Modern Times Lecture Series
From Cotulla to Capital City: O. Henry in the 1880s
Elyssa McCuistion
Sunday, November 6, 2022 | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM CST
**Doors at 2:00, Lecture at 2:30
In Person and Online!
Tickets
$10 General Admission
$5 Student
Free for NCHM Members
When former ranch hand and future short story writer Will Porter stepped off the train into the rapidly changing Austin of the 1880s, his future, like that of the city itself, was uncertain. In the next few years, he would reinvent himself time and time again—from reticent country boy to dashing man-about-town, from pharmacist to bookkeeper to musician to artist. His most startling reinvention—from convict to short story master O. Henry—was still around the corner. But his observations of the people and places of Texas in his first decade here echo through his stories and provide a glimpse into a turbulent and transformational decade.
About the Speaker
Elyssa McCuistion is an Arts and Education Instructor at the O. Henry and Susanna Dickinson Museums. In her 7 years at the museum, she has researched the Porter family extensively. A native Austinite, she is fascinated by the changes and social upheavals the city has undergone and the ways in which historical memory peels back the layers of the past. Recently, she helped create two historic walking tours that explore the 19th century in Austin through the lives of Susanna Dickinson and William Sydney Porter. She studied at St. John’s College and Texas State University.