Battle of Flowers Parade

Battle of Flowers Parade in Alamo Plaza, circa 1890s.

With Fiesta taking place, throughout this week we’ll be highlighting some treasures from our collections related to this San Antonio celebration. The DRT Library has many books, vertical files, photographs, and archival materials that document and explore the history of Fiesta and the Battle of Flowers Parade from their inception to the present day.

The Alamo decorated for the Battle of Flowers Parade, circa 1890s.

Chief among our archival collections is the Battle of Flowers Association Records, which contains the non-current records of the organization deemed to possess enduring historic value. This collection is one of the largest held by the library and contains minutes, rosters, yearbooks, reports, correspondence, financial documents, printed material, drawings, photographs, motion picture film, videotape, audio tape, and artifacts generated and gathered by elected officials and various committee chairmen in the Association. Researchers can find additional archival materials relating to the Battle of Flowers Parade and Fiesta in several other collections, including the Reynolds Andricks Papers, 1935-1977; DRT 3 Fiesta San Antonio Collection, 1904-2007; and the Order of the Alamo Records, 1909-1990.

 

C.M. McAmis, photographed in a studio, riding the bicycle he decorated for the 1893 parade. (SC13162)

For this entry, we’re focusing on materials from the early history of the Battle of Flowers Parade. The first parade was held in 1891 due to the convergence of several factors, namely the desire of some San Antonians to replicate the flower festivals they had observed in Mexico City and in Nice, France; the movement in the city to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21; and the interest in marking the two hundredth anniversary of the settling of San Antonio by several Native American tribes. According to historian Judith Berg Sobré, “in spite of these vague plans, however, no concrete arrangements were made until the announcement of the impending visit of President Benjamin Harrison.” This first “visit to San Antonio by a sitting U.S. chief executive…galvanized the flower-battle enthusiasts to organize their own procession” (155-157).

Front of an invitation to the reception for President Benjamin Harrison.

Inside of the invitation.

The parade organizers – largely a group of well-to-do women who were active community volunteers – decided that the event would begin at 5:00 pm on April 20, not April 21, in honor of the president’s visit. This “would be long after the president’s departure,” writes Sobré, “but his schedule was too tight at any rate to permit him to witness such an entertainment.” Despite his absence, “the planners were counting on many visitors flocking to San Antonio that day and staying around to shop, so that the parade would have a large audience when the stores closed” (157). Furthermore, the planners decided that the parade would “form just off Alamo Plaza, pass through the plaza to Commerce Street, circle Main Plaza, and then return to Alamo Plaza. There, the [parade] marshals would divide the carriages into two columns, which would circle the plaza in opposite directions so that their occupants could throw flowers at each other” (158-159). The first parade was postponed due to rain and took place on April 24.

Two pages from the Official Program for the Battle of Flowers Parade, held April 21 and 22, 1899, showing the events on each day.

While initially the Battle of Flowers Parade was unique in that no larger festival occurred in conjunction with it, within a couple of years this changed as local organizations began hosting events associated with the event. Today, the Battle of Flowers Parade is the largest parade in Fiesta and is second only to the Tournament of Roses parade as the largest parade in the country. Additionally, the Battle of Flowers Association has been exclusively female group for most of its history, and the parade is the only parade in the country that is planned and directed completely by women.

Battle of Flowers pin, 1895.

References and Further Reading

Judith Berg Sobré, “Battle of Flowers Parade: ‘Fun with Flora,’” in San Antonio on Parade: Six Historic Festivals, by Judith Berg Sobre (2003).

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

“Lovely Bluebonnets, More Beautiful Than All the Rest”

“Bluebonnets have inspired the poet’s pen, the artist’s brush, the cowboy’s dream, and the legislator’s eloquence throughout the broad spaces of Texas. Their royal beauty and enchanting fragrance have a particular message which speaks to the emotions with compelling directness.”

–Mary Daggett Lake, 1926

“I like the bluebonnet because a field of this Texas flower seems just to have burst from the ground and it trembles subtly, making it very beautiful.”

–Julian Onderdonk, 1914.

The Battle of Flowers Association's 1992 commemorative pin featuring bluebonnets.

A selection of materials from the DRT Library’s collections demonstrate the accuracy of Lake’s statement, which we are highlighting in this entry to mark the anniversary of the Texas legislature’s March 7, 1901 action recognizing the bluebonnet as the state flower.

In her 1926 work The Legend of the Bluebonnet, botanist and author Mary Daggett Lake describes how this came to be, writing that the Colonial Dames of Texas originated the idea. Passing easily in the Senate, the resolution faced opposition in the House, where many representatives knew the flower by other names and where some proposed other flowers such as the prickly-pear cactus flower and the cotton boll. To strengthen their case for the bluebonnet, the Dames presented a painting of the flower by Miss Mode Walker of Austin. According to Lake, “deep silence reigned for an instant. Then deafening applause fairly shook the old walls.” The bluebonnet had carried the day.

Sheet music cover for the 1936 song "Flower of Texas," poem by Evelyn Hornsby Mims and music by Dot Echols Orum.

Seventy years later, almost to the day, a second piece of legislation was needed to clarify the situation. The initial legislation applied only the the Lupinus subcarnosus species, which some Texans considered to be the least attractive of the bluebonnets. A seventy year argument about the flower was resolved when Governor Preston Smith signed legislation (H. C. R. No. 44) on March 8, 1971, making all six species of bluebonnets and “any other variety of Bluebonnet not heretofore recorded” the official state flower.

Cover art to sheet music for Ida Bassett Botts's song "Legend of the Blue Bonnets (State Flower of Texas)" (1936).

The bluebonnet has been the subject of numerous poems, songs, works of fictions, and art. In fact, the 1933 state legislature adopted a state flower song, written by Julia D. Booth and Lora C. Crockett, entitled “Bluebonnets.” While the DRT Library does not have a copy of this song, its sheet music collection does contain scores for other pieces that pay homage to the beauty of Texas bluebonnets.

Julian Onderdonk, Spring Morning, 1911. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches. (SC95.015)

Finally, artist Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) was well-known for his depictions of bluebonnets in his artwork, which earned him the nickname of the “bluebonnet painter.” Indeed, William Rudolph writes in his book Julian Onderdonk: American Impressionist that “his paintings of the bluebonnet landscape brought [him] acclaim, his only measure of financial success, and a host of imitators.” While Onderdonk was not the first artist to depict bluebonnets in paintings, Rudolph argues that “it is thanks to Julian that the imagery became both distinct and popular” (37).

Onderdonk first painted bluebonnets in his work Spring Morning (1911), completed two years after returning to Texas from New York. This work is in the collection of the DRT Library and, while currently on loan, is usually on display in the reading room. Rudolph argues that in this painting the “bluebonnets scattered across the middle ground act more as a color-note contrast to the cacti and other vegetation than as the primary locus of attention.” Even though Onderdonk experimented with other plants in his landscape paintings, by the mid-1910s bluebonnets dominated his work (37).

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

1898 Democratic State Convention

In conjunction with the recently-held Democratic and Republican National Conventions, this week’s entry highlights a ribbon from the 1898 state convention of the Texas Democratic Party. The ribbon is part of the library’s Albert Sidney Burleson collection (DOC 6883), and presumably he wore it as a delegate at the convention. Burleson, a native of San Marcos, enjoyed a lengthy political career in Texas before representing the state in the U.S. Congress (1899-1913) and serving as postmaster general under President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). For more information about Burleson, see the Handbook of Texas History Online.

The Texas Democratic Party continues to hold a state convention each even-numbered year. According to the organization’s website, the purpose of the convention is to elect state party leaders, adopt a platform, and announce nominations for state offices. Moreover, in years in which a presidential election is held, delegates at the convention also “elect Delegates and Alternates to the Party’s National Convention; elect the Party’s official nominees from Texas for the Democratic National Committee…; and select the official slate of Presidential Electors.”

Members of the Democratic Party who attended the 1898 convention in Galveston nominated Joseph Draper Sayers to run for governor. Sayers had previously served as a member of the Texas legislature, as a United States Congressman, and as lieutenant governor. He served a second gubernatorial term before Democrat Samuel Willis Tucker Lanham was elected to the position in 1903. For more information about Sayers, see the Handbook of Texas History Online.

Several primary and secondary sources at the DRT Library detail the history of politics in Texas, specifically the histories of the Democratic and Republican parties in the state. Some of the library’s holdings include:

Adams, Frank Carter. Texas Democracy: A Centennial History of Politics and Personalities of the Democratic Party, 1836-1936. Austin, Texas: Democratic Historical Association, 1937.

Casdorph, Paul D. A History of the Republican Party in Texas, 1865-1965. Austin, Texas: Pemberton Press, 1965.

Moneyhon, Carl H. Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1980.

Morehead, Richard. 50 Years in Texas Politics: From Roosevelt to Reagan – From the Fergusons to Clements. Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1982.

Texas Centennial of Statehood Commission. A Century of Texas Governors and Capitols: Republic and State. Austin, Texas: Press of Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1943.

These and other materials can be located using our online catalog and read on-site at the DRT Library; for those readers not residing in San Antonio, check whether a local public or academic library has the item or can request it using interlibrary loan services.

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