Texas Originals

In the 1920s and 1930s, Edna Ferber was one of the most widely read writers in America. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1924 novel So Big. Although Ferber's critical status has somewhat faded, her Texas epic, Giant, remains a landmark in the state's cultural history.

Born in 1878 near Tyler, Dorothy Scarborough was a respected writer, teacher, and folklorist, most often remembered today for her controversial 1925 novel The Wind.

In the south foyer of the Texas State Capitol stand two life-sized statues: one of Sam Houston, the other of Stephen F. Austin. These men helped shape the state of Texas, but their marble likenesses were shaped by the hands of Elisabet Ney, one of the state's most talented and determined artists.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 left the U.S. Navy stunned. With American ships still smoldering in the water, Navy Secretary Frank Knox turned to a Texan, Chester Nimitz, to restore confidence in the Pacific Fleet.

Known as the "First Lady of Texas," Ima Hogg was born in Mineola in 1882, the only daughter of Texas governor "Big Jim" Hogg. Miss Ima's philanthropic work reflects the breadth of her interests, but perhaps her most tangible legacy is found in the historic buildings she bequeathed to the state, each of them furnished with authentic American furniture.

Though Billy Lee Brammer’s novel The Gay Place is a work of fiction, it remains one of the most revealing accounts of Texas politics ever written. The Gay Place, which takes its title from a poem by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published in 1961 to great acclaim. The novel paints a vivid picture of the compromises, strategy, and horse-trading that we call politics. Brammer based the characters on people and places he knew in 1950s Austin.

Working as a pharmacist in Huntsville in 1901, young Minnie Fisher Cunningham discovered that her untrained male colleagues made twice her salary. That unfairness, she later explained, "made a suffragette out of me." But for Cunningham, the right to vote was only a first step. She went on to help found the National League of Women Voters, and in 1928, was the first Texas woman to run for the United States Senate.

People come from around the world to view the American art in Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum. Carter didn’t live to see his grand museum, but he didn't build it for himself. He built it for his fellow citizens, especially those in his beloved city of Fort Worth.

Mildred Didrikson Zaharias, nicknamed "Babe" for her childhood prowess on the baseball diamond, dominated women's sports from the 1930s through the '50s. Though best remembered for her accomplishments in golf and track and field, she also excelled in basketball, diving, roller-skating, bowling, and billiards.

Born in Yucatan in 1788, Lorenzo de Zavala dedicated much of his life to creating a Federalist Mexico, with a strong constitution to guard citizens' rights. But when his former ally Santa Anna established a centralized regime in 1834 and quickly moved to suppress the Federalists, Zavala did the only thing he could to weaken the leader’s iron grip: he helped bring about the Texas Revolution.

Miriam Amanda Wallace wasn't considering a career in politics when she enrolled at Baylor Female College in the 1890s. She married James Ferguson in 1899 and settled down to raise a family. But instead of enjoying a quiet life at home, Miriam became the first woman governor of Texas.

William Sydney Porter—better known by his pen name, O. Henry—was born in North Carolina and died in New York. But his sixteen years in Texas, from 1882 to 1898, made a lasting mark on his life and work. Later in life, when he began writing fiction under an assumed name, it was his early stories about Texas that helped launch his career.

As a girl, Oveta Culp Hobby was fascinated by the world of government. As a woman, she took a leading role in that world. Her truly inspiring record of civic service includes organizing the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II and serving as the first head of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Every culture, Alan Lomax believed, has a "right . . . to equal time on the air and equal time in classrooms." As director of the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song and a radio and television host, Lomax introduced folksong from around the globe to popular audiences and promoted it among students and scholars.

William Barret Travis was only twenty-six years old when he died defending the Alamo. He came from Alabama just five years before, in 1831, leaving behind a failed career and marriage. Texas, a land he came to love, gave Travis a new life—and an early death.

On a cold March dawn in 1836, Mexican officers escorted a shaken young woman and her infant daughter past the heaps of dead in the Alamo courtyard to Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The woman, Susanna Dickinson, was the wife of Alamo defender Almaron Dickinson. She and her baby were hiding in the Alamo's chapel when Mexican troops bayoneted her husband and took the mission.

"Remember the Alamo" was the rallying cry at the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. However by 1903, the neglected Alamo was nearly torn down and replaced by a hotel. At that point, twenty-two-year-old Clara Driscoll stepped forward with her own money to protect the sacred site. For her generosity, Driscoll is known as the "Savior of the Alamo."

"I have learned patience in the hard School of an Empresario," Stephen F. Austin wrote to his secretary in 1827. Austin had brought his first settlers to Texas six years earlier, and devoted the rest of his life to colonizing the land. Without Austin's seemingly endless patience and long years of sacrifice, Texas as we know it today would not exist.

Sam Houston arrived in Texas in 1832. The former congressman and governor of Tennessee's new cause was Texas independence. He led the army that defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at San Jacinto—an achievement that secured his place in Texas history.

Born in Galveston in 1878, Jack Johnson went on to become the greatest boxer in the world and one of America's most famous—and notorious—celebrities.