Upcoming Lectures
February 15, 2025
Undertold Texas with Mike Vance
Take an eclectic journey through Texas history in the shoes of lesser-known people and through forgotten events that have shaped our modern state. Mike Vance, Texas author and filmmaker, is your guide. We will explore one Texas Revolutionary hero from a different angle, learn about an oft-omitted Revolutionary leader, and hear a lost story or two from the City of Houston. Join us to experience Texas as never before!
Date: Saturday, February 15, 2025
Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Talk 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Q&A 6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Reception 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: San Jacinto Museum
May 17, 2025
Brave Boy and Good Soldier - John C. C. Hill with Mary Margaret McAllen
Shortly before his fourteenth birthday, John Christopher Columbus Hill left home with his father and older brother to join the ill-fated 1842 Texas expedition to Mier, Tamaulipas, Mexico to end any questions over ownership of Texas. The story of John Hill's capture and subsequent adoption by President Antonio López de Santa Anna is one of the most fascinating and curious to come out of this extraordinary episode in Texas history. Particularly, interesting is John Hill's relation to George Alfred Hill, Jr., one of the major contributors to the San Jacinto Monument.
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2025
Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Talk: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Q&A: 6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Reception: 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: San Jacinto Museum
August 16, 2025
Weapons and Wounds of the Texas Revolution with Dr. Richard Bruce Winders
Join Dr. Richard Bruce Winders for an in-depth exploration of the weaponry used during the Texas Revolution. Drawing from the technology of 18th- and 19th-century warfare, Dr. Winders will examine the arms carried into battle and the devastating injuries they inflicted. His presentation will also shed light on the harsh realities of wound treatment during this era, answering the compelling question: What was it really like to be wounded by these so-called "antiquated" weapons of war?
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2025
Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Talk 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Q&A 6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Reception 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: San Jacinto Museum
November 8, 2025
Santa Anna's Army in the Texas Revolution; 1835 with Gregg J. Dimmick
Dr. Dimmick will be presenting an in-depth discussion on his newly released book, Santa Anna's Army in the Texas Revolution: 1835, which serves as the first volume in a comprehensive three-part series. His research primarily draws from Mexican archival sources, offering fresh insights into this pivotal period in Texas history.
During his presentation, Dr. Dimmick will explore many of the rare and previously untranslated documents featured in his book—materials that have not been previously published in standard Texas history sources. These documents shed new light on the composition, strategy, and operations of Santa Anna’s forces during the early stages of the Texas Revolution.
This event will provide a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the conflict from the perspective of Mexican military records, offering a more nuanced and historically rich view of the events of 1835. Attendees will have the chance to engage with Dr. Dimmick and ask questions about his research process and findings.
Date: Saturday, November 8, 2025
Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Talk 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Q&A 6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Reception 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location: San Jacinto Museum
Past Lectures 2024
September 21, 2024
The Texas Navy and San Jacinto with Andy Hall
The victory of the Texian Army on the plain of San Jacinto in April 1836 was built on many factors, including the leadership of Sam Houston, the grim determination of his troops, and the vagaries of weather that brought the two armies together. But there was another factor that shaped the victory, one that wasn’t anywhere near San Jacinto that day: the officers and crews of the Texian Navy. This presentation will follow step-by-step how captures of Mexican ships by the Texian Navy helped simultaneously to provide for Houston’s army and deny Santa Anna the supplies his soldados desperately needed.
Date: Saturday, September 21, 2024
Time: 5:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. | talk 5:00 6:00, Q&A 6:00 6:30, reception 6:30 7:00
Location: San Jacinto Museum
Cost: $5 per person/$3 per museum member; students are free.
Buy your tickets online.
November 16, 2024
San Jacinto and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas with Sally Anne Schmidt and Eron Tynes
Join us for a presentation by Sally Anne Schmidt and Eron Tynes on the early history of the San Jacinto Battleground, the site of one of the most significant battles in the Western Hemisphere. The movement to designate the San Jacinto Battleground as a patriotic shrine began in 1856 when a group of Texas veterans gathered at the site and initiated a fund for a memorial monument. The San Jacinto Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas was established in 1891, with the immediate goal of acquiring and marking the Battlegrounds of San Jacinto, where the Republic of Texas was born. For years, members of the San Jacinto Chapter collaborated with the State Legislature to secure the necessary land, leading to the establishment of Texas's first State Park in 1907. During this period, chapter members worked alongside Texas veterans to mark key historic sites of the battle with granite markers.
As the 100th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto approached, plans to build a monument honoring all Texas heroes gained momentum. Under the leadership of Jesse Jones, significant improvements were made to the park for the Texas Centennial, with the continued influence and involvement of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
Date: Saturday, November 16, 2024
Time: 5:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. | talk 5:00 6:00, Q&A 6:00 6:30, reception 6:30 7:00
Location: San Jacinto Museum
Cost: $5 per person/$3 per museum member; students are free.
Buy your tickets online.
Past Lectures 2023
September 30, 2023
The Yellow Rose of Texas: The Song, Emily West and the Great Texas Myth
with Lora-Marie Bernard
There's a yellow rose in Texas that I am gonna see, Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me. The lyrics of The Yellow Rose of Texas are familiar to any Texan, but the true story behind the song is lost in myth and legend. Learn how the Yellow Rose of Texas became the unofficial state anthem and how grit and determination brought a free Black woman from the abolitionist riots of Connecticut to the thick of a bloody Texas revolution.
Date: Saturday, September 30, 2023
Time: 5:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. | talk 5:00 6:00, Q&A 6:00 6:30, reception 6:30 7:00
Location: San Jacinto Museum
Cost: $5 per person/$3 per museum member; students are free. Buy your tickets online.
November 18, 2023
The Road to San Jacinto: Retracing the Route of Sam Houston's Army
with Dave Dyer
On March 11, General Sam Houston took command of the 378-man Texas Army in Gonzales. Forty-one days later and 150 miles east, he faced off against General Santa Anna at San Jacinto. During the retreat east, Houston fought to stay one step ahead of the advancing Mexican army while also holding his growing and increasingly rebellious army together. Houston's often unpopular decisions on the road to San Jacinto eventually led to his victory at San Jacinto. Without knowing how the Texas Army reached the fields at San Jacinto, Houston's actual skill as a military leader cannot be understood. However, despite its significance, the Texas Army's retreat during the San Jacinto Campaign is poorly documented and often overlooked. At the Road to San Jacinto, author Dave Dyer retraces Houston's route east based on extensive primary and secondary research, bringing each one back to life.
Date: Saturday, November 18, 2023
Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. | talk 5:00 - 6:00; Q&A 6:00 - 6:30; reception 6:30 - 7:00
Location: San Jacinto Museum
Cost: $5 per person/$3 per museum member; students are free. Buy your tickets online.
Cost: $5 per person/$3 per museum member; students are free. Buy your tickets online.
June 17, 2023
San Jacinto: The Experience of Battle
with Dr. Stephen Hardin
San Jacinto: The Experience of Battle with Dr. Stephen Hardin Military historians often fall into the trap of looking at the battle from the birds-eye view of the commanders. After all, they are the ones making the decisions and often leaving the most detailed accounts. However, this perspective ignores the experience of the rank-and-file soldiers on the ground. In San Jacinto: The Experience of Battle, renowned Texan historian Stephen Hardin uses countless first-hand accounts of the Battle of San Jacinto to examine the Texian soldier's experience of battle.
February 18, 2023
Houston Deco - Constructing a Modern Identity for the Bayou City
with Jim Parsons
Houston is rarely cited in the same breath as New York, Miami or Los Angeles when it comes to Art Deco. But the city boasts many gorgeous examples of the Jazz Age style, including the San Jacinto Monument, as the result of a conscious effort by Bayou City leaders to shape a new image in the 1920s and ‘30s. Join us on Saturday, February 18 for an illustrated lecture by Jim Parsons, co-author of Houston Deco: Modernistic Architecture of the Texas Coast, about notable Deco buildings in Houston and the surrounding region, showcasing the design and craftsmanship that still captivate us today.