The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 484
741 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
make steady progress, and brutal conflict between groups of Texans gets
a whitewash. For example, after commenting that southern white males
regained authority and power at the close of Reconstruction the design-
ers of the museum quickly add the following summation of the years
1876-1936. "Meanwhile, immigrants from other states, Mexico, and
Europe poured into Texas. They, along with women and African
Americans and Mexican Americans resolutely demanded a greater share
in the opportunities Texas offered. Despite resistance from the old
order these groups began to expand and redefine the Lone Star identi-
ty." Thus is summed up an era that included a brutal upsurge in lynch-
ing, violent suppression of Populism, intense controversy over prohibi-
tion, and a rise and fall in the status of women.
Besides the identity exhibits, the second floor also has a large lobby,
a "Texas Time Line," the "Texas Spirit Theater," and a caf6. A life-sized
statue of Bob Bullock with the quote "God Bless Texas" emblazoned on
the wall behind the statue dominates the second-floor lobby. On the
other side of the wall a large curved screen displays the "Texas Time
Line." Major chronological divisions in the time line are 1528-1820,
1820-1836, 1836-1860, 1860-1900, 1900-1945, and 1945 to the pre-
sent. More than half the items in the time line fall in the nineteenth
century, another indication that the romantic period still dominates
conceptualizations of the Texas past. Romance vies with slapstick
humor in the Texas Spirit Theater, where a giant Sam Houston waxes
on about an Alamo that in reality he wanted abandoned and storm
winds add to the ambience created by fake snakes striking the bottom
of your chair. While "The Star of Destiny" covers other "stories of
courage and perseverance," Houston's presence clearly gives this
approximately twenty-minute presentation a mid-nineteenth-century
emphasis. The caf6 offers a pleasant spot to pause while exploring the
museum and should be especially appreciated by families with a four-
year-old.
After pausing in the caf6 the stairs to the third floor seem less steep.
On the top floor of the museum are exhibits called "Creating
Opportunity" and other exhibits covering Texas in the twentieth centu-
ry. Oil dominates the economic history section of the museum. Walter
Cronkite narrates the video on black gold and the approximately fifty
yards of exhibits on petroleum dwarf the five yards of exhibits on cotton.
Exhibits on ranching, which steadily declined in relative importance in
twentieth-century Texas, occupy about thirty-five yards. Cotton, of
course, remained far more important than oil or ranching to the aver-
age Texan until after World War II, but the "Creating Opportunity"
exhibits have little to do with either reality or the average Texan.January
484
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/528/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.