Bale o' Cotton: The Mechanical Art of Cotton Ginning offers a unique blend of fact and folklore about cotton ginning, the process that takes cotton from the field, separates fibers from seeds, and packages the lint into a bale for shipment to market. It traces the development of the industry, the equipment, and the techniques of this integral facet of American life from its English beginnings in 1793, through its heyday in the American South, to its present technological peak.
Out of the long days spent in the gin plant, a rich oral tradition developed, which included a broad sense of...

In turn-of-the-century Texas, newspapers routinely offered only fashion and social news to their women readers. Pauline Periwinkle, the pen name of Isadore Miner Callaway, changed this with her weekly column for the Woman's Century Page of the "Dallas Morning News" which encouraged women to take part in the Progressive Era by becoming involved in reform efforts in their cities and towns.
As the first woman editor for "Dallas Morning News, " Pauline Periwinkle was a catalyst for numerous local reforms and was widely read by women across Texas. Viewing women's clubs as an ideal vehicle for...

In 1926 James Knox Walker, staff civil engineer in charge of building at A&M, and his new bride moved onto the campus of what was then known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. The greater community, of which this small on-campus neighborhood was a part, was known simply as College. There was no such place as College Station, and the city of Bryan stood six miles away.
James Knox Walker Jr., the couple s oldest child, recollects the days when professors, staff members, and their children formed a small, closely knit society over at College. The campus served as the...

Believe it or not, Aggieland has witnessed a parade of musical icons over the years, each with an intriguing story attached. Picture a young Elvis Presley entertaining the Corps of Cadets at G. Rollie White Coliseum. Flash forward to the "Committee for Johnny Cash," originated by students after the country singer's post-Bonfire concert was canceled by the A&M administration amid controversy; despite official disapproval, the students brought him to perform off-campus.

Revisit the sunbaked Texas World Speedway in the summer of 1974 and Willie Nelson's rowdy Fourth of July Picnic, complete...

In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. Impeached provides a new examination of the rise and fall of Ferguson s political fortunes, offering a focused look at how battles over economic class, academic freedom, women s enfranchisement, and concentrated political power came to be directed toward one politician.
Jessica Brannon-Wranosky and Bruce A. Glasrud have brought together top scholars to shine a light on this unique chapter in Texas history. An overview by John R. Lundberg offers a...

In this annotated diary, Sallie McNeill chronicles thoughts, observations, and details of her daily life during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.This remarkably well-preserved document tells McNeill's story from her days as a student in the female department of Baylor College at Independence until her death in 1867.McNeill's story common to the era and place and still intensely personal lets readers glimpse the numbing expectations of a young woman's proper behavior, moral referencing of those living under the influence of the second Great Awakening, intellectual questions posed by the...

When the A&M College of Texas opened its doors in 1876, its early buildings followed a Victorian architectural style. Classical architecture came to the campus with the Academic Building, after the 1912 fire that destroyed Old Main. Subsequent buildings generally followed this neoclassical path, but the growth of the campus in the Depression era saw the addition of an extraordinary group of buildings, sited in accordance with a master plan developed by college architect F. E. Giesecke and designed by S. C. P. Vosper, each of whom also held faculty positions in the first architecture program...