Texas Centennial “Logo” [Cover]
Name/Title
Texas Centennial “Logo” [Cover]Description
Harold Jean hand painted cachet of the Texas Centennial logo on a first day cover for the Texas Centennial stamp. Postmarked in Gonzales, Texas on March 2, 1936 and addressed to "HAROLD O. JEAN / 608 DEWEY STREET / ANNA, ILLINOIS."Context
The Texas Centennial began as an advertising campaign to encourage more investment in the state. As the nation struggled through the Great Depression, planners of the Texas Centennial Celebration depicted Texas as a land of opportunity and second chances, playing off of colorful and romantic Texas myths already made popular by fictional Western movies and books. Photographers and journalists joined in, promoting images of cowboys, cowgirls, and ten-gallon hats. Through these efforts, Texas was deliberately aligned with "the West," distancing the state from the lingering remnants of the Confederacy and its Southern identity.Category
Texas Folk Art: One-Hundred Fifty Years of the Southwestern Tradition