Dan Winters
Austin artist Dan Winters was familiar with many of the locations featured in the pull-out map he created for this issue (“The Greatest Texas Road Trip of All Time”). Over the years, his assignments for TEXAS MONTHLY have given him the opportunity to visit places as far-flung as Buddy Holly’s grave, the Cadillac Ranch, and Kreuz Market. Still, after this project, “I had a much more comprehensive sense of Texas geography,” he says. Gluing down 175 tiny numbers on a three-by-five-inch board will have that effect.
H. W. Brands
When H. W. Brands moved to Texas, in 1981, his knowledge of the state’s history was, he says, “the kind you get from U.S. history textbooks and TV westerns.” Today the UT-Austin history professor is well versed enough in Texas lore to have written one book on the topic (Lone Star Nation) and contributed 24 write-ups to this month’s cover story (“The Great Terquasquicentennial Road Trip,” page 122). “Texans take history very seriously, which is both a promise and a challenge to historians,” Brands says of his hard-won expertise. “A promise because they want to hear what we have to say. A challenge because all Texans are experts on Texas history, even when they are wrong.”
Pamela Hastings
“I’m a huge space nerd, so visiting Mission Control checked a box off my personal bucket list,” says Pamela Hastings, TEXAS MONTHLY’s director of digital design, of her recent trip to Houston. NASA was one of six historic places that Hastings visited to create an “interactive map” of Texas for our inaugural iPad issue, pegged to our cover story. “The tablet extends our ability to tell a story,” says Hastings. “We can add touch, sound, and moving images, which allows us to connect in an engaging, three-dimensional way.”
