Texas Originals

In the 1920s and 1930s, Edna Ferber was one of the most widely read writers in America. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1924 novel So Big. Although Ferber's critical status has somewhat faded, her Texas epic, Giant, remains a landmark in the state's cultural history.

Born in 1878 near Tyler, Dorothy Scarborough was a respected writer, teacher, and folklorist, most often remembered today for her controversial 1925 novel The Wind.

In the south foyer of the Texas State Capitol stand two life-sized statues: one of Sam Houston, the other of Stephen F. Austin. These men helped shape the state of Texas, but their marble likenesses were shaped by the hands of Elisabet Ney, one of the state's most talented and determined artists.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 left the U.S. Navy stunned. With American ships still smoldering in the water, Navy Secretary Frank Knox turned to a Texan, Chester Nimitz, to restore confidence in the Pacific Fleet.

Known as the "First Lady of Texas," Ima Hogg was born in Mineola in 1882, the only daughter of Texas governor "Big Jim" Hogg. Miss Ima's philanthropic work reflects the breadth of her interests, but perhaps her most tangible legacy is found in the historic buildings she bequeathed to the state, each of them furnished with authentic American furniture.

Though Billy Lee Brammer’s novel The Gay Place is a work of fiction, it remains one of the most revealing accounts of Texas politics ever written. The Gay Place, which takes its title from a poem by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was published in 1961 to great acclaim. The novel paints a vivid picture of the compromises, strategy, and horse-trading that we call politics. Brammer based the characters on people and places he knew in 1950s Austin.

Working as a pharmacist in Huntsville in 1901, young Minnie Fisher Cunningham discovered that her untrained male colleagues made twice her salary. That unfairness, she later explained, "made a suffragette out of me." But for Cunningham, the right to vote was only a first step. She went on to help found the National League of Women Voters, and in 1928, was the first Texas woman to run for the United States Senate.

People come from around the world to view the American art in Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum. Carter didn’t live to see his grand museum, but he didn't build it for himself. He built it for his fellow citizens, especially those in his beloved city of Fort Worth.

Mildred Didrikson Zaharias, nicknamed "Babe" for her childhood prowess on the baseball diamond, dominated women's sports from the 1930s through the '50s. Though best remembered for her accomplishments in golf and track and field, she also excelled in basketball, diving, roller-skating, bowling, and billiards.

Born in Yucatan in 1788, Lorenzo de Zavala dedicated much of his life to creating a Federalist Mexico, with a strong constitution to guard citizens' rights. But when his former ally Santa Anna established a centralized regime in 1834 and quickly moved to suppress the Federalists, Zavala did the only thing he could to weaken the leader’s iron grip: he helped bring about the Texas Revolution.