Beeville, Texas, is not on everyone’s bucket list, but a visit to the Beeville Art Museum this fall will provide a fascinating look at life in the lone star state in the last half of the nineteenth century. Made in Texas: Art, Life and Culture, 1845-1900 brings together Texas-made art and objects that reflect the lives of Texans from the state’s admittance to the United States to the discovery of oil at Spindletop and the devastation of Galveston during the hurricane of 1900. Some think the history of Texas is all about cowboys, Native Americans, freedom fighters, and Texas Rangers, but the items on display in Made in Texas reflect the lives of other Texans too-immigrants, former slaves, students, parents and children, silversmiths and furniture makers, painters, and potters. The show is organized by the Beeville Art Museum in collaboration with the Bayou Bend Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and is drawn mainly from the private collections of William J. Hill (see ANTIQUES, September 2008, p. 32, and September/October 2010, pp. 120-126 and online) and Bobbie and John L. Nau III, as well as from the rich holdings of Bayou Bend and the Heritage Society.
Above: Silver cup made by Samuel Bell (1798-1882), San Antonio, Texas, c. 1854. Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by Alice C. Simkins in memory of Alice and Mike Hogg; photograph by Thomas R. DuBrock.
Made in Texas: Art, Life and Culture, 1845-1900 • Beeville Art Museum, Beeville, Texas • September 20 to January 10, 2015 • bamtexas.org mfah.org
