The Power of Place: Defining Material Culture in Pre-1900 Texas, the Lower South, and the Southwest

At the seventh biennial David B. Warren Symposium, seven scholars examined varied cultures in Texas, the Lower South, and the Southwest before 1900 and their national and international context. The resulting papers explore how diverse peoples interacted with material culture across the American South and Southwest and at the nexus of international trade networks.

In this volume, Marion Oettinger explicates the biographies of six Texans of the 1700s. Evelyn Montgomery explores the transformation of Texas log cabins to homes reflecting a "domestic" architectural aesthetic. Donna Pierce delves into the domestic furnishings of homes in Spanish Colonial New Mexico. Harry J. Shafer considers the material culture of early Native peoples in what is now Texas. Mark A. Goldberg analyzes the ways in which Native dress was understood and employed in Spanish and Mexican Texas. The publication concludes with an essay by Marjorie Denise Brown and Theresa Jach on the complex visual iconography of a silver inkwell with international connections.