SHERMAN, TEXAS—Austin College history professors Light and Victoria Cummins will present the lecture “New Things in Old Places, Old Things in New Places: Historical Research in the Digital Age at 4:30 p.m. on November 5 in Wright Campus Center, Room 231. The Sabbatical Series lecture, presented by the Robert and Joyce Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching, is free and open to the public, as is a reception in the adjacent Johnson Gallery at 4 p.m.
The Cummins said their sabbatical research and writing were in continuation of a project they have worked on for the past six years. That larger project, Light said, involves examining Texas art, architecture, popular culture, and literature during the early decades of the 20th century. “This was a time when Regionalism as an intellectual orientation was the primary underpinning used by creative people to explain the uniqueness of Texas,” said Light, Austin College Guy M. Bryan, Jr., Chair in American History. “Regionalism as an intellectual concept gained great currency in American life during the 1920s and 1930s; Texas historians, writers, artists, musicians, and photographers were all Regionalists. Regionalism was a reaction to industrialization and the other changes that modern technology was making in the life of the nation. It looked back to an earlier time in the life of the United States which seemed simpler, more honest, and more explicitly rooted in fundamental American values.”
The work the historians have done highlights the effects of digitization in their research. “The ease of access to archival collections permitted by computerized finding aids, along with digitization of materials, gives present-day historical researchers the capability to have quick and efficient retrieval of relevant documents in a very efficient manner. In short, technology has given the historian new tools to put the puzzle together,” Light said, referring to the digitized version of the Dallas Morning News as an example. “Several archival collections with electronic finding aids also permitted research about Tennant that otherwise would have lasted for decades had there been no detailed and searchable digital indexes available at the level of specific documents.”
Light and Victoria already have been publishing from their research. They have written two book chapters, the first a survey of historical literature and art that appears in the book Discovering Texas History; the second, a biography of 1920s and 1930s art patron Frances B. Fisk that appears in the volume American Women/Texas Women.
Vicki also will survey the conclusions she presents in two recently published articles, both in academic journals, dealing respectively with regional artists of the 1930s Don Brown and James Swann. Light will discuss several of his recent publications, especially those dealing with artists in the Texas Centennial and his forthcoming biography of Dallas artist Allie V. Tennant.
Another area of research to be discussed is progressing toward a book dealing with Texas clubwomen who supported the visual arts in Texas during the period between World War One and World War Two. The tentative title of the book is Muses to Modern Culture: Women and the Advancement of the Visual Arts in Texas, 1920-1940. A major thesis to be advanced in this book is that women involved in the visual arts in Texas during the interwar period during the 1920s through the 1940s played a significant role in advancing the cause of Texas culture as artists, art museum, curators, art critics, art educators, and club women interested in art. This portion of research was funded by the Summerlee Foundation of Dallas.
The Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching advances the mission of Austin College by encouraging the exploration of intellectual frontiers and by fostering intellectual dialogue within and across academic disciplines. The Center supports faculty initiatives that explore questions fundamental to the vitality of the liberal arts tradition at Austin College. The center also facilitates colloquia exploring questions vital to the liberal arts as well as interdisciplinary reading groups; faculty participation in regional, national, and international liberal arts conferences; and informal gatherings devoted to intellectual inquiry and exchange.
Bernice Melvin, professor of French and a member of the Austin College faculty since 1980, serves as director of the Johnson Center.
Austin College, a private national liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas, has earned a reputation for excellence in academic preparation, international study, pre-professional foundations, leadership development, committed faculty, and hands-on, adventurous learning opportunities. One of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives, Austin College boasts a welcoming community that embraces diversity and individuality, with more than 36 percent of students representing ethnic minorities. A residential student body of 1,250 students and a faculty of more than 100 allow a 12:1 student-faculty ratio and personalized attention. The College is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and cultivates an inclusive atmosphere that supports students’ faith journeys regardless of religious tradition. Founded in 1849, the College is the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original name and charter.