The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 473

Book Reviews

William R. Chemerka, the founder of the Alamo Society and editor of its quar-
terly, The Alamo Journal, has provided a useful book that lists virtually everything
that can be connected in some way with the Alamo-its events, chief partici-
pants, significance, memorabilia, and the high points of what has been discussed
about it in every kind of primary medium since 1836. Numerous significant facts
are included-along with curious oddities-such as how many times the word
"Alamo" was mentioned in John Wayne's motion picture The Alamo (six). The
book also suggests other sources of information.
Of very much more than provocative interest is Chemerka's list of "names that
should be added to the Alamo's roll call of heroes" plus "names that could be
added" and "names that should be deleted." These proposals are credited to
longtime historical researcher Thomas Ricks Lindley, head of Texian Army
Investigations in Austin.
San Antonzo FRANK W. JENNINGS
North American Windmzll Manufacturers' Trade Literature: A Descriptive Guide. Edited
by T. Lindsay Baker. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. Pp.
vii+6oo. Acknowledgments, introduction, location codes, guide, illustra-
tions, index. ISBN o-8061-3045-8. $37.50, cloth.)
T. Lindsay Baker is a leading historian and authority on windmills and wind-
milling equipment. His previous books, A Fzeld Guide to Amercan Windmills
(University of Oklahoma Press, 1985) and Blades in the Sky: Windmilling through
the Eyes ofB. H. "Tex" Burdick (Texas Tech University Press, 1992) are major pub-
lications on the topic. Baker also edits and produces the trade newsletter
Wmndmillers' Gazette for historians and wind-power enthusiasts. In almost thirty
years of diligent work he has researched hundreds of library and archive collec-
tions seeking information about specific types and brands of windmills and man-
ufacturing companies. The best source of information, as he points out in his
introduction, is the trade literature of these companies.
Historians and museum researchers have only recently embraced trade litera-
ture as gold mines of information. Trade literature consists of the guides, parts
lists, and promotional materials a company produces about its products or the
company itself. Many of the everyday items we think of have trade literature:
directions for a new computer, a parts list for an old vacuum cleaner, or a
brochure for an industrial manufacturer. But like gold itself, extant trade litera-
ture is difficult to find. Most of it did not survive because individuals replaced
older catalogs and price lists as they received updates and threw out instructions
when they were no longer needed.
In this book Baker shares the results of his mining: detailed locations and
annotated entries for every piece of trade literature on windmills and manufac-
turers he has located in over 150 archives and museums across the United States.
The descriptions are conveniently organized under manufacturing company
names. Each company entry begins with a brief description of the company and
its major accomplishments or products. Know the windmill but not the company?

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