The Sam Houston State Memorial Museum encourages students, faculty, and staff to visit the museum as it wraps up another successful exhibit, “Alamo Images: Changing Perceptions of a Texas Experience”.
The exhibit began on August 28 and will end September 25 in the Katy & E. Don Walker, Sr. Education Center. It focused on important events in history and the mythical power of the stories of the Alamo.
The museum is also excited to announce the start of new exhibit entitled, “Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy” beginning October 2. The exhibition will be shown in the Exhibit Gallery on the main level of the Katy & E. Don Walker, Sr. Education Center.
A reception will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to celebrate the new exhibit and refreshments will be served.
Casey Roon, exhibit curator, said the exhibit features 62 digital carbon print photographs of vaqueros as they went about their daily chores. Bilingual narrative text will also be displayed.
“Wittliff captured a way of life that now exists only in memory and in the photographs included in this exhibition. This exhibit will reveal the muscle, sweat, and drama that went into roping cattle and breaking horses,” Roon said.
According to the New Mexican Hispanic Culture Preservation League, vaqueros are known primarily as the first American cowboys. This exhibition will give viewers an understanding of the sort of life vaqueros lead as well as help define what it means to be a “Texas cowboy”.
To accompany the exhibit, the museum will also be featuring authors Jane Monday and Betty Bailey Colley on Oct. 7.
They will be at the Walker Education Center at 5 p.m. to discuss their new book, “The Master Showmen of the King Ranch: The Story of Beto and Librado Maldonado.”
Copies of this book as well as their other, “Voices from the Wild Horse Desert” will be available for purchase and signed by the author.
There is no cost of admission to this exhibition and museum officials encourage students, staff, and faculty to take advantage of the historical value the exhibit offers.
“The idea of ‘cowboy culture’ is something that is woven into the very heart of Texas and this is a ‘must see’ exhibit for all who reside in Texas,” Roon said.
For more information, contact the Sam Houston Memorial Museum at 936-294-1832.