Texas Libraries Research Articles

Services Offered to Preschool Children in Texas Public Libraries

Services to preschoolers in public libraries in Texas are offered by the majority of the libraries (87.4%), but the offerings are, for the most part, recent developments, with 62.1% in existence for less than 20 years, and 44.7% in existence for less than 10 years. The services are supported by very small allocations from library budgets (the majority allocated less than 2% of the library budget), and are staffed by primarily nonprofessionals (79.2%) without struc- tured professional education in either librarianship or early child- hood concerns.

Magazines and Newspapers for Children

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsJudy MathewsJudy Mathews, Chairperson of ACEI's Among the Magazines Committee and Librarian at Gullett Elementary School in Austin, Texas, prepared the current revision with the assistance of Ruth Sawyer, University of Texas Library School; Maridee Ward, Assistant to Mrs. Sawyer; and Bebe Henderson and Marcia Stoma, mother-volunteers who typed the manuscript.

Manuscript Collections at Stephen F. Austin State College

THE manuscript collections at Stephen F. Austin State College are of two types. There are papers, diaries, and a few rare books dealing with the early history of Texas. There are also collections of business records. Of the two the latter are by far the more numerous. Among the materials denoted as early Texana, perhaps the most significant is the Robert B. Blake collection. Blake was a tireless researcher and translator and for many years a court reporter for the Nacogdoches District. His translations and typescripts comprise some 93 volumes of material concerning East Texas from the Bexar and Nacogdoches Archives (Spanish Texas). I understand that a copy of this set is held by the University of Texas Library. There are a number of files of personal papers of Texans of local prominence. Perhaps the most important are the papers of the Reverend George L. Crocket, longtime Episcopal clergyman in East Texas and local historian and collector. His papers contain many significant items not included in his Two Centuries in East Texas, but they have not yet been completely cataloged. Mr. Crocket also prepared a calendar of all Texas items appearing in Niles' Weekly Register, 1811 through 1849. This is a most useful aid for students of the Texas Revolution and the Republic. The manuscript collections also include a fairly considerable number of land certificates, Confederate muster rolls and pension items, and papers concerning the history of Texas families. More than 22,000 items have been donated by D.A.R. chapters and individuals. There are also some early maps, a good file of early Texas almanacs, newspapers (many on microfilm), and some rare books. These materials are housed in a special East Texas Room, which

Confederate Artillery in Western Louisiana, 1862-1863

CONFEDERATE ARTILLERY IN WESTERN LOUISIANA, 1862-1863 Alwyn Barr On April 24, 1862, a Union fleet ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip near the mouth of the Mississippi. That same night the Federal warships destroyed the Confederate river defense fleet of "cottonclads" and rams above the forts, and Union troops soon thereafter occupied New Orleans. To oppose the wedge suddenly driven through the Confederacy's back door, the Richmond government sent Major General Richard Taylor, son of former President Zachary Taylor, to command the remote District of Western Louisiana. From Virginia Taylor brought with him Major Joseph L. Brent as chief of artillery and ordnance for the district. Major Brent, the son of a former United States senator from Louisiana, had practiced law in his home state and also in California before the war. In Virginia he served on the staff of Major General John B. Magruder until the fall of 1862. A far greater challenge of his talents lay just ahead. When Taylor and Brent arrived, the District of Western Louisiana contained no Confederate troops except a single cavalry battalion, but men were quickly raised and forces were brought in from the garrison at Port Hudson across the Mississippi.1 Among these reinforcements were two field artillery batteries, the only such units transferred into the Trans-Mississippi during the war. Oliver Joseph Semmes, son of the famous commander of the Sumter and the Alabama, led the 1st Confederate Regular Battery, which had been raised in Louisiana in 1861. A slight, pale, rather emotional young man, Semmes had Alwyn Barr is a social science research associate at the University of Texas and a member of the editorialstaffs of the Southwest Historical Quarterly and Texas Military History. 1 "General Joseph Lancaster Brent," MS, Confederate Collection, Archives, University of Texas Library; Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War (New York, 1879), p. 117; "Career of Gen. Joseph Lancaster Brent," Confederate Veteran, XVII (1909), 345-347. 74 resigned from West Point to serve the Southern cause.* Also from Port Hudson came Company H of the Mississippi Light Artillery, known as the "Connor Battery," commanded by Captain George Ralston . Organized in Natchez, Mississippi, on April 30, 1862, Ralston's men were armed with two six-pounders and two twelve-pounder howitzers, one of them a piece captured from the Federals.3 Both batteries were attached to Brigadier General Alfred Mouton's newly-organized infantry brigade, and soon nearly lost to the enemy. On October 27, 1862, Mouton sent the batteries to support portions of his command which engaged a Union advance under Brigadier General Godfrey Weitzel on both sides of Bayou Lafourche at Labadieville . Union strength converged on the west bank opposite Ralston, whose gunners, their ammunition exhausted, were badly mauled by Federal batteries. In the somewhat hurried retreat Ralston was captured , but Mouton fortunately succeeded in extracting his small force by falling back across the Atchafalaya River.4 In the same month, Major Brent turned vigorously to the most important task at hand. Assuming responsibility for a makeshift state arsenal and ordnance depot at New Iberia on Bayou Teche, he in turn placed Captain A. J. Lindsay in command of the arsenal shops. These began improvising harness, wagons, traveling forges, gun carriages, caissons, artillery ammunition, friction primers, powder, and cartridges made from newspapers and wallpaper. Repairs were effected on all artdlery equipment which still appeared to be serviceable. A stickler for efficiency, Brent set up strict regulations for the operation of the arsenal and the distribution of supplies, enforced regular compliance with reporting procedures, and required invoices for all ordnance issues . Looking ahead to die spring campaign, he also ordered Lindsay to store a large portion of his supplies at Vermdionville (modern Lafayette), rather than stockpile the entire amount close to the fighting 2 U.S. War Dept. (comp.), The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, 1880-1901), Ser. I, XV, 804 (hereafter cited as OR, with all references to Ser. I); W. Adolphe Roberts, Semmes of the Alabama (New York, 1938), p. 35; George Canady Harding , MisceUaneous Writings (Indianapolis, 1882), p. 321; List of Artillery Officers...

Early Psychological Warfare in the Hidalgo Revolt

C OLONEL TORCUATO TRUJILLO had been sent on a desperate-almost hopeless-mission by the viceroy of New Spain.' His orders were to hold the pass at Monte de las Cruces on the Toluca road over which the priest Miguel Hidalgo was expected to lead his insurgent horde. Trujillo's 2,500 men did have the topographical advantage, but the mob, one could hardly call it an army, which advanced toward the capital of the kingdom outnumbered them more than thirty to one. If the vain and unpopular Spanish colonel failed, the rebels could march unhindered on Mexico City. On October 30, 1810, the forces clashed in a bloody and prolonged battle. It was the first time that the unwieldy mass of rebel recruits had faced disciplined soldiers and well serviced artillery in the field. Under such circumstances coordinated attack was difficult and Hidalgo's casualties were heavy. Toward nightfall Trujillo's troop, though decimated, was able to break out of its encircled positioni and retreat into the Valley of Anahuac. The insurgents gained the heights of Las Cruces and advanced the next day over the divide and down to the hamlet of Cuajimalpa. The capital of New Spain lay below them. Why was the six weeks old revolution not consummated immediately by the occupation of Mexico City? Why, after poising three days above the city, did Hidalgo abandon his goal and retreat? * The author is assistant professor of history at Ohio Wesleyan University. ' Materials from Mexican archives used in this article were obtained in 1954 while I was enjoying the benefits of a fellowship from the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation. Archives conisulted include the Archivo General de la Naci6n; Archivo del Museo Nacional de Arqueologia e Historia; and the Mariano Cuevas Collection, Colegio Maximo de Cristo Rey de la Provincia Mexicana de la Compafiia de Jesius, Sani Angel, D. F. (abbreviated hereinafter as AGN, AMN, and Cuevas, respectively). For additional primary materials I am indebted to the staffs of the Library of Congress; the Sutro Branch of the Califorlnia State Library; the Latin American Collection of the University of Texas Library; the Henry Raup Wagner Collection of Yale University; and the Yale University Library (cited hereinafter as L.C., Sutro, Texas, Wagner, and Yale, respectively). I wish to thank Charles Griffin and Charles Hale for their helpful suggestions. I am responsible for all errors and conclusions.

Controversy in Kentucky: Braxton Bragg's Campaign of 1862

CONTROVERSY IN KENTUCKY: BRAXTON BRAGG'S CAMPAIGN OF 1862 Grady McWhiney union ARMncs were engulfing the South in the early summer of 1862. Besides threatening Richmond in the East, the Federals held New Orleans , most of Tennessee, and much of the Mississippi River. The Confederacy 's fate seemed to depend upon the abiUty of two widely separated armies, one in Virginia and the other in Mississippi, to prevent further Union advances. Concentrated at Tupelo after its evacuation of Corinth in May (the latest in a series of retreats that had begun in Kentucky , the Confederate army in Mississippi was badly disorganized. Moreover, President Jefferson Davis had just dismissed its commander, General P. G. T. Beauregard.1 Beauregard's replacement, General Braxton Bragg, a grim martinet with exceptional talent for organizing and training soldiers, had never commanded a large army in the field. He was a sickly man; for years he had suffered from chronic illnesses (rheumatism,2 "dyspepsia," extreme nervousness, and severe migraine headaches ) which had helped to make his "temper sour and petulant."3 Stooped, haggard-faced, Dr. McWhiney is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana, and a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under David Donald. Editor of a new edition of Lee's Dispatches to Davis, 1862-1865, he is now completing a biography of Bragg and is a visiting instructor in history at the University of California, Berkeley. 1 For an account of the circumstances leading to Beauregard being deprived of command, see T. Harry Williams, P. G. T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray ( Baton Rouge, 1955), pp. 155-159; Braxton Bragg to Jefferson Davis, June 19, 1862, Braxton Bragg Papers, Duke University Library; U.S. War Dept., comp., The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, 1889-1901), Series I, Vol. XVII, pt. 2, pp. 599, 601, 606, 614. Cited hereafter as O.R. and, unless otherwise noted, all references are to Series I. 2 Mrs. Bragg to Bragg, October 18, 1861, Mrs. Braxton Bragg Collection, University of Texas Library. 3 Richard Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction (New York, 1900), p. 100; Irving A. Buck, Cleburne and His Command (New York, 1908), p. 209, GRADY MCWHINEY grizzle-bearded, he looked older tiian his forty-five years. A year before the English reporter WiUiam H. RusseU had described him as an "elderly man." Although "müd and agreeable in manner," Bragg "exacted of aU a rigid performance of duty," punishing officer or private alike foranyneglect. When he was aroused, his cold eyes, set beneatfi bushy, black brows, showed "much of the white" and "gave him ... a very ferocious aspect, which made him a terror to all who incurred his displeasure ."4 "Exacting of others, he never spared himseU," wrote General Richard Taylor, who considered Bragg "the most laborious of commanders, devotingevery moment to the discharge of his duties." Repeatedly his wife admonished him for working too hard. "You are overtasking your mind sitting so closely to your writing—I would write less, & exercise more," sheadvised. Yet his taU, thin body was "capable of enduring any amount offatigue." He rose early, retired late, ate Urrle, and drank less. "He was untiring in his labors, methodical and systematic in the discharge of business," recaUed a former member of his staff.8 A soldier who served under him wrote that "Bragg was industry personified." "Go to him on business," noted a chaplain, "and he promptly gives you a hearing. His manner indicates that you must be brief and speak to the point. If your request is reasonable and your cause is just, he decides for you and dismisses you at once. The promptness of his decision and the abrupt manner of his dismissal, not granting a moment of time to thank him, puts you in an 01 humor with yourself; you feel when you rush out of his presence thatitwould be a reh'efifsomebody would fightyou."6 Bragg faced a mass of difficulties when he assumed command of the forces in Mississippi on June 20. He did not have to meet a new enemy advance immediately, but Confederate morale was low, and many of his soldiers were deserting. How to feed...

An Analysis of Texas Library Association Membership and Officers, 1902-1956. Beatrice Fineman Kell

<i>An Analysis of Texas Library Association Membership and Officers, 1902-1956</i>. Beatrice Fineman Kell

Gorostiza and Texas

WXC THEN THE north-bound diligence left Madrid on the morning of March 1, 1822, there Were among the passengers two men,1 strangers to each other, the threads of whose lives were destined to be strangely entangled by the acquaintanceship which ensued. One of these was Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza, at that time the leading dramatist of Spain; the other was Lucas Alama'n, lately a deputy from Mexico to the Spanish Cortes, then preparing to return home. Gorostiza had been brought up in court circles, but after the re-establishment of constitutional government in 1820 he had taken an active part, as orator, journalist, and dramatist, in its support. So great had been his enthusiasm that he had cast caution to the winds; as a result, the royal attitude toward him made it desirable to absent himself from a scene that was becoming each day more menacing. Alaman, a member of a wealthy Mexican family but educated in Europe, was an extremely conservative politician who was interested in the Spanish government primarily as it concerned Mexico. The destination of both men was Paris. En route, as each made himself known to the other, Gorostiza mentioned casually that he was born in Mexico while his father was the governor of the province of Vera Cruz and inspector general of the army,2 and that both his parents had been so intimate with the bachelor viceroy, Juan Vicente GUemes Pacheco, Count of Revillagigedo, that when they visited the capital, where his father reviewed the troops, his mother was accorded almost viceregal honors,3 and later, when a widow, was bequeathed a large part of Revillagigedo's estate.4 As the * The author is a resident of Austin, Texas, who has long been a student of Mexican history. 'Lucas Alaman, Autobiografia. MS. in the Alamatn Papers. ILatin American Collection, University of Texas Library. Hereafter referred to as UT. 2 His birth certificate is published in J. M. Roa BArcena, Datos y apuntamientos para la biografia de Don Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (Mexico, 1876), p. 54. 8 Jose Gomez, Diario curioso de Mexico, in Documentos para la historic de Mexico, Ser. 1, VII (Mexico, 1854), 386, 396. 4 A certified copy of his will is in the Gorostiza Archives in Mexico City. Hereafter referred to as AG. When used by the writer, these papers were in the possession of Srtas. Lidia and Lucia Gorostiza, granddaughters of CGorostiza.

Independent Mexico in Documents: Independence, Empire, and Republic. A Calendar of the Juan E. Hernández y Dávalos Manuscript Collection, the University of Texas Library. Edited by Carlos Eduardo Castañeda. Compiled by Jack Autrey Dabbs. (México: Editorial Jus, 1954. Pp. xv, 604. Index. Paper.)

Independent Mexico in Documents: Independence, Empire, and Republic. A Calendar of the Juan E. Hernández y Dávalos Manuscript Collection, the University of Texas Library. Edited by Carlos Eduardo Castañeda. Compiled by Jack Autrey Dabbs. (México: Editorial Jus, 1954. Pp. xv, 604. Index. Paper.)

References to Chateaubriand in an Unpublished Correspondence of Émile Deschamps

Muse frangaise, was a prolific letterwriter. One of his correspondents over a period of nearly forty years (1822-60) was a politician with the cacoethes scribendi, Jules de Croze, who, with his wife Virginie, frequented the social and literary milieux in which La Muse frangaise was born and eked out its very brief existence. To this manage are addressed a large number of letters now in the possession of the University of Texas library and in which are to be found, as might be expected, numerous allusions to literary events and the literary climate of the first half of the nineteenth century in France. The present paper assembles a group of these allusions, most of them bearing directly or indirectly on the role of Chateaubriand in the artistic, political, and social life of the period. First, three brief references to La Muse frangaise, the short-lived organ (July, 1823-June, 1824) of the young &cole romantique of which Deschamps was such an active member and of which Chateaubriand was one of the inspirateurs.' The new school had incurred the hostility of the Societ6 royale des bonnes Lettres, which had been organized in 1821 for the defense of the throne and the altar. One of its members, Charles de Lacretelle, had attacked the romantiques at a meeting of the Socidtd held on December 8, 1823. In an undated letter which must have been written at about this time, Deschamps refers to an article, in the conservative periodical L'Oriflamme, which would seem to have been an answer to Lacretelle (I have not had access to the files of this periodical). We read:

Calendar of the Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript Collection, The University of Texas Library. Prepared by Carlos Eduardo Castañeda and Jack Autrey Dabbs. (Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1952. Pp. xxii, 467. $6.00.)

Calendar of the Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript Collection, The University of Texas Library. Prepared by Carlos Eduardo Castañeda and Jack Autrey Dabbs. (Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1952. Pp. xxii, 467. $6.00.) - Volume 11 Issue 1

Calendar of the Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript Collection, University of Texas Library.

Calendar of the Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript Collection, University of Texas Library.

Calendar of the Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript Collection, University of Texas Library

Calendar of the Manuel E. Gondra Manuscript Collection, University of Texas Library

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library. Carlos E. Castañeda , Jack Autrey Dabbs

<i>Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library</i>. Carlos E. Castañeda , Jack Autrey Dabbs

Review: Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library, by Carlos E. Castañeda and Jack Autrey Dabbs

Review: <i>Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library</i>, by Carlos E. Castañeda and Jack Autrey Dabbs

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library.

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library.

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library

Guide to the Latin American Manuscripts in the University of Texas Library

Handbook of Texas Libraries. Number Four. Published in Observance of the Texas Centennial, 1836-1936. Texas Library Association

<i>Handbook of Texas Libraries. Number Four. Published in Observance of the Texas Centennial, 1836-1936</i>. Texas Library Association

&lt;italic&gt;Journals of the Fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1839–1840, to which are added the Relief Laws&lt;/italic&gt;. Edited by &lt;sc&gt;Harriet Smither&lt;/sc&gt;, Archivist, Texas State Library. Volume I., &lt;italic&gt;The Senate Journal&lt;/italic&gt;; volume II., &lt;italic&gt;The House Journal&lt;/italic&gt;; volume III., &lt;italic&gt;Reports and Relief Laws&lt;/italic&gt;. [Texas Library and Historical Commission, State Library.] (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones Company. 1930, 1931. Pp. iii, 378; 355; 282.

&lt;italic&gt;Journals of the Fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1839–1840, to which are added the Relief Laws&lt;/italic&gt;. Edited by &lt;sc&gt;Harriet Smither&lt;/sc&gt;, Archivist, Texas State Library. Volume I., &lt;italic&gt;The Senate Journal&lt;/italic&gt;; volume II., &lt;italic&gt;The House Journal&lt;/italic&gt;; volume III., &lt;italic&gt;Reports and Relief Laws&lt;/italic&gt;. [Texas Library and Historical Commission, State Library.] (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones Company. 1930, 1931. Pp. iii, 378; 355; 282.