Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy

The LJHA is excited to bring Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy to the Alden B. Dow Office Museum. Learn about the cultural evolution of Mexican vaqueros and the influence they've had over Texan life, including here in Lake Jackson! We'll supplement the exhibit with photographs from our collection that detail the importance of cattle ranching and horseback riding among Lake Jackson's early residents such as Dr. A. P. Beutel. 

Vaquero will be on view at the Alden B. Dow Office Museum Saturdays from 10 AM - 4 PM and Tuesday - Fridays by appointment from September 2, through October 14, 2023. You can make an appointment by emailing director@ljhistory.org or calling (979) 297-1570.

Exhibit Description from Humanities Texas:

In the early 1970s, noted Texas historian Joe Frantz offered Bill Wittliff a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—to visit a ranch in northern Mexico where the vaqueros still worked cattle in traditional ways. Wittliff photographed the vaqueros as they went about daily chores that had changed little since the first Mexican cowherders learned to work cattle from a horse's back. Wittliff captured a way of life that now exists only in memory and in the photographs included in this exhibition.  Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy features photographs with bilingual narrative text that reveal the muscle, sweat, and drama that went into roping a calf in thick brush or breaking a wild horse in the saddle. This exhibition is available in wall-hanging and abridged freestanding versions.  Vaquero is an exhibition created by the Wittliff Collections at the Alkek Library, Texas State University, presented in partnership with Humanities Texas, the state affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Vaquero is made possible in part by a We the People grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.