From its founding one hundred years ago by a group of dedicated women working to better life and opportunity in their fledgling metropolis, the Dallas Public Library has provided essential services to the people of Dallas. In The Dallas Public Library, Michael V. Hazel presents the centennial history of this landmark institution, from its genesis as a single library with a staff of five, to a central library and twenty-two branch libraries with a staff of more than five hundred. This is the story of committed leaders like May Dickson Exall, who persuaded Andrew Carnegie to give $50,000 to build Dallas's first free public library, and director Cleora Clanton, who stretched a shoestring budget to provide service to all citizens of Dallas at a time when minorities were often shunned and intellectual freedom challenged. It is also the story of beloved director Lillian Bradshaw, who built a major central library facility and a network of branches that reflect the interests of the neighborhoods they serve. More than just a repository of books, the Dallas Public Library has offered many people a place for lifelong learning, practical skills development, pursuit of personal interests, and recreation. Through the years, the library has grown and changed with the city of Dallas and is ready once again--as technology drives the information market--to adapt its services to meet the needs of Dallas citizens. This is the centennial history of a landmark institution, from its genesis as a single library with a staff of five to a central library and twenty-two branch libraries with a staff of more than five hundred. Richly illustrated with two hundred black-and-white photographs and ten color plates.
Dallas first grabbed the national imagination in 1936 when it hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition. Since then, the fascination with “Big D” has seldom flagged. If the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 cast a pall over the city, the success of the Dallas Cowboys and the popularity of the television series “Dallas” revived the image of a glitzy, hustling metropolis at the center of the Sunbelt. In this concise overview, Hazel examines the city's roots as a frontier market town, its development as a regional transportation center, and its growing pains as it entered the twentieth century. Ku Klux Klan dominance in the 1920s is chronicled, as well as the half-century of control by an elite group of businessmen. The narrative concludes with a look at today's city, struggling with issues of diversity. The author pays special attention to the role of ethnic groups in shaping Dallas: the French colonists of the 1850s; the German, Swiss, and Italian immigrants of the 1870s and 1880s; the Mexican Americans of the early twentieth century; and the Southeast Asians of recent decades. He also examines the role of African Americans, who came with the first Anglos and struggled for more than a century to gain equality. Dallas: A History of Big D is based on pioneer letters and reminiscences, as well as the research of recent years. Written in a popular style, it will appeal to scholars and general readers curious about how Dallas grew to become the nation's eighth largest city.
From its founding one hundred years ago by a group of dedicated women working to better life and opportunity in their fledgling metropolis, the Dallas Public Library has provided essential services to the people of Dallas. In The Dallas Public Library, Michael V. Hazel presents the centennial history of this landmark institution, from its genesis as a single library with a staff of five, to a central library and twenty-two branch libraries with a staff of more than five hundred. This is the story of committed leaders like May Dickson Exall, who persuaded Andrew Carnegie to give $50,000 to build Dallas's first free public library, and director Cleora Clanton, who stretched a shoestring budget to provide service to all citizens of Dallas at a time when minorities were often shunned and intellectual freedom challenged. It is also the story of beloved director Lillian Bradshaw, who built a major central library facility and a network of branches that reflect the interests of the neighborhoods they serve. More than just a repository of books, the Dallas Public Library has offered many people a place for lifelong learning, practical skills development, pursuit of personal interests, and recreation. Through the years, the library has grown and changed with the city of Dallas and is ready once again--as technology drives the information market--to adapt its services to meet the needs of Dallas citizens. This is the centennial history of a landmark institution, from its genesis as a single library with a staff of five to a central library and twenty-two branch libraries with a staff of more than five hundred. Richly illustrated with two hundred black-and-white photographs and ten color plates.
Historic Photos of Dallas takes a look into the past of the Big D"" through striking historic photographs from the city's finest archives. From the rugged west to the largest corporate headquarter concentration in the United States, Historic Photos of Dallas provides a unique look into the city's past. With over 200 archival photos reproduced in multiple inks on heavy art paper in large format, many of which have never been published. This book is a perfect additin to any historian's collection.
Dallas first grabbed the national imagination in 1936 when it hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition. Since then, the fascination with “Big D” has seldom flagged. If the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 cast a pall over the city, the success of the Dallas Cowboys and the popularity of the television series “Dallas” revived the image of a glitzy, hustling metropolis at the center of the Sunbelt. In this concise overview, Hazel examines the city's roots as a frontier market town, its development as a regional transportation center, and its growing pains as it entered the twentieth century. Ku Klux Klan dominance in the 1920s is chronicled, as well as the half-century of control by an elite group of businessmen. The narrative concludes with a look at today's city, struggling with issues of diversity. The author pays special attention to the role of ethnic groups in shaping Dallas: the French colonists of the 1850s; the German, Swiss, and Italian immigrants of the 1870s and 1880s; the Mexican Americans of the early twentieth century; and the Southeast Asians of recent decades. He also examines the role of African Americans, who came with the first Anglos and struggled for more than a century to gain equality. Dallas: A History of Big D is based on pioneer letters and reminiscences, as well as the research of recent years. Written in a popular style, it will appeal to scholars and general readers curious about how Dallas grew to become the nation's eighth largest city.
From the nineteenth century until today, the power brokers of Dallas have always portrayed their city as a progressive, pro-business, racially harmonious community that has avoided the racial, ethnic, and class strife that roiled other Southern cities. But does this image of Dallas match the historical reality? In this book, Michael Phillips delves deeply into Dallas's racial and religious past and uncovers a complicated history of resistance, collaboration, and assimilation between the city's African American, Mexican American, and Jewish communities and its white power elite. Exploring more than 150 years of Dallas history, Phillips reveals how white business leaders created both a white racial identity and a Southwestern regional identity that excluded African Americans from power and required Mexican Americans and Jews to adopt Anglo-Saxon norms to achieve what limited positions of power they held. He also demonstrates how the concept of whiteness kept these groups from allying with each other, and with working- and middle-class whites, to build a greater power base and end elite control of the city. Comparing the Dallas racial experience with that of Houston and Atlanta, Phillips identifies how Dallas fits into regional patterns of race relations and illuminates the unique forces that have kept its racial history hidden until the publication of this book.
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