March 10, 2009
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It sounds like a number Fred Waring’s Glenn Miller’s band could shout out at the end of instrumental verses. It’s the street address of the White House, not so secretly, and to most fans or other followers of politics, it carries great symbolism.
So a professor at the University of Akron thought it would be a good name for a blog. It is. The blog is a very good compilation of sources and intriguing commentary.
This item caught my eye yesterday — the least tawdry dealing with this issue I’ve seen in a long time, though some of the portraits pointed to are more impressionistic than history. The listing alone reveals a lot. It’s incomplete, of course. This is the one post probably not suitable for 8th grade U.S. history; it’s already come up in my government classes this year.
Check out the stuff in the widgets — the link to the current WhiteHouse.gov feed is a good idea, cool, and by its mere existence, an indicator of the influence of technology on politics.
I’m curious to know how one might use this blog in the classroom. Got ideas?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | 
Government, History, President Obama, Presidents, Technology, Weblogs, White House | Tagged: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, History, Marital Iinfidelity, Politics, Presidents, Weblogs, White House | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
March 9, 2009
Science needs your help, Texas scientists.
Last month science won a victory when members of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) agreed to strip creationist, anti-science language out of biology standards.
In the lightning round that followed the vote, however, some bad stuff was proposed. The National Center for Science Education asks every Texas scientist to contact your representative on the SBOE to urge them to vote against the bad stuff at a meeting near the end of March.
Don’t take my word for it. Below the fold, the full rundown of bad stuff, copied from NCSE’s website.
Details are available from Texas Citizens for Science.
New Texas Science Standards Will Be Debated and Voted Upon March 26-27 in Austin by the Texas State Board of Education — Public Testimony is March 25
Radical Religious-Right and Creationist members of the State Board of Education will attempt to keep the unscientific amendments in the Texas science standards that will damage science instruction and textbooks.
THE TEXAS SCIENCE STANDARDS SHOULD BE ADOPTED UNCHANGED!
The Texas Freedom Network has good information, too.
Also check out Greg Laden’s Blog.
Even Pharyngula’s in — Myers gets more comments from sneezing than the rest of us — but if he’s on it, you know it’s good science.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Charles Darwin, Citizenship, Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, History, Politics, Religion, Science, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network, War on Education, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Education reform, Evolution, Politics, Religion, Science, Science Standards, Texas, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 9, 2009
Bad himself has gone silent for a while.
But in a thread he started, originally on Ben Stein’s world tour of crackpottery, we’ve got a creationist minister who argues that evolution can’t be shown, is impossible, and that the science backs creationism.
Go give it a look.
I may post some of the stuff over here, eventually. In the meantime, go discuss. Maybe Bad can be convinced to come out of retirement.
Definitely related post:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Biology, Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Religion, Research, Science | Tagged: Bad Idea Blog, Creationism, denialism, Evolution, Religion, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 8, 2009
The Black Ships — Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s squadron in Japan, 1854 – CSSVirginia.org image from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, Boston, May 15, 1852 (also, see BaxleyStamps.com); obviously the drawing was published prior to the expedition’s sailing.
On March 8, 1854, Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed for the second time in Japan, having been sent on a mission a year earlier by President Millard Fillmore. On this trip, within 30 days he concluded a treaty with Japan which opened Japan to trade with the U.S. (the Convention of Kanagawa), and which began a cascade of events that opened Japan to trade with the world.
Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1852 photograph, Library of Congress via WikiMedia
Within 50 years Japan would come to dominate the seas of the the Western Pacific, and would become a major world power.
1854 japanese woodblock print of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Peabody Museum: “The characters located across the top read from right to left, ‘A North American Figure’ and ‘Portrait of Perry.’ According to the Peabody Essex Museum, ‘this print may be one of the first depictions of westerners in Japanese art, and exaggerates Perry’s western features (oblong face, down-turned eyes, bushy brown eyebrows, and large nose).'” But compare with photo above, right. Peabody Museum holding, image from Library of Congress via WikiMedia
Then, 20 years later, on March 8, 1874, Millard Fillmore died in Buffalo, New York.
The Perry expedition to Japan was the most famous, and perhaps the greatest recognized achievement of Fillmore’s presidency. Fillmore had started the U.S. on a course of imperialistic exploitation and exploration of the world, with other expeditions of much less success to Africa and South America, according to the story of his death in The New York Times:
The general policy of his Administration was wise and liberal, and he left the country at peace with all the world and enjoying a high degree of prosperity. His Administration was distinguished by the Lopez fillibustering expeditions to Cuba, which were discountenanced by the Government, and by several important expeditions to distant lands. The expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry resulted in a favorable treaty with that country, but that dispatched under Lieut. Lynch, in search of gold in the interior of Africa, failed of its object. Exploring expeditions were also sent to the Chinese seas, and to the Valley of the Amazon.
Here we are in 2013, 160 years after the end of Millard Fillmore’s presidency, 159 years after Commodore Perry’s success on the mission to Japan Fillmore sent him on, 139 years after Millard Fillmore’s death, and not yet have we come to grips with Fillmore’s real legacy in U.S. history. Most of that legacy, we don’t even acknowledge in public. Santayana’s Ghost paces nervously.
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6 Comments | foreign affairs, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, History and art, History images, History museums, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Transportation, Travel, Turning Points | Tagged: Commodore Matthew C. Perry, Foreign Relations, History, Japan, Millard Fillmore | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 8, 2009
Extra credit or field experience for your history students: Viewing of a coming PBS program on the Trail of Tears, and a panel discussion featuring R. David Edmunds, one of the advisors to the PBS American Experience crew that made the film.
The story of Saturday, May 26, 1838, a day which began an event the Cherokees would call Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu, “The Trail Where They Cried,” will be told from a new perspective at the premiere of “Trail of Tears” at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 10, in the Davidson Auditorium at the School of Management.
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| Production background information is available on the PBS We Shall Remain site. |
The third film in the five-part We Shall Remain series produced by PBS’ American Experience, “Trail of Tears” takes a new look at the United States government’s forced removal of thousands of Cherokees from their homes in the Southeastern United States, driving them toward Indian Territory in Eastern Oklahoma.
Admission is free; seating is first come, first served. The film premiere will be followed by a panel discussion with We Shall Remain executive producer Sharon Grimberg; Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre; and series adviser Dr. R. David Edmunds, the UT Dallas Anne and Chester Watson Professor in American History.
Especially for AP history students, this panel should provide a lot of grist for the thinking mills on questions about civil rights, genocidal actions, duties of citizens, and migration, immigration and settlement of the U.S.
North Texas high school teachers and students have great luck living in an area that includes the University of North Texas, Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Dallas. This film premiere is one more piece of that luck.
University of Texas at Dallas history professor, Dr. R. David Edmunds will take part in a panel discussion following the premiere of Trail of Tears.
It’s a compelling story that is often mistold. According to UTD’s press office:
For years, the Cherokee had resisted removal from their land in every way they knew. Convinced that white America rejected Native Americans because they were “savages,” Cherokee leaders established a republic with a Euro-American style legislature and legal system.
Many Cherokees became Christians and adopted Westernized education for their children. Their visionary principal chief, John Ross, would even take the Cherokees’ case to the Supreme Court, where he won a crucial recognition of tribal sovereignty that still resonates.
Though in the end the Cherokees’ embrace of “civilization” and their landmark legal victory proved no match for white land hunger and military power, the Cherokee people were able to build a new life in Oklahoma, far from the land that had sustained them for generations.
Edmunds, who is of Cherokee descent, is proud to be a part of the We Shall Remain crew because the series breaks with typical portrayals of Native Americans.
“The thing that sets the We Shall Remain series apart is its ability to get away from two of the biggest stereotypes of Native Americans: the Indian as a warrior and the Indian as a victim,” said Edmunds. “The portrayal of warfare between Native Americans and whites is abandoned for a view of the very civilized, very adaptive ways of the Cherokees, as they try to assimilate to imported culture in order to remain on their lands.
“Additionally, when you see ‘Trail of Tears,’ you’ll see Native Americans as actors in their own destiny. You’ll see them make decisions, which sometimes work and sometimes don’t, but it’s all part of the American experience.”
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Leave a Comment » | Civil Rights, History, History video sources, Native Americans, Texas | Tagged: Cherokee, Genocide, History, History Films, Native Americans, Trail of Tears, University of Texas at Dallas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 8, 2009
You be the judge, at Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonist Index.
Then come back here and tell us your opinion.
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4 Comments | Cartoons, Political cartoons | Tagged: Political cartoons, Politics, Rush Limbaugh | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 8, 2009
From Time Magazine, August 1, 1971:
Instead of a vitamin a day, Pest Control Executive Robert Loibl and his wife Louise start breakfast with a 10-mg. capsule of DDT. After 93 days on DDT, the North Hollywood, Calif., couple figured they had ingested as much of the pesticide (some 300 times more than the average daily intake) as persons consuming food dusted with the chemical would get in 83 years. “We feel better than we used to,” crows Loibl. “In fact, I think my appetite has increased since I began taking DDT.”
The Loibls’ experiment is designed to prove that DDT, which they claim is the most maligned of pesticides, is “harmless.” They believe that the environment is better served with spraying. On the surface, their consumption of DDT appears to have caused them no harm. Blood tests and urinalysis conducted by Government physicians, says Loibl, “showed nothing out of the ordinary.” But while the Loibls seem safe enough now, they could become ill in the future. More important, even if DDT is not immediately harmful to man, it is destructive to many beneficial insects and to some fish and birds.
Whatever happened to these people? My internet searches have not turned up any significant further information on either of the Loibls. Does anyone know?
Associated Press caption, presumably to an AP photo: Robert Loibl and his wife, Louise, hold 10-milligram capsules of DDT which they took in front of witnesses for 93 days at lunch time, June 10, 1971. Loibl said their total dosage was more than the average person consumes in 83 years. He said his wife’s dandruff disappeared, their appetites perked up and they feel better. Loibl said they just wanted to call attention to the public that DDT was safe. Image via Gizmodo.
I believe they lived in or near San Diego, perhaps in retirement, and I believe he owned or operated a pest control company there as well as farther north. Can anyone tell us what happened to the intrepid DDT eaters, the Loibls?
(This is an uncontrolled experiment, and probably dangerous. Kids, do not try this at home.)
What do you think? Was this a good idea? Does anyone know what happened to them?
More:
- Most people tend to forget DDT was NOT banned due to human health effects, but was instead banned because, under the 1958 amendments to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), it was found to be an uncontrollable poison, which was (is) banned under the law. Since the 1970s, however, human health effects of DDT became much better known. Perhaps the best survey was composed at the Alma Conference at Alma College, Michigan, in 2009. Known as the Pine River Statement, it was submitted for peer review and published in Environmental Health Perspectives, “
The Pine River Statement: Human Health Consequences of DDT Use”
- “Scary science that humans have foolishly embraced,” at Neatorama
- “These people took DDT pills in the 1970s to prove it was safe,” Matt Novak at Paleofuture/Gizmodo
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7 Comments | DDT, Environmental protection, History, Research, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 8, 2009
Student production from 2008:
The film’s credits say it was done by Michael Seltzer — it’s rather obviously a student production, but there is also a Dr. Michael Seltzer active in environmental protection. Are they related?
Best I can tell is that this documentary didn’t win any national awards. If the non-winners are this good, I wonder what the winners look like?
Why aren’t all the winners posted on the website of the National History Day organization, or on YouTube?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | DDT, History, Politics, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, Student projects, Technology, Video and film | Tagged: DDT, Environmental protection, History, Politics, Rahel Carson, Research, Science, Student projects, Technology, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 7, 2009
I’m probably way behind the curve, but this looks to me as if it could be developed into a classroom exercise of some sort.
At Geevor Tin Mine Museum’s Weblog, I stumbled onto Whenonge #7 — When on Google Earth #7 (archaeology edition).
These wacky archaeologists! They get a Google Earth image of some dig, post it, and challenge people to identify the dig and the time in history the site was actually occupied. The first to identify the site accurately gets to host the next round.
Hey, take a look at these things. They would make great slides for a presentation, but they’re also just cool.
Mystery image for When on Google Earth #7 (archaeology)
Like so much in archaeology, this game comes to us from our methodological cousins in geology. Shawn Graham adopted their game, and modified it for our use at whenonge #1. Chuck Jones had the first correct answer, and then hosted whenonge #2. The mysterious and elusive PDD got #2 right but never claimed his prize, so Chuck struck back with whenonge #2.1. Paul Zimmerman got the correct answer to #2.1 and hosted whenonge # 3. Heather Baker got the correct answer to #3 and hosted whenonge # 4, and Jason Ur won and hosted of whenonge # 5 . Dan Diffendale won that, #6 was hosted on whenonge #6 and i won this! so here we are… be the first to correctly identify the site above and its major period of occupation in the comments below and you can host your own!
What’s that? There’s a geology version, too? Good heavens! The geologists are past #150!
WoGE #124 - Where on Google Earth #124; I don't know where this is, but it looks cool.
It’s the sort of geeky game that airline real estate lawyers could play with airports, football geeks could play with collegiate football stadia, or baseball geeks with Major League Baseball parks. Hiking, camping and wilderness geeks could do a National Parks and National Monuments version, with real aficianadoes including trails in National Wilderness Areas from the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
Why not a simple geography version? Cities with more than 2 million population; national capital cities, state capital cities; Civil War battlefields; famous battlefields; volcanoes; 7 Wonders of the World.
Maybe someone in the Irving, Texas, ISD can get their geography kids to use their computers and put up a website devoted to some of these issues.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Geography - Physical, geology, Lesson plans, Science, Space exploration, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: geography, geology, Google Earth, History, Satellite Images, Student projects, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 7, 2009
Anthony Watts want to make a case that rising ocean levels aren’t connected to human activities, there’s nothing we can do about it, there’s nothing we should do about it, or something. Looking for a touchstone in history, Watts said:
In 2002, the BBC reported that a submerged city was found off the coast of India, 36 meters below sea level. This was long before the Hummer or coal fired power plant was invented. It is quite likely that low lying coastal areas will continue to get submerged, just as they have been for the last 20,000 years.
Submerged city? Hmm. Not in the textbooks published since 2002. What’s up with that?
NASA Earth Observatory photo of the Gujarat Gulfs, including the Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat), where a "lost city" was thought to have been found in 2001; later research indicates no city underwater.
Oh, this is what’s up: Watts links to a BBC news story, not a science journal — one of the warning signs of Bogus Science and Bogus History, both. The news story talks about preliminary findings in 2002 that did not hold up to scrutiny. Measurement error was part of the problem — the pattern of the scanning radar sweep was mistaken for structures found on the sea floor. Natural formations were mistaken for artificial formations. When the news announcement was made, archaeologists and other experts in dating such things had not be consulted (and it’s unclear when or whether they were ever brought in). The follow-up didn’t support the story, notes Bad Archaeology. Terrible archaeology to support pseudo climate science? Why not?
This doesn’t deny Watts’ general claims in his post, but it is too indicative of the type of “find anything to support the favored claim of denial” mindset that goes on among denialists. (There is evidence of a much lower waterline in the area during the last ice age; water levels have risen, according to physical evidence, but probably not inundating the what would be the oldest civilization on Earth.)
It will be interesting to watch what happens. Will Watts note an oopsie and apologize, or will the entire group circle their Radio Super wagons around the issue and call it a mainstream science plot against them? Will Watts correct his citation, or will they move on to cite the disappearance of Atlantis as evidence that warming can’t be stopped?
Anybody want to wager?
What sort of irony is there in a guy’s complaining about a scientific consensus held by thousands of scientists with hundreds of publications supporting their claims, and his using one news report almost totally without any scientific corroboration in rebuttal?
Resources:
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1 Comment | Ancient history, Archaeology, Bogus history, Climate change, Global warming, History, Prehistory, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science | Tagged: Anthony Watts, Archaeology, Bogus history, bogus science, Cambay, Climate change, denialism, Global warming, Gulf of Cambay, History, India, Khambhat, Lost City, Science, Voodoo history, Voodoo science, Watts Up With That | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 4, 2009
How can you tell I’m behind the scope and sequence?
I was just reminded today of how neat this site is: Imaging the French Revolution. Good stuff comes out of George Mason University from time to time. This site is part of that stuff.
11. Le plus Grand, des Despotes, Renversé par la Liberté (Place Vendôme). [Place Vendôme, The Greatest of Despots Overthrown by Freedom] Source: Museum of the French Revolution 88.170 Medium: Etching and colored wash Dimensions: 17.2 x 24.4 cm Commentary (numbers refer to pages in essays): General analysis – Day-Hickman, 5 Reasonable crowd – Day-Hickman, 2
Oh, also: Take a look at this site:
Some guy named Frank Smitha has assembled a history of the world, claiming to be trying to avoid bias. The French Revolution page is a pretty good run down, much more thorough than the average textbook.
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3 Comments | 1789, French Revolution, History, History images, On-line learning, Turning Points, World history | Tagged: 1789, French Revolution, History, History images, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 4, 2009
We stopped education in Texas high schools yesterday to test students’ proficiency with the English language. English is a difficult enough subject that it merits its own testing day, so as not to discombobulate students for the other Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests.
All controversy aside, it’s a grind.
Yours truly won the straw that got to make sure students made it to the restroom from their testing rooms, and back, without discussing the contents of the exam or sneaking off a cell-phone conversation or text message. (Yes, testing rules require that students check in phones and other devices during the test.) Classes in bathroom monitoring and cell-phone jamming cannot be far away at America’s great institutions of learning about teaching.
And you think teachers are overpaid? In Belgium the restroom attendants get tips. Same at the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Not in Texas schools.
The worst part: None of us on bathroom duty knows what we did that we’re being punished for. (NB: This is a joke. Somebody had to do it, and English teachers did a lot of it, in order to keep them out of administering the tests, where they might be accused of doing something to aid cheating to raise scores — teachers who do their job well may get bathroom monitoring duty as a result . . .)
Dallas ISD and the Texas Education Agency had monitors to make sure our testing was secure enough, though I’m not certain such pains are taken to make sure the tests work. Our school is targeted for “reconstitution” if there are not dramatic improvements in TAKS scores in math and science, so the monitors hunt for errors. One wishes that wearing orange would keep the guns from being aimed at one, but one suspects it would only improve one’s targetability.
So we take it all seriously. One would hate to have been the cause of the demise of a community school for having committed some grand error in monitoring bathrooms.
It was one day of testing, but it cost us more than that. Schedules were rearranged Monday so that instead of our usual block scheduling, each student got a briefer session with her or his English teacher for last minute review and pep talk. Faculty meetings were for test administration instructions (required by regulation or law).
On test days, students are asked to leave their books and book bags at home (security for the test, mainly). What sort of education system discourages kids from carrying books <i>any day?</i>
Math, science and social studies tests come at the end of April and early May. Other tests dot the weeks until then. One teacher noted in a meeting last year that testing season marks the end of the education year, since little can be done once testing starts eating up the calendar in such huge chunks.
“Time on task,” Checker Finn used to note. When students spend time on a task, they learn it. Measure what students spend their time doing, you’ll figure out what they’re good at.
In Texas, it appears, we teach testing.
Dave at DaveAwayFromHome may have put it best, quoting from Tyson’s recent appearance at the University of Texas-Arlington (image from Dave’s site, too):
“When a newspaper headline proclaims half of the children at a school are below average on a test, no one stops to think that’s what average means.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson, speaking about math illiteracy.
(Actually, I think that should be “innumeracy.” Is that jargon? Do we have to know that? Does it show up on the test?)
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1 Comment | Education, Education assessment, TAKS, Testing, Texas | Tagged: Education, Education assessment, Schools, TAKS, Testing, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 3, 2009
Carnival of the Liberals #85 comes to us from The Lay Scientist, a British blog.
Maybe most notable is the listing of Obama Action Comics, in the vein of Saturday Night Live’s “Ex-Presidents” superhero series.
Concluding a triplet of Obama-related posts I would like to present Jason’s “Obama Comics”. While playing on the internet one day, Jason found a cache of images of a Japanese Obama action-figure that bore an uncanny resemblance to various Blaxpoitation stars of years gone by. The inevitable comic strip resulted, and you can see this week’s episode, “Vol 1 No 12 – Coming Soon to a Radio Near You“, in which Obama deals with Rush Limbaugh, who I gather is famous in America.
The strip has language that makes it unsuitable for schools, let me warn you. No sound — probably Not Safe For Work if you work in a school, but nothing a high school teacher doesn’t hear daily anyway.
CoL #85 also introduces Greg Laden’s series, the Bible as Ethnography. Interesting.
The whole carnival list is interesting.
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2 Comments | Economics, Politics, President Obama, Presidents | Tagged: Carnival of the Liberals, Economics, Finance, Obama Action Comics, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 2, 2009
Several states tried to reduce class size, but generally class sizes have not been reduced and are increasing again.
So, does class size affect student achievement?
The New York Times featured a story about a week ago on class size creeping up in New York City; and now there are comments in the letters section.
At recent legislative hearings on whether to renew mayoral control of the New York City schools, lawmakers and parents alike have asked, again and again, why Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel I. Klein have not done more to reduce class size. On Tuesday, the Education Department issued a report that found the average number of children per class increased in nearly every grade this school year.
“If you’re going to spend an extra dollar, personally, I would always rather spend it on the people that deliver the service,” Mr. Bloomberg said when asked about the report on Thursday, calling class size “an interesting number.”
“It’s the teacher looking a child in the eye, and teachers can look lots of children in the eye,” he added. “If you have to have smaller class size or better teachers, go with the better teachers every time.”
Is that even the issue?
Does class size matter? Can a great teacher teach 40 students in a class, 200 students a day, better than a mediocre teacher can teach a smaller number?
How could we possibly know?
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2 Comments | Classroom management, Classroom size, Education, Education quality, Education spending, Education success, Research | Tagged: Class Size, Education, Education quality, Education spending | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 2, 2009
The place to be today is Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historical Site, looking back 173 years.
Here on March 2 of that year [1836], 59 delegates signed the six-page document that declared the Republic of Texas free and independent of Mexico.
As related in the Dallas Morning News, it was a fretful time in Texas.
The convention delegates actually gathered on March 1, 1836, a month after they were elected and sent to Washington, a growing town on the Brazos River less than 100 miles northwest of what now is Houston.
The convention within weeks would adopt a constitution amid a swift series of events. While they were meeting, Travis and his men were killed at the Alamo. And just over another month later, Gen. Sam Houston’s army would defeat the Mexicans in the famous Battle of San Jacinto.
And, just in time for this year’s celebration, researchers announced they have recovered a document lost from the Texas State Archives for a century, the order for copies of the Texas Declaration to be copied and printed. Jim Bevill found the scrap of paper placed haphazardly in a file now housed at Southern Methodist University (SMU).
Author Jim Bevill found the order issued on March 2, 1836, for the first copies of the Texas Declaration of Independence in a collection donated to the Southern Methodist University library. The order had long been missing from the state archives. Photo by Michael Paulsen, Houston Chronicle
Resources:
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3 Comments | 1836, Freedom - Political, Historic documents, History, Holidays, Libraries, Museums, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: 1836, Texas, Texas Declaration of Independence, Texas history, Texas Independence Day, Washington-on-the-Brazos | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 