat outside our marketing office and also the Texan artist known for immortalizing the imagery of Texan cattle. Born in Jacksonville, Illinois in December of 1860, Frank Reaugh moved to Terrell, a town near Dallas, Texas at the age of 15....
If you saw the episode this week you know we discussed how Texas played a major role in the Civil War. 60,000 to 70,000 Texans served in either state or Confederate units, of which 20-25% lost their lives in the process. More than half of these deaths were caused by diseases contracted while living in...
José Cisneros was born in Villa Ocampo, Mexico in 1910. The Cisneros family home was situated on a twenty-seven-acre plot located just outside of the village. In addition to carpenter work, José’s father, Don Fernando Cisneros, also operated a barber shop and blacksmith business out of the family home. As political unrest cast a veil...
This week we talked about the iconic Stelzig saddle company. Here’s a brief rundown: Austrian immigrant Antone Stelzig and his wife Theresa arrived in Galveston in 1843, quickly setting up a system where the couple – 19 and 16 respectively – would travel by ox-drawn cart from ranch to ranch offering on-site leather work. Now,...
