Programs & Events
 Current CTHM Events
2008 Events
2007 Events
2006 Events
 2005 Programs
2004 Programs
2003 Programs
2002 Programs
Although the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum did not possess
a building to call home
until June 2002, the organization began early in its
inception of initiating programs and sponsoring cultural and educational
projects.
The adaptive re-use of the historic Knights of Pythias Hall for the purpose of
establishing the Museum (ground floor) and multi-purpose community facilities
(second floor), provides a unique model for communities that wish to preserve
quality of life through the preservation of architectural assets and increase
learning opportunities for local and regional heritage. The rehabilitation of
multi-use facilities on the second floor will provide space for meetings,
receptions, lectures, traveling exhibits, children's summer camps and small
conferences — expanding opportunities for the overall economic health of
our community.
Become a member of the Chisholm Trial Heritage
Museum and help the organization fulfill its mission.
2005
The Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum gives a special thanks to ExhibitsUSA,
whom it joined in their efforts to create access to an array of arts and
humanities exhibitions, nurturing the development and understanding of
diverse art forms and cultures, and encouraging the expanding depth
and breadth of cultural life in local communities. Honored to
participate in such a worthwhile project designed by
ExhibitsUSA
and the
Texas Association of Museums,
the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum
was committed to bringing added educational and cultural opportunities
to DeWitt and its surrounding counties, Gonzales, Lavaca, Victoria,
Goliad, and Karnes.
• November 3, 2005
Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum Hosts Retired Smithsonian Historian
Lonn Taylor, retired museum curator and historian at the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington, DC was in Cuero, Thursday evening, November
3rd to present, "My Love is a Rider: America's Affair with the Cowboy."
Mr. Taylor's presentation to a standing room only crowd, was held at 6:00 p.m.
in Cuero State Bank's
Community Room, and was hosted by the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum, with both the
Cuero Cultural and Heritage Foundation
and
Humanities Texas
serving as partners in this historic review of the American Cowboy.
This program was made possible in part by a grant from
Humanities Texas,
a state partner of the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
Read the full story about this event.
• Mar. 3 - Apr. 14, 2005
Exhibit: "El Caballo: The Horse in Mexican Folk Art"
Mexico possesses a rich history of popular art that reaches more than 2,000 years
into the past. Today in villages, towns, and cities throughout Mexico, people
continue to fashion art that expresses their deeply rooted traditions. El Caballo:
The Horse in Mexican Folk Art, on display from March 3 through April 14, 2005 in
the lobby of Cuero State Bank, 121 E. Courthouse, Cuero, TX, celebrates this enduring
legacy through a variety of ceramics, metalwork, paper art, sculpture, and other works of art.
El Caballo was comprised of objects from several genres of traditional Mexican folk
art: metal, ceramics, paper, and wood. Some of these objects were created by an identifiable
artisan, while others had been produced in a community of artisans, largely for local
consumption and frequently for no cost. This exhibit was meant to highlight the talented
artists and broad variety of folk arts in Mexico.
View the full press release about this exhibit. [22.0 KB, Microsoft Word Format]
View photos of school field trips to the exhibit.
• Mar. 3 - Apr. 14, 2005
Exhibit: "Cuero Junior High School Visual Arts Contest"
Sixth through eighth grade students at Cuero Junior High School participated
in a visual arts contest sponsored by the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum and
the Cuero Cultural and Heritage Foundation. The art contest was designed to
reaffirm the history and expression learned during the classroom presentation of
El Caballo: The Horse in Mexican Folk Art. The Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum's exhibit was
on display in the lobby of Cuero State Bank, March 3 thru April 14, 2005.
Read more about this exhibit and view the winning entries.
View photos of the contest winners, contestants and entries.
• Mar. 3, 2005
Guest Speaker: "The Return of the Centaur: Spanish Horsemanship in Mexico"
In conjunction with the opening of "El Caballo: The Horse in Mexican Folk Art"
on March 3rd, Bruce Shackelford, noted San Antonio historian, researcher and writer delivered
a lecture to approximately 45 interested citizens in the Cuero State Bank community room. Entitled,
"The Return of the Centaur: Spanish Horsemanship in Mexico", Shackelford explained
the extinction of the horse in North America, its "return" to the continent with Hernan Cortes in
the year 1519, and the progression of horsemanship and gear in Mexico.
This program was made possible in part by a grant from
Humanities Texas,
a state partner of the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
Read more and view photos of the Shackelford lecture.
2004
• "THIS CONTEST IS FOR REAL HANDS: RODEO PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE 1930S"
Exhibit at Cuero State Bank in Cuero, Feb. 2 - Mar. 10, 2004.
"This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs of the 1930's" was brought
to Cuero by the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum. The rodeo — that most uniquely
American spectacle — began in the late 1800's as an entertaining way of displaying
the skill and daring of cowboys. This exhibit opened February 2nd, with a public
reception from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Cuero State Bank, and captured the drama and
color of an old-time western rodeo, complete with bucking broncos, wild steers,
trick riders, calf ropers, and parades down Main Street. The thirty black-and-white
photographs in this exhibition, modern restrikes from vintage negatives, were taken
in the 1930's by Otho Hartley (1895-1964). Many of his rodeo photographs were made
inside the arena itself, a situation that often put the photographer in grave danger.
Somehow, amid the contorting broncos and half-crazed steers, he managed to keep the
action within the viewfinder and in focus. The results were some of the best images of
this tradition, one that Hartley captured in all its varied and unique aspects.
The exhibit was eventually expanded to include photographs, artifacts, and biographical
material on Katherine M. (Katie) Doell, a Cuero resident who competed in bare bronc and
bull riding rodeo events of the 1950's. Katie performed in rodeos throughout the
southern part of the United States and as far north as Indiana and North Carolina.
Together with Lucyle Cowey, a friend and fellow rodeo participant who taught Katie
trick riding, they performed as guests of the Cuban government and provided entertainment
as trick riders at an "expo" in the 1950's. She later returned to Cuba for a rodeo and
Wild West Show with "fifteen cowboys and cowgirls, our horses, one Brahma Bull, and one
jack ass."
On March 11, 2004, at the conclusion of "This Contest is for Real Hands: Rodeo Photographs
of the 1930s", Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum trustee, Candy Glidden, again took artifacts
from the Katherine Doell display to the Cuero Nursing & Rehabilitation Center for residents
to enjoy. Katherine Doell, who was present at the opening of the exhibit at
Cuero State Bank
on February 2nd, found herself as a patient in the center as a result of a fall and injury to
her knee. Her fall required surgery and rehabilitation, so Katherine and friend Johnny
Naunheim were on hand to help entertain the audience of nursing home patients. A very special
thanks to Trustee Candy Glidden for once again offering museum programming to our valued senior
citizens who are oftentimes unable to view exhibits at its original venue.
View the original press release about this exhibit. [27.5 KB, Microsoft Word Format]
2003
• PHOTOGRAPHS & PARAGRAPHS "Photographs & Paragraphs" October 9, 2003 - March 31, 2004.
The Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum, in its effort to provide museum exhibits
and programming to the region even before opening the museum doors, became
the sponsoring organization for an exhibit that opened October 9, 2003 in Cuero.
Entitled "Photographs & Paragraphs", the CTHM arranged for the exhibit to be
leased from the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio. Three other non-profit
organizations, the Cuero Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture, Cuero Heritage Museum,
and Cuero Cultural & Heritage Foundation, partnered in the effort to bring this unique
exhibit to the region. The exhibit pairs photographs taken in South Texas between about
1886 and 1906 by Canadian Texan I. N. Hall, with paragraphs written between 1894 and
1910 by William Sidney Porter (better known as the famed author O. Henry). The interesting
twist to this unusual exhibit is that the two men never met.
The exhibit opened with a ribbon cutting at Cuero's former post office, the current home
of the Cuero Heritage Museum and the Chamber of Commerce, and was followed by a reception
at the home of Dr. & Mrs. Ivey Ramirez for
Dr. Jenny Lind Porter-Scott. Dr. Porter, a cousin of
O. Henry and noted O. Henry scholar living in Austin, came to Cuero to lecture about the author's
life in Texas. Partial funding for Dr. Porter's lecture and bringing the "Photographs & Paragraphs"
exhibit to Cuero was provided by a grant from the Texas Council for the Humanities.
2002
• APRON STRINGS: TIES TO THE PAST
As a result of its participation in the
HELP Program,
the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum hosted a traveling exhibit,
"Apron Strings: Ties to the Past", from December 9, 2002 until January 6,
2003. Using aprons dating from the late 1930s through the present,
the exhibition chronicled changing attitudes toward women and
domestic work. It also surveyed the wide range of design and craft
techniques apron-makers have used to express themselves while still
working within creative venues traditionally available to women.
Today, artists continue using aprons to explore cultural myths and
realities as well as their individual experiences with American
domesticity.
At the conclusion of the "Apron Strings: Ties to the Past" exhibit
on January 6th, CTHM board member Candy Glidden took a portion of
the local apron exhibit to the Cuero Nursing & Rehabilitation Center
located at 1310 East Broadway. Fulfillment of the Chisholm Trail
Heritage Museum's mission to bring greater educational and cultural
stimulus to Cuero and surrounding communities is a very important
component of the Museum's purpose. For those senior citizens who
don't have the same opportunity of taking advantage of museum programming
— we decided to take the programming to them!
• HELP PROGRAMS Selected as one of only
18 small and mid-sized museums in Texas, the
Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum is eagerly participating in a program
created by ExhibitsUSA (based in Kansas City, Missouri) in
partnership with the Texas Association of Museums, known as
HELP.
The HELP Program is made possible through the combined vision and
generosity of Houston Endowment, Inc., the Meadows Foundation, the
Don & Sybil Harrington Foundation, and the
Texas Commission on the Arts.
Through supporting workshops and on-site professional consultations,
participating institutions will further their museum skills in areas
such as exhibit design, volunteer management, public programming,
fundraising/grant writing, marketing and public relations.
HELP
is a program rooted in the premise that experiential or “on-the-job”
learning offers the most effective means to receive and retain
professional training. The belief is that technical assistance,
offered in conjunction with a traveling exhibition experience, can
address the particular needs of individual museums though immediate
and practical applications.
• RANCH HERITAGE DAYS The Chisholm Trail
Heritage Museum feels that the lore and history
of late 19th century and early 20th century ranching and agricultural
heritage is not confined simply to one community; thus the Museum
generously helped to sponsor "Ranch Heritage Days", an event jointly
organized by Refugio, Bee and Goliad counties. This Tri-County
Historical Alliance is located adjacent and south of DeWitt County
and represents three Texas counties which have also made significant
contributions to the rich ranching legacy that can trace its roots
to Spain. "Ranch Heritage Days" was held as a two-day event, April
5th & 6th, 2002 with lectures (by T.R. Fehrenbach), exhibits,
demonstrations and reenactments in Beeville and on the Ray Ranch
near Pettus.
• CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS During the summer of 2002,
the Museum collaborated to provide a
summer reading program, "Reading Across Texas", which was offered to
area children in Cuero’s library. Sponsoring
"The Legend of the Cowboys" on June 25th, the program drew over 100 children and their
parents to the library to experience the wonders of our ranching
heritage. The coordinator of the program wrote a note of thanks to
the Museum, "With your support, 2002 was full of music, laughter,
song and stories - Cuero’s heritage came alive with the arts and
humanities."
• BROWN BAG CONCERTS Partnering with the
Cuero Cultural & Heritage Foundation
to sponsor one of Cuero’s "Brown Bag Concerts", held April 5, 2002
in the historic downtown district. The Chisholm Trail Heritage
Museum, along with the Cultural & Heritage Foundation, the
Texas Commission on the Arts,
and the
Cuero Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture
provided live music to several hundred people in
celebration of Texas’ musical diversity.
• DOCUMENTARY FILM The Museum again
partnered with
Cuero Cultural & Heritage Foundation
in the spring of 2001, the Museum began filming oral histories of area
cowboys and descendants of the hardy individuals who played a role
in the cattle drive movement from 1866 ‘til 1885. The film,
currently still in progress, in being directed by Viviane Vives of
Austin, Texas.
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