The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 616

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

When the Texas History Center is established it will become the focal
point, the gathering place, for all whose interests are inclined toward
things historical-in fact, for all Texans interested in their state.
While plans for the creation of the history center are formulating, the
man whose name it will bear goes his quiet way along the paths he has
followed for a lifetime. Dr. Barker, who on November 10, observed his
seventy-first birthday, still devotes his days to the reading, the writing,
and the teaching of Texas history. At present he is engaged in the
"extra-curricular" duty of writing a series of historical sketches for
Texas weekly newspapers in commemoration of the centennial of Texas'
annexation to the Union.
Of his many writings, Dr. Barker's outstanding work is his Life of
Stephen F. Austin, often called the finest biography in Texas literature.
He spent a quarter-century in the study and research that resulted in
this distinguished work.
Of almost equal eminence in the field of Texas history is his eight-
volume compendium of the writings of Sam Houston, in which he col-
laborated with Dr. Amelia W. Williams, under the sponsorship of the
University Bureau of Research in the Social Sciences. The two historians
devoted eight years to this compilation, the last volume of which was
published in 1943.
For twenty-seven years Dr. Barker served as editor-in-chief of the
Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
Born in Riverside, Texas, November 10, 1874, the son of Joe and Fannie
Holland Barker, Dr. Barker entered the University of Texas in 1895. He
received his Master's degree in 1905 and his Ph.D. degree at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania in 1908. In that year he began his active teaching
career as professor of American history at Texas University, although
he had been associated with the history department since 1899.
In 1942, a portrait of Dr. Barker, painted by Robert Joy of Houston,
was presented to the University by the Texas State Historical Association.
In the presentation address on that occasion, J. Evetts Haley of Spear-
man, Texas, former associate of Dr. Barker at the University, had this
to say about the subject of the portrait:
Had he been born in a buffalo-hide wigwam on the Great
Plains, instead of in the wooded recesses of East Texas, we know
that old Sitting Bull would have moved over to give him room.
Had he sat with Tallyrand at the remaking of Europe, that great
man would have revised his dictum that "language is an instru-
ment to conceal thought." Had not his self-effacing nature kept
him off the public stage, where brash mediocrity never fears to
tread, I might still have been raising a dust storm on the aca-
demic air. In a word, had not his good sense and high purpose
held him to the task that, in our formative years, he was pre-
eminently qualified to do, then the great and noble tradition that
brings us together might never have been.
Many of the state papers also carried editorial comments
giving unstinted approval. Editor Ed Kilman's remarks in the
Houston Post of January 9 are fairly typical.

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