Modern Times Lecture Series

This talk will explore the path to suffrage in Texas, and its influence on the national passage of the 19th amendment.

Stephen Sloan, Ph.D. traces the life and career of naval hero Doris Miller from his hometown in Waco, Texas, to Pearl Harbor.

Historian Martha Doty Freeman will share her personal memories of the beginnings of the College of Fine Arts and Art Department, and of some favorite faculty members.

Travel back in time with your guide, archivist Jacqueline Smith-Francis, Ph.D., as she shares the history of Juneteenth celebrations.

Karen Kincaid Brady guides us as we look at the first moon landing through communications with the command center in Houston, historic images, videos, and satellite data.

John Espinosa of the Order of the Granaderos y Damas de Gálvez describes the motivation behind Spain's King Carlos III's efforts to have the colonists win the American War of Independence, and explore Spain's effort to ensure this victory. 

Professor Benjamin Heber Johnson, Ph.D., shines new light on why Texas has had such a powerful influence on U.S. history.

Pompeo Coppini was a celebrated classicist who came to Texas in 1901 and completed monumental scale sculpture projects for campuses and important public places through the 1930s. Hosting Sponsor - Caroline C. Jones

Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (1852-1917) and Robert Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) were two of Texas’ most celebrated artists in the early 20th century.

The story behind the 1901 oil discovery at Spindletop plays like a modern TV adventure series, complete with murder, redemption, betrayal, romance, defying the odds, and an ever-changing cast of genuinely larger-than-life characters.

The Austin Séance presents a lecture and demonstration on the spread of Spiritualism during the latter half of the 19th century. This event will include a demonstration of certain Spiritualism practices and techniques.

Join Albert Lucio and Jake Cordero of The Austin Séance for a hands-on workshop on the use and history of these fascinating divinatory devices. This group practice session lasts approximately 70 minutes.

Award-winning historian Andrew Torget will chart the improbable rise of Galveston from an abandoned sandbar in 1836 to its emergence as the most important port city in the American Southwest.

Ney created iconic Texas figurative sculptures, while forging the young state’s intellectual underpinnings. Her salons, modeled after those she enjoyed in Berlin but held outdoors, became highly influential, a nexus for intellectual and political engagement in formative Austin.

The end of the 19th century saw the birth of numerous women's lineage organizations in the United States. We will explore the early history of all of these organizations and the ways in which their efforts shaped and continue to influence the field of historic preservation.

Filmmaker Jeff Kerr leads us on an entertaining look at Austin’s first streetlighting system that carried the city into the modern age.

The financial crash of 1893 created suffering throughout the United States. It also motivated fundamental changes in American politics and economy. Jeremi Suri, PhD, discuss the sources of the crash and its consequences.

Dr. Edmund T. Gordon sheds new light on Black influences on the founding of the University of Texas.

Bird’s eye views of Texas cities and towns became very popular in the decades after the Civil War. They were often commissioned as advertisements to promote new towns and/or to document they tremendous growth of these places between 1870 and 1900.

Elyssa McCuistion presents the life of William Porter (O’ Henry) —from reticent country boy to dashing man-about-town, from pharmacist to bookkeeper to musician to artist.

Karen Pope takes us back in time to discover how the Exhibition in Philadelphia connected to the young state of Texas.

This lecture will ground Homer in his early career to then explore the ways in which his work shed light on a fractured nation coming to grips with a new modern world in the years that followed the Civil War.

The Shankleville Historical Society was organized in 1988, and immediately began taking steps to formalize the community’s “origin story” into a vehicle for education and cultural programs that have broadened the story of Texas.

Walter Buenger takes us on a ride through Texas rail history to illuminate the challenges faced in bringing rail travel to the state as well as the economic and cultural impact of the rail lines as they expanded through the 1870s and 1880s.