Jasper County Museum to host Sam Houston: Texas Icon exhibition
Beginning Thursday, November 7th, the Jasper County Historical Museum will host Sam Houston: Texas Icon, an exhibition produced by Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This exhibition is made possible in part by funding from the Summerlee Foundation.
Commanding general of the Texas Revolution, first elected president of the Republic of Texas, architect of annexation, United States senator, and governor of Texas on the eve of the Civil War. Sam Houston remains a larger-than-life figure in Texas and American history with a career that spanned the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, annexation and early statehood, and the state’s secession from the Union in 1861. Sam Houston: Texas Icon traces the life and career of Houston from his boyhood in Virginia and Tennessee through his retirement and eventual passing in Huntsville, Texas.
Exhibit panel topics include Prelude to War, President Again, American Indian Relations, A Nation Divided, and Texas Politics.
On Thursday, November 7th, the museum will host an opening night event featuring Derrick Birdsall, the Director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville. It will begin at 6:30 pm and is open to the public, free of charge. His talk, “Seven Years in Texas,” highlights Houston’s work with Native Americans and his two terms as president of the Republic of Texas. Mr. Birdsall works with the community and museum team as the curator of education. “I work in a beautiful place with people passionate about Sam Houston and telling his story. It doesn’t get much better than that,” he said. “There are days that I have to pinch myself because there’s no way that I could have made a career out of teaching history out of a log cabin, sitting by the fireplace, in a room where Sam Houston spent time.”
For more information about viewing hours or to arrange group visits, contact Tod Lawlis, Museum Director, at 409.384.6666 (during museum hours) or jasperchm@gmail.com. The museum is open each Wednesday through Friday from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm, and on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. The exhibition will be available to the public from Thursday, November 7th to Thursday, December 5th. For more information, please visit jaspercountytxmuseum.org/blog/
Humanities Texas develops and supports diverse programs across the state, including lectures, oral history projects, teacher institutes, museum exhibitions, and documentary films. For more information, please visit Humanities Texas online at http://www.humanitiestexas.org or call 512.440.1991.
