The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 91, July 1987 - April, 1988 Page: 115

Book Reviews 115
at which the masters must accept him as a peer. Meinig's peers are the
finest living geographers and historians of America.
The University of Texas at Austin ALFRED W. CROSBY
Texas Women. A Pictorial History, from Indians to Astronauts. By Ruthe
Winegarten. (Austin: Eakin Press, 1986. Pp. ix + 187. Foreword,
preface, acknowledgments, photographs, illustrations, notes, bibli-
ography, index. $24.95.)
Ruthe Winegarten's Texas Women. A Pictorial History is a welcome ad-
dition to the small but robust and growing body of literature known as
Texas women's history. Prior to the last decade, indeed prior to the
establishment of the Texas Foundation for Women's Resources in 1978
(and its successful touring exhibit Texas Women: A Celebration of History,
of which Winegarten was research director), one searched in vain through
the state's history textbooks and journals for the mention of women and
their contributions to the development of the state. Except for a few tried-
and-trues, such as Jane H. W. Long, Mary Austin Holley, Suzanna A.
W. Dickenson, et al., conventional wisdom held that women were miss-
ing from the historical literature because in truth they had no history to
tell. Well now, at long last, that dinosaur has been laid to rest. For not
only does Winegarten's book reveal that Texas women made significant
contributions to the history and development of the state but that their
contributory cup runneth over. The book, which is in essence a catalogue
of Texas women and their achievements, contains pictures and short
references to more than three hundred individuals. We see from
Winegarten's narrative, which accompanies the pictures, that it was women
who built Texas's social institutions-its schools, hospitals, libraries,
museums, symphonies, etc. We learn that it was also women who held
families, communities, and indeed the fabric of Texas civilization together,
while the men were off fighting enemies or each other. We see that it was
women-black, Hispanic, Anglo-who gave impetus to and lobbied long
years for almost all of the state's progressive legislation: its child-labor
laws, pure food and drug laws, educational, welfare, and penal reforms,
and public-health measures, and that the women did it mostly without
fanfare, recognition, or reward. And we also learn that throughout the
long and interesting history of women in Texas there were a few individuals
who were unique and stood out above the crowd: women such as the
political leaders Jane Y. McCallum and Minnie Fisher Cunningham;
record-breakers like the flying Stinson sisters and the athletic Babe
Didrickson; social activists such as Juanita Craft and Jovita Idar; and