Southwestern Collection

The organizers of the Fourteenth Annual Legacies Dallas History Conference welcome proposals from both professional and lay historians on topics related to the theme of “Transforming Dallas.” Papers are invited on significant events or people that transformed Dallas in some way, politically, economically, socially, even geographically.

All papers must be based on original research and must not have been presented or published elsewhere. The best papers will be published in a subsequent issue of Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas. Those interested in presenting papers should submit a brief summary of their proposal by July 1, 2012, to Dallas History Conference, 1515 S. Harwood St., Dallas, TX 75215 or by email to: mvhazel@sbcglobal.net. Those selected will be notified by August 1, 2012.

The Fourteenth Annual Legacies History Conference will be held on Saturday, January 27, 2013, at the Hall of State at Fair Park. The Texas State Historical Association is one of a dozen historical organizations and libraries that jointly sponsor the conference each year.

Image at right: Paul Giraud (1844–1917). Dallas, Texas. With the Projected River and Navigation Improvements Viewed from Above the Sister City of Oak Cliff, 1892. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

In Memoriam

TSHA Fellow Malcolm D. McLean passed away in Georgetown, Texas, on January 19, 2012, at the age of ninety-eight. McLean authored eleven articles each for The Handbook of Texas (1952) and The New Handbook of Texas (1996), and he published three articles in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly between 1947 and 1949. He compiled and edited Papers Concerning Robertson’s Colony in Texas (19 vols.), a valuable source for nineteenth-century Texas history. A fifth generation Texan, he was born in Mud Springs, Texas, in March 1913 and grew up in Belton. He is survived by his son John Robertson McLean, grandsons Malcolm Hugh McLean and Douglas Duncan McLean, and two great-grandchildren.

McLean received his B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin in 1936, his M.A. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1938, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1951. In 1939 he married Mary Margaret Stoner of Uvalde County. McLean was appointed the Assistant Director of the Museum of the San Jacinto Monument in 1939 when it opened.

During World War II he worked in military intelligence, specializing in Latin America, and had a desk at the Pentagon when it first opened. After the war he taught Romance Languages at the University of Texas while pursuing his doctorate and later became an associate professor of Romance Languages at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

In 1961, McLean joined the faculty of Texas Christian University (TCU) as Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of TCU’s summer program in Mexico. He was appointed Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and later Associate Dean of the university while advancing to full professor. In 1976, Dr. McLean took up a professorship in history and Spanish at the University of Texas at Arlington, where in addition to teaching and research, he prepared the Robertson Colony papers for publication. He founded the UTA Press in 1977 and left teaching to become the director of the Robertson Colony Collection at UT Arlington. He retired in from that position in 1992.

Calls for Papers

The East Texas Historical Association (ETHA) will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in 2012 and thus invites proposals for papers and sessions for its annual fall meeting, which will honor this special milestone. The conference will be held in Nacogdoches from September 27–29, 2012, at the Fredonia Hotel. In addition to scholarly and informative sessions and programs, the meeting will also include lectures by distinguished scholars, a special reception honoring the past presidents of the Association, and special exhibits and displays.

Topics that cover all aspects of East Texas’s regional heritage and history receive preference, but any proposal that deals with Texas history is welcome. The ETHA prefers the submission of complete sessions (presider and three presenters or presider-commentator and two presenters...