EAST TEXAS INDIAN ARTIFACTS: December 2014

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

speech given by Walter P. Webb at the 1939 Annual meeting in Houston. It was in this address that Webb first proposed the Handbook of Texas, among other significant efforts.

Below is an excerpt from Webb’s speech:

“It is important for us to believe in the cause before we launch a program to promote it. I want to say that I do believe in it. I am not a promoter, but I am unconsciously shameless when I talk to Texans about the Historical Association and its work. It seems to me that membership in this group is an honor so distinguished that any Texan should be glad to have it conferred upon him. Those who fought the Texas Revolution must have derived great satisfaction from the memory of their service. Certainly their children consider it an honor to be their descendants because they organize societies and hold programs to keep the memory alive. We are custodians of the records and memories of the entire state, not only of the Texas Revolution, but of the earlier and later periods. If it was honorable to make the record, it is honorable to preserve it, to keep it reasonably near the truth, and to make it available to all people. This is the mission and the function of this organization.”