Dallas History Forum

MY HOMETOWN PROJECT

2008-03-21T12:08:00.003-04:00

"Every man's memory is his private literature." - Aldous Huxley

What do you remember about the Dallas neighborhood in which you grew up? We want to hear your story.

The Dallas Historical Society invites you to participate in our new project called "My Home Town". Our goal is to piece together a Dallas encyclopedia one ice cream stand at a time. Record your home town memories in a 250 - 600 word essay.

or mail to: Dallas Historical Society
My Home Town
P. O. Box 150038
Dallas, TX 75315-0038

Pending approval (our criteria are few), your essay will later be published on the web.

We are moving toward the next generation of web services, a generation marked by user collaboration and sharing. Ultimately, much of our writing and activity on Facebook will be incorporated into a new Dallas Historical Website - a website built in part by its visitors, a website that allows virtual access to significant parts of DHS archives and museum collections. Let's get started!

The MY HOMETOWN project has it’s origins in the DHS message board. Since the board was created over 10 years ago, almost 70,000 messages have been posted to the site. Unfortunately, the site is currently in a state of crashing in on itself. The free internet software used to create it is out-dated and no one has been able to help DHS locate where the scripts are being stored or how to archive the messages currently posted.

Therefore, DHS started trying to move the message board (or at least it’s users) into the 21st century. We have made “test sites” using Blogger, MySpace and Facebook. Although, none have been as successful as our original message board, these new mediums have allowed us to reach new audiences. With new audiences, however, comes new “problems”. For example, our group membership on Facebook is very young (18-35) compared with the typical user of the original message board (55+). While some message board users have made the switch to Facebook, many are still choosing to post to the old board (despite its dying state) instead of the new Facebook page. The “younger” members are posting little if at all.

Many responses to our MY HOMETOWN requests have been received via email or in hardcopy. In the fall of 2007, DHS was choosing one or two responses to highlight in our biweekly newsletter. Several more were posted to the DHS Blog and/or Facebook to try to elicit more participation for the project.

While DHS has tried prompting responses, the real beauty of the project is when people sit down and tell us – in their own words – their memories of Dallas (what part of the city they grew up in, where they went to high school, what restaurants they visited, where they went to see movies, parades they saw/participated in, etc.). This is what has been going on for over a decade on the original message board, and our hope is that we can capture even more of these stories by encouraging such dialogue specifically about Dallas and Dallas neighborhoods. Facebook is still in its “testing” phase, and we are now considering creating a new message board (like the original, but updated with projects like MY HOMETOWN in mind) when we revamp our website in the near future.

TO ACCESS:

The DHS Facebook Group

The DHS Blog

The DHS MySpace page

The DHS Message Board (original). To access the messages go to SET PERFERENCES list messages posted within the last 10 years.

Or send your stories via EMAIL to Dealey Campbell.

Thank you for your participation!

State Fair of Texas, Fair Park

2007-09-20T15:12:00.000-04:00

The 2007 State Fair of Texas is here. That means cool(er) weather, rides and games, fried foods and lots of people converging on Fair Park. These folks take away a lot of memories from the State Fair. Please share your memories with us here. Post away!

My Hometown

2007-08-16T15:48:00.002-04:00

"Every man's memory is his private literature." - Aldous Huxley

What do you remember about the Dallas neighborhood in which you grew up? We want to hear your story.

The Dallas Historical Society invites you to participate in our new project called "My Home Town". Our goal is to piece together a Dallas encyclopedia one ice cream stand at a time. Record your home town memories in a 250 - 600 word essay.

or mail to: Dallas Historical Society
My Home Town
P. O. Box 150038
Dallas, TX 75315-0038

Pending approval (our criteria are few), your essay will later be published on the web.

We are moving toward the next generation of web services, a generation marked by user collaboration and sharing. Ultimately, much of our writing and activity on Facebook will be incorporated into a new Dallas Historical Website - a website built in part by its visitors, a website that allows virtual access to significant parts of DHS archives and museum collections. Let's get started!

Dining Out in Dallas

2007-08-16T15:48:00.001-04:00

Our city boasts about having the some of the best restaurants in the country. After all, we do have acclaimed chefs, an astonishingly diverse range of cuisine and good wine and Texas hospitality to boot. Be they famous or obscure, served with violins and vino or street vended, what are some of your favorite places to eat in Dallas and why?

America's Team

2007-08-16T15:31:00.000-04:00

Dallas Cowboys training camp is underway. Lots for football fans to think about this season: a new coach, a young celebrity quarterback, a team returning from a disappointing, first round playoff loss. What are your thoughts and predictions for the 2007 season?

April and May Events with the Society...

2007-04-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

April's Brown Bag:

April 11th: Topic - Sam Houston's Letters from San Jacinto. Presentation led by: Jack Edmondson (as Sam Houston).

Sam Houston's letters from San Jacinto will be on display this month thanks to our sponsor:
The Joe & Doris Dealey Foundation

Upcoming City Tours:

APRIL 14th – Historic Oak Cliff Tour. Tour Guide: Rose-Mary Rumbley. Limited space still available! Call today to reserve your seat on the bus!

MAY 5th – Historic Cemetery Tour. Tour Guide: Frances James (a.k.a. “The Cemetery Lady”). This tour will focus on historic cemeteries in Carrollton and Farmers Branch.

MAY 28th – “Running with Bonnie and Clyde” Tour. Tour Guide: John Neal Phillips.

For more information about the spring, 2007 Historic City Tours, please CLICK HERE.

To book a seat on an upcoming Historic City Tour, please email DIANE.

Save the Date:

For more information or to register for the May 2nd TCU Workshops at the Hall of State, please email DEALEY.

For other information about how to contact the staff at the Dallas Historical Society or to visit the Hall of State, please CLICK HERE.

March eNewsletter...

2007-03-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

Hopefully, those of you who were unable to view our new HTML formatted eNewsletter will have better luck here.

I have taken the eNewsletter and broken it down into parts, so it will be large enough to read easily. However, by doing this, I had to disable the hyperlinks. So, at the bottom of this entry, I have included active hyperlinks for your convenience. Hope this helps!

For more information about the spring, 2007 Historic City Tours, please CLICK HERE.

To book a seat on an upcoming Historic City Tour, please email DIANE.

For more information or to register for the May 2nd TCU Workshops at the Hall of State, please email DEALEY.

For other information about how to contact the staff at the Dallas Historical Society or to visit the Hall of State, please CLICK HERE.

Note about commenting on this BLOG...

2006-01-23T12:46:00.000-04:00

When commenting on the Dallas History Forum, select "OTHER" when you are prompted to "CHOOSE AN IDENTITY". Then, type in your name and (if you have one) your website address. This will allow you to comment on the BLOG without having to register with BLOGGER.

What Constitutes a Texas Hero?

2006-01-10T23:30:00.000-04:00

I have a question for everyone to ponder.

First, a little background information---The Hall of State opened in 1936 as the centerpiece of the Texas Centennial Exposition, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Texas independence. Included in its original design were six bronze statues honoring six heroes of Texas Independence. The heroes were selected by a panel of historians (just who they were, I have yet to find out). Those selected were James Fannin, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, Thomas J. Rusk, and William Barrett Travis. Their statues still remain on display in our Hall of Heroes. I would bet that if a similar poll of historians were conducted today that at least two and probably three of those names would not make the list. But who would?

That is one of the issues that we will raise in "Courage, Honor, and Dignity: Defining Texas Heroes." In preparation for that exhibition, we (i.e. the staff) are conducting a very informal poll to find out who people would pick, if they could choose six heroes to be commemorated in a new hall of Texas Heroes. However, this time, we are not limiting the field to the Republic era. These heroes can be from any era of Texas History, including the present, be men or women, living or dead, famous or not famous. We are interested in who you would choose, not necessarily who you think others will choose.

The exhibition will, by necessity, explore several questions, including, but not limited to: What qualities do heroes possess?, is celebrity a prerequisite for being a hero?; is there a distinction between heroism and being a hero--in other words does a heroic act bequeath on someone the mantle of being a hero; and do we live in an age so cynical that the notion of heroes in general seems at best, quaint? We are hoping that the exhibition will raise all of these questions and others, and that one will leave the Hall of State pondering those issues.

We will include a look at the actual lives of the original men in the Hall of Heroes, but our intent is to raise questions about why these men were chosen and not necessarily to reveal their feet of clay (of course, technically speaking almost all bronze statues begin with clay). I am sure that some people will not come up with six people; some will not come up with one, but I am hoping that through this survey we will discover many interesting and in fact admirable individuals. I may have front loaded the selection process somewhat simply by including in the title, the words, courage, honor, and dignity--but we had to start with some parameters.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts and your candidates, and naturally, why you have chosen the people you have. Again, you can't choose more than six, but the selections can come from any period of Texas history. I am sure that we will hear of some people that only a few people know about, as well as those that have a greater celebrity factor. During the exhibition we will continue the poll, both in the exhibit area and on-line and we will announce the most popular selections at the end of the exhibition period. It will be interesting to see how closely those popular choices match with the initial qualities of courage, honor, and dignity (qualities that of course can be measured quite subjectively.)

Any thoughts and comments you have will be appreciated.

Thank you for your participation.

Sincerely,
Michael Duty

Executive Director
The Dallas Historical Society

P.S. Please feel free to forward this link on to your friends and family. The more responses we have, the better exhibit we can build!