Dawn Buckingham<\/a> in a statement. “This remarkable map donation \u2014 spanning nearly four centuries of Texas history \u2014 further strengthens the GLO\u2019s collection as one of the premier resources for understanding the history, exploration and development of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\nThe collection spans from early depictions of the Western Hemisphere to maps of Texas produced during the Spanish colonial era, the Mexican national period, the Republic of Texas, and statehood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among the jewels from the collection:<\/p>\n
Very early maps of New Spain that barely register the presence of the Texas coast with any degree of accuracy.
\nSpanish maps that show the sharp contrast between densely populated Mexico and the barely settled Texas, claimed by Spain but controlled by Native Americans.
\nAn 1830 map purchased from a descendant of a man who lived in the Austin Colony. This image helped form the idea of Texas for the world.
\nA map of the De Cordova Grant based on an original kept in Mexico and never published.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0About Frank and Carol Holcomb<\/p>\n
![\"Twelve]()
<\/p>\n
Twelve of the rarest maps from the Frank and Carol Holcomb Map Collection are on temporary display in the map storage room at the Texas General Land Office.<\/p>\n
Texas General Land Office<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank was a Texan, a Son of the Republic, and had ancestors who settled in East Texas in the early 1830s, including a relative who served in Sam Houston\u2019s army at San Jacinto,\u201d said Carol Holcomb in a statement. \u201cMaps were his passion, and as our collection grew, we hoped it would one day find a home in a public institution. Our long-standing relationship with the GLO made it the obvious choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank and Carol were married Feb. 19, 1977, a year before their map collection began. They were ardent supporters of the historic Moravian village of Old Salem, North Carolina, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C., where Frank served on the advisory board. Carol is a docent at the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, a cultural treasure in Houston put together by the late philanthropist Ima Hogg, and Frank served on the Bayou Bend Collection Subcommittee.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFrank was obsessed,\u201d Harkins says of the tax attorney whose wife helped with the family business. \u201cHe wanted only the best. He tracked auctions. He made a wish list. He worked with map dealers.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Carol]()
<\/p>\n
Carol and Frank Holcomb of Houston collected rare maps, especially those that illuminated Texas history.<\/p>\n
Texas General Land Office<\/p>\n
The Land Office was not the only institution vying for the maps. The Witte Museum in San Antonio and the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts talked with the Holcombs about their future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaps are sometimes ancillary objects in other places,\u201d says Mike Miller, formerly archivist and manager at the Austin History Center, now director of public services for archives and records at the Land Office. \u201cFor the GLO, they are primary. We are better prepared to deal with maps.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Yale University owns a famous collection of Texana. Why not there?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they should be in Texas,\u201d Harkins says. “Frank always thought it was a shame that Texans would have to go to Connecticut to do Texana research. That was one of the reasons he wanted to keep their collection at a public institution in Texas.”<\/p>\n
The maps came with a $300,000 gift for preservation and display.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Carol Holcomb told Harkins: \u201cIt\u2019s exactly what he would have wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Harkins and Mike Miller examine one of the rare maps from the Frank and Carol Holcomb Map…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-256729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}