Museums
Modern masterworks in Albany, a powerful pol’s papers in Bonham: Diverse display spaces that exhibit good—or at least unique—taste.
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Sam Rayburn Library And Museum, Bonham
DURING HIS 48 YEARS IN WASHINGTON AS a congressman (17 as Speaker of the House), Bonham’s Sam Rayburn made history, helping to pass FDR’s New Deal, Truman’s Marshall Plan, and the civil rights acts of 1957 and 1960. Yet when he died on November 16, 1961, his body was brought to this North Texas museum, where it lay in state for 25 hours before it was buried a few blocks away. Nearly forty years later, his collections of photographs, political cartoons, and memorabilia, as well as copies of correspondence from friends and presidents, fill the walls and display cases. The white marble Speaker’s rostrum that stood in the U.S. House from 1857 to 1950 is in the entrance foyer. Straight ahead is a full-scale replica of Rayburn’s office, complete with original furnishings, a massive crystal-and-silver chandelier from the White House, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling hand-painted by Italian artisans. The library and main reading room feature gifts and rare books as well as a set of Congressional Record issues dating back to the first Congress. In my opinion, the museum’s greatest assets are its living resources: H. G. Dulaney, the museum’s director, who began working as Rayburn’s assistant in 1951, and MacPhelan Reese, a family friend of Rayburn’s, who writes poetry and essays in the basement. Both have plenty of great anecdotes. 800 W. Sam Rayburn Drive (903-583-2455). Hours: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: Free.
Cowboy Artists Of America Museum, Kerrville
IF YOU LIKE PAINTINGS OF COWBOYS, sunsets, Native Americans, and pioneers in Southwestern scenes, saddle up. Cowboy artists from around the U.S. are not only the meat and potatoes in this Hill Country museum but also the appetizer, sides, garnish, and dessert—and the meal is rich. I don’t know what impressed me more: the hand-laid mesquite floors that glow like polished leather or the large sculptures that dot the grounds or the 23 boveda ceiling domes that allow the dispersion of natural light among the bronzes and oils. On Texas Highway 173 a half mile from the intersection of Texas Highway 16 (830-896-2553). Hours: Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: $5; senior citizens, $3.50; children 6 to 18, $1.
Michelson Museum of Art, Marshall
RUSSIAN-AMERICAN POST-IMPRESSIONIST Leo Michelson’s works are housed in museums in Baltimore, San Diego, Paris, Toulouse, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Riga, Latvia. But the main collection is in Marshall, thanks to Wendy Reeves, a native of the East Texas town, patron of the arts, and friend of the Michelson family. Reeves suggested the location after the artist’s death in 1978, and it’s perfect. A large museum would have displayed only a few works at a time, but this 11,000-square-foot facility is entirely devoted to Michelson, rotating more than one thousand of his paintings, drawings, and letters. He was never as well known as Marc Chagall and his other friends, docents will tell you, because of his discriminating taste in customers. Had he been more famous, though, his body of work would never have been so accessible; his loss is Marshall’s gain, and ours. 216 N. Bolivar (903-935-9480). Hours: Tuesday through Friday noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission: Free.
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon
THIS IS THE LARGEST HISTORY MUSEUM in the state, with 200,000 square feet of exhibits on U.S. Western and Native American history, petroleum, paleontology, transportation, and art; you may need to leave a trail of bread crumbs to find your way back to the entrance. Start in the room with the skeleton of a carnivorous Allosaurus, presented among assembled prehistoric bones of the ground sloth, saber-toothed cat, and shovel-tusked mastodon. Then wind your way through displays of Quanah Parker’s trail bonnet, automobiles from the first half of the century, an authentic wooden cable tool drilling rig from the twenties, and a recreated pioneer town. Finally, look for artwork by Jose Arpa, Jerry Bywaters, Georgia O’Keeffe, Nicolai Fechin, O. E. Berninghaus, E. L. Blumenschein, and other painters of the Southwest. On the campus of West Texas A&M University, twelve miles south of Amarillo on Interstate 27 (806-651-2244). Hours: Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Admission: adults, $3; children 11 and under, $1.
Red River Valley Museum, Vernon
THIS NORTH TEXAS MUSEUM’S STUDY of the Red River is divided into five distinct categories: geological history, pioneers, hometown heroes, ranching history, and animal trophies. The display space isn’t always full, so a few of the exhibits look skimpy, but other small-town history collections don’t have items of this caliber. A Remington sculpture greets you at the door. As you step to the left, you see pioneer relics and the teeth, tusks, and bones of mastodons and mammoths. Around the back is a room filled with more than one hundred stuffed and mounted animals that will strike you as either sublime or grisly, depending on your comfort level with taxidermy. Bend around the other side of the museum for Mexican funerary pottery pieces dating to 3000 B.C., 24 busts by Vernon sculptor Electra Waggoner Biggs, and Native American artifacts, including Quanah Parker’s walking stick, a gourd rattle, a peyote cup, and an eagle feather fan. On U.S. 70 adjacent to the campus of Vernon Regional Junior College (940-553-1848). Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: Free.
Stark Museum of Art, Orange
THE STARKS DEFINITELY MADE THEIR mark on this Golden Triangle town. The family donated not only the W. H. Stark House and Stark Park but also one of the greatest collections of Western American art in the state. There’s a large assembly of bronzes by Remington and Russell, paintings by E .L. Blumenschein, Nicolai Fechin, and Georgia O’Keeffe, and other works depicting the West, along with Steuben glassware, Native American blankets and pottery, and hand-colored John James Audubon prints of native Texas animals. 712 Green Avenue (409-883-6661). Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: Free.
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