The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 265
559 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
This book, no doubt, will influence even more people to become collectors of
Texas painting and, in time, will itself become a collector's item.
Witte Museum, San Antonzo CECILIA STEINFELDT
Science on the Texas Frontier: Observations of Dr. Gideon Lincecum. Edited by Jerry
Bryan Lincecum, Edward Hake Phillips, and Peggy A. Redshaw. (College
Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. Pp. xvi+211. Foreword by A. C
Green, introduction by Jerry Bryan Lincecum, illustrations, appendices,
notes, select bibliography, index. ISBN 0-89096-790-3. $27.95, paper).
Science on the Texas Frontier is based on the letters and papers of Dr. Gideon
Lincecum. To fully appreciate Lincecum's career one should read his biography
by Lois W. Burkhalter (1965) and his own autobiography, Adventures of a Frontier
Naturalist edited by Jerry Bryan Lincecum and Edward Hake Phillips (1994).
Lincecum moved to Texas with his family in 1848, purchasing 1,828 acres on
Yegua Creek, near Long Point in Washington County. It was here that he be-
came an observer and recorder of nature. The editors have divided his nature
writings into six chapters emphasizing Ants; Botany; Arthropods; Creatures of
the Air, Land, and Sea; Geology; and Weather. The last two chapters, which do
not fit well with the first six, detail his desire to move to Mexico and the actual
moved to Tuxpan in 1868.
Lincecum shared his observations, knowledge, and collections with a number
of correspondents among whom were Charles Darwin, Spencer Fullerton Baird,
George Engelman,Joseph Henry, and Asa Gray. In an appendix the editors have
provided brief and very useful biographical sketches of the notable correspon-
dents. Other appendices include published articles in the Texas Almanac as well
as the edited version of his letter to Darwin that appeared in the Journal of the
Lnnean Soczety of London. The book contains a number of very attractive and ap-
propriate illustrations by Betsy Warren.
Lincecum contributions were marred from time to time with his ideas about
society, religion, politics, and slavery. The editors appeared to have accepted
some of Lincecum's biases by referring to the "yoke of Yankee reconstruction" as
also reasons for "a number of disgruntled, disgusted, and defiant Texans "to em-
igrate to Mexico (p. 127).
While I would not describe Washington County in the period from 1850 to
1870 as the Texas frontier, we should be appreciative that the editors have made
available to us the very useful, and at times intriguing scientific observations of
Lincecum.
University of Texas at San Antonzo DWIGHT E. HENDERSON
Historc Ranches of the Old West. By Bill O'Neal. (Austin: Eakin Press, 1997. Pp. xiv
+361. Acknowledgments, quotes, illustrations, introduction, bibliography,
index. ISBN 1-57168-167-1. $28.95, cloth).
The cowboy has become the symbol of Southwestern culture, both here and1998
265
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999, periodical, 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101219/m1/308/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.