History & Landmarks

When the EPA Sent Danny Lyon to Houston 📷

In April 1973, photographer Danny Lyon documented downtown Houston for the EPA's DOCUMERICA project. Here's what he was pointing his camera at—and why it matters.

This 1841 Map Shows a Texas That Almost Nobody Remembers

Charles Cheffins' 1841 map of the Republic of Texas documented empresario land grants and vast disputed borders. Here's what it reveals about Texas's ambitious claims.

The San Antonio Light Was One of Texas's Great Newspapers. Here's What Its Front Page Looked Like in 1971.

The San Antonio Light ran for 112 years before closing in 1993. Explore the paper's history, its 1971 front page, and what made it essential reading in San Antonio.

The Man Who Kept It Running: A 1939 Snapshot of West Texas Farm Labor

A 1939 Library of Congress photo captures a day laborer checking a tractor wheel bearing on a 4,900-acre farm near Ralls, TX. Here's what that image really tells us.

The Fenced Garden: How East Texas Families Protected Their Food Supply in 1939

A 1939 Library of Congress photo of a fenced garden near Jefferson, Texas reveals how East Texas farm families protected their food supply during the Depression.

A German Publisher Mapped Texas in 1849 — and What He Drew Says Everything About the State's Identity Crisis

A German publisher mapped Texas in 1849 — and it tells the story of mass immigration, frontier uncertainty, and a state still defining itself. Held at UTA Libraries.

The Map That Named Texas Before Texas Knew What It Was

In 1718, French cartographer Guillaume de L'Isle mapped a region he'd never seen and named it Texas. Here's what that map reveals about power, ambition, and identity.

Texas City's Ambulance Company No. 3: A 1913 Snapshot of a City Still Finding Its Footing

A 1913 postcard photo of Ambulance Company No. 3 captures the U.S. Army's massive 2nd Division encampment that briefly turned tiny Texas City into a military boomtown.

The Man Behind the Machine: A 1939 Snapshot of West Texas Farm Labor

A May 1939 photograph by Russell Lee captures a day laborer racing to fix a tractor mid-planting on a 4,900-acre farm near Ralls, Texas.

What Time Can You Buy Beer on Sunday in Texas? A Century of Booze Laws Explained

Texas finally let you buy beer before noon on Sunday in 2021 — but the state's complicated relationship with alcohol goes all the way back to the Republic. Here's the full timeline, from saloon bans to House Bill 1518.

Texas and the Water: A History of Flooding, Past and Present

From the 1900 Galveston hurricane to the 2025 Guadalupe River flood, Texas keeps having the same argument with water — the rain arrives faster than the warning does. A look at how Galveston, Houston, and the Hill Country each answered the same problem differently.

Houston's Skyline Has Always Been a Work in Progress

Carol Highsmith's Library of Congress photograph of Houston captures a city that's always outrunning itself. Here's what that image really documents.

Languages of Texas: From the Oldest to the Newest

Before Texas was Texas, it was the loudest room on the continent. Dozens of languages — indigenous isolates with no known relatives on earth, colonial tongues, immigrant dialects built in the Hill Country and Karnes County, and post-1975 arrivals that now claim millions of speakers statewide — have all crossed this ground. Some are gone. Some are barely breathing. A few just arrived.

One Palm Tree, One Field, One River — What a Cameron County Photograph Tells Us

A 2014 Library of Congress photo captures one palm tree at the edge of a Cameron County produce field — and the deep agricultural history behind it.

When Texas Was Its Own Country: The 1838 Niles Map That Captured a Nation in Flux

A look at John Milton Niles' 1838 map of Mexico and the Republic of Texas — what it shows, what it gets wrong, and why it matters for Texas history.

The Line That Made Texas: A Surveyor's Map of the Sabine River Boundary, 1842

A surveyor named A.B. Gray mapped the Sabine River boundary between the US and Republic of Texas in 1842. Here's the story behind the map that took years to reach Congress.

The SS Selma: One Hundred Dollars, a Concrete Wreck, and the Hermit of Galveston

The SS Selma launched on the last day of WWI, cracked her hull on her first real job, and spent the next century in Galveston Bay — as a bootlegger's cache, a chicken farm, a national newsreel, and eventually a National Historic Place.

Where Texas First Drew Blood: The Lost Town of Velasco

Velasco, Texas was the site of the first armed clash between Texans and Mexico in 1832 and where Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco in 1836. Here's its full story.

Snaking Logs in East Texas: The Hard Work Behind Sabine Farms, Marshall, 1939

A 1939 Library of Congress photograph documents land clearing at Sabine Farms near Marshall, Texas — a New Deal FSA resettlement project in Harrison County.

The Doctor and the Deal: How Sabine Farms Homesteaders Built Their Own Healthcare System in 1941

In 1941, Black homesteaders at Sabine Farms near Marshall, Texas signed a group medical contract with Dr. A.O. Lee — a quiet act of community self-determination.

Bishop's Palace: The Most Extraordinary House in Galveston (And Maybe All of Texas)

Bishop's Palace on Broadway in Galveston is one of America's great Victorian landmarks. Here's the full story behind Gresham's Castle and why it still stands.

Corpus Christi, 1935: The Pamphlet That Sold a City

A 1935 Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce pamphlet captures the city mid-transformation — still pitching palm trees and sea breezes while the port and oilfields were rewriting everything.

Texarkana's 1908 Fourth of July: One City, Two States, and a Brand-New Flag

An 118-year-old pamphlet from Texarkana's Board of Trade captures a Fourth of July celebration on the first morning the 46-star American flag flew — in a city built on two states and one state line.

Bolivar Peninsula Hurricane Ike Wreckage

Greetings from Dallas: Six Skyscrapers That Defined 1944’s Big D

A 1944 linen postcard spells out D-A-L-L-A-S with six of the city’s most iconic buildings — including the Pegasus-topped Magnolia and the wartime Mercantile Bank. Here’s what each letter is hiding.

The Little Chapel in the Woods: Denton's Hidden Masterpiece

Tucked into a grove of trees on the TWU campus in Denton, the Little Chapel-in-the-Woods was hand-built by 300 students during the Great Depression and dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt. It's one of the most extraordinary buildings in Texas.

When Texas Democrats Stormed the Capitol to End Reconstruction

In January 1874, Austin became a powder keg. Democrats flooded the Texas Capitol to oust Radical Republican Governor Edmund Davis in one of the most dramatic political standoffs in state history.

Could You Feel the Tension at the 1940 San Angelo Stock Auction? 🤠👀

Can You Feel the Soul of West Texas in This 1939 San Angelo Stockyards Photo? 🤠🥩

Did You Know Texas Annexation Was So Controversial It Became a National Political Cartoon in 1844? 🤠⭐

What Stories Do You Think This East Texas Farmer Could Tell About a Life Lived on the Land? 👴🌲

Can You Believe This Is What Point Isabel, Texas Looked Like During the Civil War? ⚔️🌊

Have You Ever Seen the Houston Skyline Light Up the Texas Sky Like This? 🌆🤠

Did You Know This 1879 Map Holds the Key to McCulloch County’s Forgotten Land History? 🗺️✨

Did you know that every inch of Texas land once had a name attached to it — and that name was everything? 🤠🗺️