Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 following 11 years of conflict. With independence achieved, Mexico struggled to find its own independent identity, first establishing a monarchy then a constitutional republic. The need to protect the northern frontier prompted the government to establish colonization laws that allowed colonists into Texas. Large groups of people moved to Texas, with the attraction of land and an opportunity to start over. People, such as Stephen F. Austin, helped to facilitate the arrival of immigrants to Texas by ways of colonies and land grants. Many of these colonists, along with the native population, enjoyed a semi-autonomous way of life far from the capital in Mexico.

After 1821, an independent Mexico sought to reclaim its northern frontier through the formation of new centers of population. Under the newly-established state of Coahuila y Tejas, empresarios (land agents) such as Stephen F. Austin introduced citizens from the United States, Mexico, and Europe into their colonies.[1] The influx of new Anglo families forever changed the cultural landscape of Texas and made it a place for cultural encounters, collaborations, and eventually conflicts.[2]

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum has seen some of their best attendance in a decade, and a new exhibit should help with even more turnout.

Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State opens April 20.

The exhibit features maps dating between 1513-1957. The works in this exhibition are reproductions from the archival collection of the Texas General Land Office and Houston map collectors Frank and Carol Holcomb.

This exhibit traces the cartographic history of Texas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, through 26 maps and documents Mapping Texas features many of the most important, influential, and rare maps of Texas, the United States, and North America.

You can also still catch the Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion exhibit that goes on through next year. It features lots of hands-on machines designed by the renowned painter and inventor.

Wherever life has flourished across the vast territory of Texas, someone early on blazed a trail to get there. A new exhibit at The Witte Museum in San Antonio—Connecting Texas: 300 Years of Rails, Trails, and Roads—illustrates through a collection of more than 40 historic maps how people journeyed across Texas over the ages and laid the groundwork for the state as we know it today.

The exhibit, which opened Feb. 15 and runs through Sept. 17, features artifacts ranging from an original 1701 map of Frenchmen Sieur de La Salle’s ill-fated 1685 expedition along the Texas coast to a 1968 Rand McNally & Co. map showing routes to San Antonio for the HemisFair World’s Fair. In between are dozens of vintage maps depicting such historical chapters as early 19th century Native American trails; frontier military trails and forts; German immigrant Hill Country maps of the 1840s; new railroads stretching westward into Texas in the 1850s; and cattle drive trails of the 1880s.

“The goal is to show how different generations and different groups have collaborated to put the together the transportation network that we know today,” says James Harkins, a curator of the exhibit and director of public services for the Texas General Land Office Archives. “We wanted to show how people moved around Texas through time, and hence connected Texas.”

The exhibit draws primarily from the General Land Office’s archive of 45,000 maps, with a few private holdings also in the mix.

Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State Opening Jan. 27th at Houston Museum of Natural Science

Jan 17, 2017

Texas history and map experts from the GLO Available for Interviews in Houston

AUSTIN – Today Commissioner George P. Bush announced the Texas General Land Office will lend 50 maps of Texas, representing more than 400 years of its history, to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for a nine-month exhibition opening January 27, 2017. Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State opens just in time to welcome visitors to Houston for Super Bowl LI.

AUSTIN - Today Commissioner George P. Bush announced the Texas General Land Office will lend 50 maps of Texas, representing more than 400 years of its history, to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for a nine-month exhibition opening January 27, 2017. Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State opens just in time to welcome visitors to Houston for Super Bowl LI. 

"People from all over the world will be converging on Houston for Super Bowl LI on February 5," said Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush. "While in Houston, they will have the chance to see why 'everything is bigger in Texas,' when they visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Through this exhibit, showing more than 400 years of Texas cartographic history, visitors will have the opportunity to see the formation of Texas, from an unnamed frontier in the New World, to a small outpost of New Spain, to the huge, bustling state that now leads the nation. Residents and visitors will be able to visualize how the fourth largest city in the U.S., Houston, and the third most populous county in the U.S., Harris County, grew into an economic powerhouse because of the Houston Ship Channel and the growth of railroads in the region."

The Witte Museum will open an exhibit of more than 40 rare maps on Friday that detail the evolution of Texas, San Antonio and its Spanish colonial missions.

“These maps are pieces of art,” said Witte President and CEO Marise McDermott during a preview of Mapping Texas: From Frontier in the Lone Star State on Thursday.

McDermott said it was a fitting honor for the Witte to host such an exhibit given San Antonio’s historical role the early settlement of Texas. “San Antonio is in the middle of that frontier.” See More

Christmas came early at the historic archives of the General Land Office with a gift Texans worldwide will be eager to share. A private collection of some of the oldest and rarest maps of Texas is now available to the public, thanks to a unique digitization project with Houston map collectors, Frank and Carol Holcomb.

High-quality, digital reprints of the Frank and Carol Holcomb collection are available now for as little as $20. All proceeds from the sales help Save Texas History, a public-private effort to preserve and digitize the massive collection of maps and historic documents in the Archives of the General Land Office.