Heritage, Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 1993 Page: 10
26 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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In the beginning, Rebecca Jane Fisher, president of the William Barret Travis Chapter of the DRT, was
instrumental in assembling the artifacts that now comprise the Republic of Texas Museum collection.permanent home would have to be found
for their artifacts.
In 1903, through continued DRT perseverance,
GovernorJoseph D. Sayers and
Lieutenant Governor A.B. Davidson offered
the William B. Travis Chapter a
meeting place in a room behind the Senate
Chamber. The Lieutenant Governor
added some of his Texana relics to the
chapter collection. The Museum, housed
in this little room, was kept open three
days a week with Miss Lillie Robertson
and Mrs. Fred Cloud as hostesses. As the
state government grew, the DRT collection
increased as well. The DRT room in
the Capitol was no longer adequate to
house the collection. The State of Texas
was also feeling the need for more space to
house the burgeoning bureaucracy.
Fortunately, finding a new home for the
museum collection was not too difficult.
The General Land Office had also outgrown
its building on the State Capitol
10 HERITAGE * FALL 1993grounds, and the 1854 structure that had
housed that agency, was sitting vacant. In
1917, Governor James E. Ferguson,
through an act of the State Legislature,
granted the Daughters the use of the second
floor of the old building for their
purposes.
The aging structure was in poor condition
when the DRT moved in; the
plaster fell from the ceiling, and the
plumbing was primitive. The Daughters
were so overjoyed with their new home,
however, that minor inconveniences
were overlooked. Work began on the
museum in earnest, and the DRT collection
was officially opened to the public
at this new location in 1921.
Though the museum is mentioned in
various reports after 1919, no complete
inventory of the contents of the Museum
dated earlier than 1932 has been found.
That year, a list of some of the items was
compiled in preparation for the TexasCentennial observance. The small number
of items listed in 1895 had grown into a
large collection, many of which were mentioned,
as they were acquired, in the annual
proceedings of the organization. The
Daughters of the Republic of Texas occupied
the Old General Land Office continuously
for almost 80 years, except for a
time in the late 1950s when the building
was vacated for a much-needed renovation.
By this time, the inventory had grown
considerably, and it was a major undertaking
to pack the collection for removal to a
temporary location at 3800 South Congress
Avenue. The Museum remained at the
temporary site for more than two years,
returning to the Old Land Office Building
in 1960. There it stayed until 1989 when
the state began renovations to the old building
and the museum collection was permanently
relocated, first to storage and then to
a new site at 510 East Anderson Lane. The
new building was purchased on the 100th
anniversary of the Daughters of the Republic
of Texas, and the new museum opened one
year later on November 6, 1992.
The Republic of Texas Museum is but
one of the many notable works of the
Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Other
works include the preservation and maintenance
of the Alamo in San Antonio.
Since 1905 this laudable work has been
carried out with great care and diligence at
no cost to the state. The DRT also maintains
the Daughters of the Republic of
Texas Library on the Alamo grounds. This
library is a tremendous reference source for
those doing genealogical work or researching
early Texas history. The historic French
Legation in Austin is also maintained and
operated by the Daughters, as is the little
Ballinger Library building in Galveston.
This small structure is known by the
Daughters as the "Cradle," as it is where
the idea of the Daughters of the Republic
of Texas was formulated.
The Republic of Texas Museum is open
Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:00 until
4:00. Current projects include a new gun
room adjoining the Republic of Texas History
Gallery, which was made possible
through a grant from the Texas Historical
Foundation. According to DRT President
General Gail Loving Barnes, the new exhibition
area will open in mid-December.
Carl McQueary is the director of the Republic
of Texas Museum, Daughters of the Republic
of Texas in Austin. He lives in Salado.
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 1993, periodical, Autumn 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45417/m1/10/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.