Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of … · Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony...
Transcript of Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of … · Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony...
A P R I L 2 0 1 3
T he annual San Jacinto
Day Dinner will be
held on April 23,
2013, at 6:30 at the Houston
Country Club. The W.S.
Bellows family is being honored
at this sold-out event for their
many years of support to the
museum and monument; from
construction up to the present
day.
John Miller Morris is this
year’s guest speaker. Dr. Morris
is a professor of Geography at
U.T., San Antonio, the author
of several books, and the 2012
Piper Professor. The Piper
Professor Award was
established by the San Antonio
–based Minnie Stevens Piper
Foundation in 1958 to annually
recognize outstanding college
professors across Texas.
Dinner Honors Monument Constructor
Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of San Jacinto
C elebrate the 177th
anniversary of Texas
independence at the
San Jacinto Day Festival and
Battle Reenactment, which will
take place on Saturday, April 20,
2013. The Battle Reenactment
will be the highlight of the day,
beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Presented by the San
Jacinto Volunteers and other
living history organizations from
across the state, the reenactment
dramatizes the decisive battle
where General Sam Houston led
his Texian soldiers to victory
over the Mexican Army. The
reenactors will represent the
Runaway Scrape, the cannon
duel that occurred on April 20,
and the final battle between the
two forces.
A special feature of the day
will be a presentation by Dr.
Mary L. Kelley Scheer, chair of
the Department of
History at Lamar
University, who will
give a talk at 12:30 on
women at San Jacinto
inside the monument’s
theatre. Dr. Scheer
authored The
Foundation of Texan
Philanthropy and is now working
on a book entitled New Women
Who Shaped Modern Texas.
The festival runs from 10
a.m. to 6 p.m. Entertainment
during the day will include
Solero Flamenco, Dan Barth
and his medicine show wagon,
and Phydeaux’s Flying Flea
Circus. Musical favorites
include Liz Talley, the Celtaire
String Band, and the North
Harris County Dulcimer Society.
Plenty of demonstrators and
vendors will also be on hand.
“Presenting this living,
dynamic reenactment of Texas
history for free would not be
possible without our presenting
sponsor H-E-B, as well as The
Dow Chemical Company,
Vopak, Pasadena Strawberry
Festival, CenterPoint Energy
and LyondellBasell,” says Larry
Spasic, San Jacinto Museum of
History President.
The weekend celebration will
conclude on April 21, when
Texans will gather at 2:00 p.m.
on the steps of the San Jacinto
Monument for the Official State
Commemoration of the Battle
of San Jacinto. The guest
speaker will be Gregg Cantrell,
who is the current president of
the Texas State Historical
Association. Dr. Cantrell holds
the Emma and Ralph Lowe
Chair in Texas History at Texas
Christian University. This event
will culminate in a salute by the
Texian Army.
SAN JACINTO NEWS APRIL 2013
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Dear Members,
On the evening of April 23rd, 2013, at the Houston Country
Club we will return full circle to the genesis of our museum
association with the honoring of the W. S. Bellows family.
The W. S. Bellows Construction Company built the San
Jacinto Monument, which has always housed the San Jacinto
Museum of History since the doors of the monument were
opened to the people of Texas and their guests on April 20th,
1939.
Having contributed one of the best-known memorials in the
state, this family’s company continues to follow its proud Texas
heritage by building stunning, award-winning structures that will
certainly stand the test of time as iconic landmarks for future
generations.
We welcome the opportunity to recognize a family that has
over the years given so much to our museum and contributed to
our ability to share our knowledge, collections and educational
programs with all those who visit San Jacinto.
Thanks to steadfast supporters like the Bellows family,
museum chairman Mr. Bob Hixon will make a significant
announcement to all present at our annual dinner. This exciting
development will be shared with San Jacinto News readers in the
July issue.
Your support and our efforts are going to make one of Texas’
most creative and visible historical organizations even better. We
want you to join with us on this exciting endeavor.
Larry Spasic
President, San Jacinto Museum of History
L e t t e r f r o m t h e P r e s i d e n t
Office Systems of Texas Pasadena Rotary Club
Vopak Congressman Gene Green JSC Federal Credit Union
Haltermann John Manlove Marketing &
Communications Shell Federal Credit Union
Larry Spasic
M. D. Anderson Foundation The Brown Foundation
San Jacinto Day Foundation
Monument Inn Tregre Associates D.D.S.
Ozarka Direct Kroger
Shipley Do-nuts Luke’s Locker
Texas Chiropractic College Texas Products
Peri Photography Chick-fil-A
Firefly Business Group Havard Welding Supply Co.
Kwik Kopy Sellmark
Spencer Animal Hospital Sports Authority
Staples Tents of the Southwest
Victory Properties Walmart
5K Fun Run/Walk Sponsors
Thank you to these recent grantors:
T he second annual Texas Independence Day 5K Fun Run/Walk
on March 9 was a successful event that brought over 300
participants from the surrounding community to participate in
the event, and raised over $10,000 for the museum’s educational
programs. This year also saw the first Kids 1K fun run, with 30 young
participants. The overall winner of the
5K event was Kaleb Davis, who
completed the course, which concluded at
the circle around the San Jacinto
Monument, at a time of 19:40. The
overall female winner was Brittany
Gonzales, who
completed the
course in
29:56. A
complete list
of the race
results is at www.runhoustontiming.net.
“I want to thank Greg Zarate for the
wonderful job he did on timing the race,” said
race organizer Carolyn Campbell. “I also want
to thank Michael Peri for taking the great
photos of the race.” The photographs can be
viewed and purchased at www.peri-photography.com.
Volunteers from Sam Rayburn JROTC, led by Lt. Colonel
Mooneyham, helped make the day run smoothly, despite a light drizzle.
Awards and
prizes were
provided by
many of the
sponsors of the
race, all of whom
helped to make
the event a
success.
Fun Run a Success
SAN JACINTO NEWS APRIL 2013
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T o d a y ’ s H e r o e s o f S a n J a c i n t o
N e w a n d R e n e w i n g M e m b e r s
Sam Houston Society
Intercontinental Terminals Co.
Monument Society Mr. and Mrs. Eliot P. Tucker
Museum Circle Ms. Mary Patricia Atkins Mrs. Jean H. Chernosky
The Honorable Gene Green Mr. and Mrs. Howard W. Horne Mr. and Mrs. Parker S. Quillen
Independence Society Mrs. Thomas Walter Blake
Mr. and Mrs. William D. Noel
Family Freedom Society Mr. and Mrs. Francis X. Bostick Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Cochran
Ms. Nancy Jo Derby Mr. and Mrs. L. Clay Fisher Mrs. Thomas W. Houghton
Dr. Mavis P. Kelsey, Sr. Ms. Harriet Calvin Latimer
Mr. and Mrs. John T. Malone Mr. and Mrs. Bill Palko
Mr. Harvey L. Trigg Mr. and Mrs. Milton H. West, Jr.
Mr. Dale T. Williamson Mr. Wallace S. Wilson
T he 449 page Curriculum Guide for Teaching Texas History along with its
related image gallery that holds 544 images of historic documents,
artifacts and photographs was released in January, 2013, on the San
Jacinto Museum of History Web site (http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/
Education/For_Teachers/Curriculum/). The guide is designed to use the
museum’s collections as a medium to teach the state-mandated 2010 Texas
Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies (TEKS) requirements for
teachers and students who are studying Texas history. The goal was to provide
a free, easy to use document that included a wealth of educational activities for
students, a wide range of primary source documents to integrate into lesson
plans, along with a series of activities to enhance the educational value of a
field trip to the museum.
School groups comprise a significant portion of the museum’s audience and
after listening to teacher requests over recent years, museum staff learned that
they needed a “textbook to make the new requirements teachable” as the
updated TEKS were released without texts or training. Teachers also wanted
the museum to provide primary source media that they could use in the
classroom that related to the TEKS lessons. The guide also provides materials
for those lessons that don’t deal directly with Texas history, such as geography,
politics and the environment.
The guide was presented at the Region 4 Social Studies Conference on
January 26, 2013, and received favorable reviews from the teachers who
felt the primary source materials would be particularly useful in the classroom.
A half day teacher training seminar designed to help teachers effectively
incorporate the materials into their classrooms will be held on June 11 at the
San Jacinto Museum. During this program, the participants will be working
with Curriculum Writer Yvonne Pittman and collection staff to learn how to
maximize the potential of this new teaching tool in the classroom. The
program is open to all who are interested free of charge and is designed to let
teachers in the fourth and seventh grades—both home-schooled and
traditional school educators—integrate the guide that includes innovative
activities using primary resources as the keystone of the program into their
lesson plans. If space in the June seminar is filled, a second seminar will be
scheduled in late summer prior to the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.
These lesson plans include vocabulary lists, strategies for teaching and
learning, in-school and at-home activities, bonus activities for the gifted/extra
credit and over sixty print-ready research-based tools to help teachers build
their own lessons. While the guide contains many images and media links, an
on-line media gallery (http://sanjacinto-museum. Smug mug.com/
CurriculumGuide) provides teachers with additional primary-source materials
to work into their own lesson plans. To register for the June seminar or if you
have any questions about the program, please contact Curator Elizabeth
Appleby at [email protected].
New Curriculum Guide Inspires Favorable Response
All Fun Run photographs © 2013 Peri Photography.
San Jacinto Museum of History
Association
One Monument Circle La Porte, TX 77571-9585
SAN JACINTO NEWS APRIL 2013
San Jacinto
Museum of History
Board of Trustees 2013
Robert B. Hixon, Chair
Hon. Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr.
Sadie Gwin Blackburn
Hon. Frank W. Calhoun
Tom M. Davis, Jr.
Dr. J. Frank de la Teja
Verlinde Hill Doubleday
James B. Earthman, III
Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton
Ann H. Kelsey
Chad Muir
Townes Pressler, Jr.
Arthur A. Seeligson
Hon. Mark White
CONTACT INFORMATION:
San Jacinto Museum
of History Association
One Monument Circle
La Porte (Houston), TX 77571-9585
Phone: 281/479-2421
Fax: 281/479-2428
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.sanjacinto-museum.org
The San Jacinto Museum of History
Association was chartered in 1938 to preserve
and revisualize the early history of Texas.
© 2013 San Jacinto Museum of History
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Return Service Requested
Measure This! Lobby Exhibit
W eights and
measures were
among the
earliest tools invented by
man. The creation of tools
designed to establish
dimensions or measure set
quantities was essential for
human advancement and
assisted in the construction
of dwellings, clothing,
transportation system, in the
trade of goods; these tools
played a key role in many
important milestones of human progress.
When a society reaches a certain point in its
development, it inevitably creates numbering
systems. With these systems came the science of
mathematics, making it possible to create whole
systems of units of measure suited to trade and
commerce, land division, taxation, and scientific
research. As these societies progressed, their
systems of measurement became more complex
and trade and conflict often exposed them to
alternative systems that they either integrated into
their own or created standard conversions
between the two systems. The importance of
being able to measure accurately time after time
and in different locations, whether in was to craft
a seaworthy vessel, a container that could hold a
uniform amount of liquid, or any number of other
measurement applications, was paramount and
the regulation of measurement became one of the
most important tasks of early government.
Our current lobby exhibit, on display until mid
June, features artifacts from our collection that
were either created to measure or are examples of
how measurement systems have literally shaped
everyday objects.
This box scale with two pans and a brass balance gauge in the face of the box, topped with pink marble, was used in the Miller and Brockette Drug Store in
Itasca, Texas. The store operated from 1885 to 1914. Accurate measurement is extremely important in compounding pharmaceuticals.