Texas Lithographs

Westward expansion in the United States was deeply intertwined with the technological revolutions of the nineteenth century, from telegraphy to railroads. Among the most important of these, if often forgotten, was the lithograph. Before photography became a dominant medium, lithography—and later, chromolithography—enabled inexpensive reproduction of color illustrations, transforming journalism and marketing and nurturing, for the first time, a global visual culture. One of the great subjects of the lithography boom was an emerging Euro-American colony in the Americas: Texas. The most complete collection of its kind—and quite possibly the most complete visual record of nineteenth-century Texas, period—Texas Lithographs is a gateway to the history of the Lone Star State in its most formative period. Ron Tyler assembles works from 1818 to 1900, many created by outsiders and newcomers promoting investment and settlement in Texas. Whether they depict the early French colony of Champ d’Asile, the Republic of Texas, and the war with Mexico, or urban growth, frontier exploration, and the key figures of a nascent Euro-American empire, the images collected here reflect an Eden of opportunity—a fairy-tale dream that remains foundational to Texans’ sense of self and to the world’s sense of Texas.

This eclectic collection pulls together some of the best presentations made at the North American Print Conference held in Austin, Texas. Focusing on the printing arts in Texas, this group of leading scholars and authorities covered a wide range of subjects from early lithography and photography in Texas to today's armadillo posters and T-shirts. The high arts and popular culture alike are treated in this broad overview of prints and printmaking on the Texas frontier and in its urban centers. Contributors: * R. Pearce-Moses, "From Niépce to Now: Thirty Million Photographs in Texas" * R. Cox, "Dust Bowl Realism: Texas Printmakers and the FSA Photographers of the Great Depression" * F. Carraro, "Jerry Bywaters: A Texas Printmaker" * D. Farmer, "The Printmakers Guild and Women Printmakers in Texas, 1939-1965" * P. H. Brink, "The Galveston That Was: Requiem or Inspiration?" * N. Jacobson, "Armadillos, Peccadilloes, and the Maverick Posterists of Austin, Texas" * J. H. Fox, "TexStyle Art: The Evolution of Quality Silkscreened Imagery upon T-Shirts in Austin, Texas, 1968-1988" * K. B. Ragsdale, "W. D. Smithers: Pictorial Chronicler of the Big Bend Country of Texas" * B. Huseman, "The Beginnings of Lithography in Texas" * K. J. Adams, "Texas Impressions: Graphic Arts and the Republic of Texas, 1836-1845" * J. P. McGuire and D. Haynes, "William DeRyee, Carl G. von Iwonski, and Homeography, a Printing Process" * C. Brandimarte, "Immaterial Girls: Prints of Pageantry and Dance, 1900-1936" * R. Flukinger, "The Panoramic Photography of E. O. Goldbeck"