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Letter from the Editor: Oil and the Soul of Houston
Last fall the Jung Center sponsored a series of lectures called “Energy and the Soul of Houston.” My friend Beth Robertson persuaded me that I had something to say about energy, if not Houston’s soul. We agreed to share the stage.
Faces of Texas Oil
The history of the oil industry in Texas is comprised of many elements. The towering wooden derricks, both cable and rotary, of the early twentieth century would give way to the even bigger steel-framed derricks of the 1930s and on.
We’re Sticking by Our Union: The Battle for Baytown
Between June 1942, and November 1943, Baytown, Texas, became the backdrop to one of the most dramatic labor confrontations to rock the upper Texas Gulf Coast during World War II.
Witness to the Day of Reckoning: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
On March 24, 1989, the U.S. oil industry encountered a day of reckoning. Just after midnight, the Exxon Valdez supertanker carrying Alaskan crude to California ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling nearly eleven million gallons of oil into one of the nation’s most beautiful coastal habitats. At the time, this […]
Remembering Foley’s
Houston History Archives emerged as a relatively new enterprise in realms of archiving when Joe Pratt relocated The Houston Review: History and Culture of the Gulf Coast journal to the University of Houston (UH) from the Houston Public Library.
Recalling Houston’s Early Days and its Oilmen: A Conversation with Jane Blaffer Owen
Jane Blaffer Owen, an arts patron, social activist, and preservationist, was the daughter of Robert Lee Blaffer, one of the founders of Humble Oil & Refining Company (now ExxonMobil), and the granddaughter of William T. Campbell, who established the The Texas Company, which became Texaco.
Third Ward, Steeped in Tradition of Self-reliance and Achievement
The historic Third Ward was originally an area east of Main Street, south of Congress Street and extending to the city limits. For the residents of the Third Ward, their identity with the ward went beyond the original intent of the nomenclature as a political division.
Two Worlds a Mile Apart, A Brief History of the Fourth Ward
Clatter of light rail running down Main Street, cars roaring by, crowds gathering at the crosswalk champing to get on with the day—hectic life fills twenty-first century downtown Houston. But when a Houstonian takes a short stroll from the busy intersection of Congress and Main to nearby Sesquicentennial Park and wanders down the walk to […]
Freedman’s Town: A Lesson in the Failure of Historic Preservation
The struggle to preserve the history of Freedmen’s Town in Houston, Texas is entangled in the questionable systems of urban renewal and development, which inevitably work to displace many of the poor African American residents from the community.
Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder: Third Ward Art Treasure but a Memory
Harvey Johnson came to Houston from Port Arthur to study art at Texas Southern University under world-renowned artist, sculptor, and teacher, John Biggers, who founded the school’s art program in 1949.