Hemphill Wins the 2008 Virginia M. Law Award

Helen Hemphill (left), winner of the 2008 Virginia M. Law Award, with Connie Impelman, DRT Library Committee Chairman.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library Committee is pleased to announce that the 2008 Virginia M. Law Award for the most distinguished book for young adults on Texas history is awarded to author Helen Hemphill for The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones, published in 2008 by Front Street, Inc., in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The announcement was made Friday evening, May 15, by Connie Impelman, Chairman of the DRT Library Committee, at the 118th Annual Convention of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in Killeen, Texas.

A three-member panel of judges comprised of historians, educators, and librarians judge the entries. The 2008 committee included its chairman Dr. Barbara Immroth, professor in the School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin, and committee members Dr. Viki Ash, Coordinator of Children’s Services at San Antonio Public Library, and Linda Plevak, Adjunct Librarian at Northeast Lakeview College in Universal City, Texas.

Inspired by the 1907 autobiography of real African American cowboy Nat Love, The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones tells the story of thirteen-year-old Tennessee native Prometheus Jones. Prometheus wins a horse with a raffle ticket he earned by breaking Colonel Dill’s filly. When Dill’s sons, Pernie Boyd and LaRue, try to cheat him out of the prize horse, Prometheus sets off for Texas with his eleven-year-old cousin, Omar. The African American boys find work with a Texas cattle drive heading to Deadwood in the Dakota Territory and encounter thundering stampedes, raging rivers, and friendly and hostile Indians. While learning cowboy ways, Omar dreams of striking it rich in Deadwood and Prometheus longs to meet his father, purported to live in Texas.

The lively dialogue and authentic characters make this an appealing adventure story for middle school readers. Creative teachers of Texas history will find this a compelling read aloud.

The Virginia M. Law Award for the Most Distinguished Book for Young Adults on Texas History is endowed by Mrs. Law’s daughter, Nancy M. Law, and sponsored by the DRT Library. It is given annually to the author/illustrator of the most distinguished book for young adults, grades 7-12, that accurately portrays the history of Texas, whether fiction or nonfiction.

Mrs. Law, for whom the award is named, was an active member of the Alamo Mission Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas; an enthusiastic supporter of the purposes and efforts of the DRT; and a strong proponent of education.

Please see the DRT Library’s website for information about past winners of the Law Award.

Fern and Castillo Win the 2008 June Franklin Naylor Award

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library Committee is pleased to announce that the 2008 June Franklin Naylor Award for the Best Book for Children on Texas history is awarded to author Tracey E. Fern and illustrator Lauren Castillo for Buffalo Music, published in 2008 by Clarion Books in New York. The announcement was made Friday evening, May 15, by Connie Impelman, Chairman of the DRT Library Committee, at the 118th Annual Convention of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in Killeen, Texas.

A three-member panel of judges comprised of historians, educators, and librarians judge the entries. The 2008 committee included its chairman Dr. Barbara Immroth, professor in the School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin, and committee members Dr. Viki Ash, Coordinator of Children’s Services at San Antonio Public Library, and Linda Plevak, Adjunct Librarian at Northeast Lakeview College in Universal City, Texas.

Buffalo Music was inspired by real people and events of Texas history, namely Mary Ann Goodnight and her husband, Charles (who laid a route that would become the Goodnight-Loving Trail). When they settled in the Palo Duro Canyon in 1876, the “music of the buffalo” was the background score of their lives. However, buffalo hunters quickly decimated the herds, much to Mary Ann’s dismay.

Mary Ann’s story is told through the character of Miss Molly, and Fern’s work highlights her efforts to save the American Bison. Although she began with only two orphaned buffalo calves, Miss Molly’s conservation efforts ultimately assisted in the repopulation of buffalo in Yellowstone National Park.

The Naylor Award Committee notes that the book should appeal not only to children interested in the rich anecdotes that comprise Texas history but also those young readers with interests in nature and endangered species.

The June Franklin Naylor Award for the Best Book for Children on Texas History, endowed by the family of June Franklin Naylor and sponsored by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, is given annually to the author/illustrator of the most distinguished book for children and young adults, grades K-12, that accurately portrays the history of Texas, whether fiction or nonfiction. Mrs. Naylor, for whom the award is named, was a former schoolteacher and a long-time resident of Odessa, and she served as President General of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Inc., from 1989 to 1991.

Please see the DRT Library’s website for information about past winners of the Naylor Award.

May I Have This Dance?

Dance card for the Casino Club's Sylvester Ball, 1887-1888. Founded by local Germans, the Casino Club was San Antonio's first social club and theater.

For many American high school students, the month of May is marked by preparing for and attending the prom. The first proms came about as a middle-class imitation of the grand debutante balls of the upper class. Historians believe that proms were common at colleges in the nineteenth century and became regular events at high schools in the early 1900s. While turn-of-the-century proms were generally simple events where young people dined together, by the 1920s and 1930s dancing had also become an essential element of the prom.

Dance card for the Casino Club's Neujahr's Ball, 1886-1887. The back of the card lists Gustav Groos, Udo Rhodius, and Adolf Schnaith as members of the organizing committee.

Beyond this history of dances for students, social dancing has a much longer and wider history in the United States and Europe. Evidence of these traditions, their evolution, and their significance in the broader society in which they took place can be found in a variety of primary sources, including dance cards. These small booklets became popular at balls and other dances in the early 1800s and remained fashionable into the twentieth century. They served two purposes. First and most importantly, a dance card was a practical item designed to help a lady keep track of her dance partners. The importance of this is stated in a finding aid for a collection of dance cards at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois:

Behavior at these formals followed relatively strict rules of etiquette. Gentlemen could solicit dances from any of the young ladies present; however, the young women were allowed the privilege to either accept or decline any solicitations they wish. Once a gentleman’s request was accepted, however, the young lady had to honor her promise. To keep track of her engagements, the woman recorded the name of her promised partner in her dance card. These small booklets, usually attached to a cord she could wear on her wrist, listed the evening’s scheduled program with a space next to each dance where the partner’s name could be penciled in.

Inside of a dance card, listing dance partners for an unidentified lady who attended the 30th anniversary ball for the San Antonio Turn Verein, a German gymnastic or athletic club, on October 26, 1895.

Additionally, women could also keep dance cards as a souvenir of the event attended. As indicated in Northwestern’s finding aid, dance cards were more than just a plain list of dances and partners. Rather, they were usually decorative and elaborate, with covers “fabricated from paper, cardboard, leatherette, wood, metal, or celluloid. Hand-decorated or printed, embossed or otherwise embellished with the logo of the organization, the cards reflect the prevailing styles of the era.”

Front of a dance card for a masquerade ball held at Lenzens Opera House on March 7, 1891. The name "Miss Laura Stein" appears in the lower right corner.

Even though a dance card usually does not list the name of the lady who used it, individually and collectively these items provide a revealing look into the past. Many include information about the event itself, including the sponsoring organization and names of organizers as well as when, where, when, and why the dance was held. Examining a collection of dance cards can reveal traditions and popular components. Dance cards also provide an interesting counterpart to dance manuals and “how-to” books: while these instructional materials reflected the preferences of individual teachers and societal standards of good taste, dance cards show what dances were actually being done.

To learn more about the history of dance cards and of social dancing in Europe and the United States, check out these additional web resources:

American Antiquarian Society, “An Invitation to Dance: A History of Social Dance in America.”

Library of Congress, “An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920.” See specifically the essay entitled “Western Social Dance: An Overview of the Collection.”

Millikin University Archives, Staley Library, “Dance Card Days.”

Mixed Pickles, a vintage dance company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “Vintage Dance Cards.”

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Theodore Gentilz, Texas Artist

Gentilz's work "Fandango," set in the Spanish Governor's Palace in San Antonio. (SC05.047)

Those who view libraries as having only “old books” and archives as having only “old papers” may be surprised to find that the DRT Library’s collections include, among other materials, more than 1,000 pieces of graphic and decorative art, paintings, prints, and posters. Notably, the library has the largest publicly accessibly collection of artwork by nineteenth-century Texas artist Theodore Gentilz.

Gentilz's manuscript map of Castroville was adapted for Henri Castro's promotional book, "Le Texas en 1845." (SC05.043)

Louis Theodore Jean Gentilz (May 2, 1819 – January 4, 1906) was born in Paris and graduated from the l’Ecole royale gratuite de dessin, de mathematiques et de sculpture d’ornements. He immigrated to Texas in 1844 with the second group of Henri Castro’s colonists and was one of the founders of Castroville. Gentilz served Castro as secretary and surveyor and led colonizers to settle new towns in Castro’s land grant. Gentilz moved to San Antonio probably sometime in the late 1840s. In 1849, the year his father died, Gentilz returned to Paris and married Marie Fargeix, bringing her and his younger sister, Henriette Adelaide, back to Texas. Three years later, Henriette married Gentilz’s friend Auguste Fretelliere. Beginning in the 1860s and continuing until 1894, Gentilz taught art at St. Mary’s College in San Antonio. He also gave art lessons in his home on North Flores Street near Salinas Street and prepared extensive instructional guides for teaching.

Theodore Gentilz with his art class at St. Mary's College. The Witte Museum has the original photograph. (SC889.52.1.5)

Gentilz produced a variety of paintings and drawings that reflected his Texas surroundings, including compositions depicting the customs of the Mexican population, for which he is most remembered today, and botanical studies of the native wildflowers of South Texas.

In Gentilz's painting "Tortilleras," the large, more modern figures of the tortilla makers are a departure from the relatively small forms seen in most of his compositions. (SC05.046)

Gentilz's depiction of Mission San Francisco de Espada, which is located south of San Antonio and now managed by the National Park Service as a part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

The extensive Gentilz-Fretelliere collection at the DRT Library contains family papers dating from 1793 to 1962. The materials have been arranged into seven series (groups of similar records):

• The Correspondence series includes letters, postcards, greeting cards, telegrams, and addressed envelopes.

• The Records series includes property, business, financial, personal, and family records.

• The Writings series contains manuscripts and notes.

• The Printed materials series includes ephemera, leaflets, pamphlets, catalogs, lists and charts, clippings, books, serials, prints, music, and maps.

• The Photographs series primarily contains images of people, but also includes pictures of animals; street scenes, city views, and river scenes; buildings; and plants and flowers.

• The Artifacts series contains tools and equipment; personal objects; clothing and textiles; decorative arts; models, molds, and sculpture; furniture; and packages.

• The Original art series includes preliminary sketches, finished compositions, design drawings, perspective projections, and sketches. Numbering more than 600, these pieces depict a variety of subjects such as figures, portraits, animals, landscapes, nature, and flora. This series contains pieces signed by Theodore and Marie Gentilz, their niece Louise Fretelliere, and their nephew Henry Fretelliere; art attributed to each and to niece Mathilde Fretelliere; and a large number of items, particularly drawings, the attribution of which requires further study.

For more information about this collection, please contact or visit the library.

Theodore Gentilz his wife and Marie in front of their home at 318 Flores Street, San Antonio. (SC889.52.1.3)

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Battle of Flowers Parade on Film

In a final blog entry dedicated to the history of Fiesta and the Battle of Flowers Parade, we are excited to highlight some footage of past parades contained in the library’s collection of Battle of Flowers Association records. The earliest film is believed to show the 1928 parade, and a second reel dates from 1930. The remaining footage shows each parade from most years between 1952 and 1986.

We have extracted a few minutes of the 1971 and 1976 parades to show here. The clips were selected based on the personal interests of some members of the DRT Library staff. Diane Temple (nee Cermin), mother of Stephanie Boothby, reference librarian, can be seen in the 1971 parade as the head majorette for Highlands High School. Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library director, participated in the 1976 parade as a second grader on the float for St. George Episcopal School.

The DRT Library wishes to thank Matson Multi Media and Audio Specialists, Inc., of San Antonio for donating their time and expertise to transfer all of the the parade footage from film to DVD.

done

done

Please note that the playback speed of these videos is double the speed of the original films.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.