The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 10
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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10 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
tion ceremonies held on April 27, 1950, the Board of Regents
enthroned in Cass Gilbert's Old Library Building the Eugene C.
Barker Texas History Center, and on that occasion Dr. Herbert
Gambrell set forth in scholarly sequence the concept in which
the University of Texas was born, and the manner of its growth,
in the language of a savant far above my powers. With penetrat-
ing perception, Dr. Gambrell stated:
There may be those who regret that this new Center of Texas
History is not housed in a shining new indigenous structure with
portals surmounted by longhorns, its friezes concocted of cactus and
bluebonnet and its interior embellished with rawhide and buffalo
skins. I am not one of them. The building itself is architecturally
beautiful and significant. It has integrity and it represents certain
"universals." In a way its exterior symbolizes the universality that
is History. Within its non-provincial walls have been placed the
stuff of which Texas history has been and is to be made-even as
those who have so long and so ably worked here have been fitting
Texas history into the universal pattern.
There is appropriateness in the very site the building occupies.
At the center of the campus stands the great library with its hun-
dreds of thousands of volumes. Before it on the east with its
frieze of Texas brands, stands Garrison Hall, perpetuating the mem-
ory of a man who blazed a path. To the west now stands a per-
petual reminder of the man who has traveled farthest on that path:
a purposeful Center of Texas History that from this day forward
bears the name of Barker. Garrison and Barker henceforth stand
guard over the approaches to the heart and center of this University
of Texas.10
With cameo clarity, the character and significance of the build-
ing stand forth in the words of another who was well qualified
to speak-Dr. W. M. W. Splawn, president of the University dur-
ing the 192o's. In his own versatile prose, Dr. Splawn reminisced
the theme:
The responsibility of both the Faculty and members of the Board
of Regents was exceptionally competent. Their deliberations, which
brought to their aid an architect of the caliber of Cass Gilbert,
marked them as highly qualified to decide the questions which con-
fronted them. This new building, the creation of their co-operative
efforts, marks a revolution in the development of the physical plant
1oHerbert Gambrell, "The Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center," Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, LIV, 1-5.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/28/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.