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,...
This week we talked about the history of the cattle drive. Cattle drives were common in the late 1800s, when cowboys would herd their cattle west, to places like Abilene, Kansas (a major hub), Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, or even Montana. From these Midwestern cities, the cattle would be shipped off to the Northeast and...
The Republic of Texas was an independent nation, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from April 21, 1836, to February 19, 1846. The new Republic was formed by the defeat of Mexico in the Texas Revolution and claimed borders that encompassed an area that included the present State of Texas, as well as parts...
Here’s a lovely poem from our second week of Summer Camp at The Bryan Museum about the main character of today’s blog post. It’s an ‘I Am’ poem, a form which the campers were taught in one of several writing lessons. I am brave and adventurous.I wonder if the New World will ever be conquered. I...
This week we spoke about the huge mission bell in the Spanish Colonial Gallery and its significance in the mission system which spanned across the Southwestern United States. Mission bells were cast in two bronze parts – the ‘core’ inner mold and the ‘cope’ outer mold. The method of production led to each bell having...
This dictionary was the property of and used by Stephen F. Austin …(illegible) his sister Emily, has been willed to and used by Guy M. Bryan. – Signed: S. F. Austin. This inscription, inside an 1828 dictionary belonging to Stephen F. Austin, will soon be on display as part of the Texas Frontier Exhibit, along...
The history of the Lone Star State is a well-worn yet ornate shawl, delicately embroidered with rich indigenous, European, and Mexican designs. Parts of it are torn, showing painstaking efforts toward liberation, and others are stained with the blood, sweat, and tears of those whose legacies toward the Texian people live on. It’s a piece...
Did you listen in on our TikTok talk about the work of craftsmen in Tunstall, Staffordshire England? It’s a line of historical dinnerware commemorating the Texas Revolution and the US-Mexican War called “Texian Campaigne”. It’s one of the most sought-after Staffordshire patterns to this day. The potters used six colors: blue (the most common), brown,...
The first professional rodeo took place on July 4, 1883, in Pecos, Texas. “Professional,” meaning that it was the first rodeo to award prizes to contestants. But where did the sport come from? Surely, it did not appear overnight. To answer this question, we need to look back much farther than the 19th century. It...
