Southwestern Collection

A stereoscopic view of the University of Texas from the state capitol dome, Austin, Texas, c. 1926. Stereograph Cards, Prints and Photographs Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

In Memoriam

Lonn Taylor, noted historian, distinguished museum professional, colorful storyteller, and widely read author, passed away at his home in Fort Davis, Texas, on July 26, 2019, due to complications from diabetes. He was an expert on the history of material culture and renowned for his encyclopedic knowledge of people and places in Texas.

Lonn was the fifth generation of his family to live in the Lone Star State, although as he liked to joke, he was not a native Texan. He was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on January 22, 1940; his father’s work as a highway engineer had taken the family to the Palmetto State. While a child, Lonn delighted in hearing stories about his extended family in Texas as told to him by several generations of relatives, giving him a deep appreciation for all things Texan. These stories proved to be an important thread binding him to the distant family homeland because he spent much of his childhood and early adolescence living in the Philippines, where his father supervised construction of the post-World War II highway system. Lonn attended the American School in Manila for nine years before his family moved to Fort Worth, where he completed high school.

Adulthood found Lonn moving from and back to Texas more than once. He graduated from Texas Christian University in 1961 and then began graduate work in history at New York University. He decided to spend the summer of 1962 in Austin, enrolling in a course at the University of Texas. Events there quickly caused him to change his career plans. Next door neighbor Janis Joplin and a group of musicians in her orbit befriended Lonn. They introduced him to other personalities of the Austin scene of the 1960s, including Eddie Wilson of the Armadillo World Headquarters. Lonn decided to forsake further graduate study in history and remained in Austin, where he became a fixture in the emerging cosmopolitan milieu of the city. He worked as a freelance writer and journalist before joining the staff of San Antonio’s HemisFair ’68.

His success with HemisFair brought him to the attention of Miss Ima Hogg, who selected Lonn to work with her at the Winedale Historical Complex at Round Top, a facility she created to showcase her collection of Texas furniture. He became the director there and developed a singular expertise in the history of that subject, eventually publishing the landmark book Texas Furniture: The Cabinet Makers and Their Work, 1840–1880 (University of Texas Press, 1975), which he coauthored with David R. Warren. After seven years at Winedale, Lonn served on the staff of the Dallas Historical Society and as deputy director of the Museum of New Mexico before joining the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where he remained for eighteen years. For much of that time he held the formal title of Historian at the Smithsonian. Among his most significant accomplishments at the Smithsonian was serving as historian on the restoration project for the Stars and Stripes flag that had flown over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. In the process, he became a preeminent authority on the history of the American national flag, which led to his book The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem (Abrams, 2000).

Lonn married his wife Dedie in 1988, and the two became a devoted couple until his passing. Lonn and Dedie retired in 2002 to Fort Davis, where they became active in the cultural and social life of far West Texas. Their uniquely designed home became a salon that attracted a steady stream of visitors from the worlds of art, literature, and other intellectual pursuits. Lonn wrote a newspaper column for sixteen years entitled “The Rambling Boy” that featured an exposition of folklore, historical observations, and interesting stories with special emphasis on West Texas. He broadcast some of these columns on Marfa’s KRTS radio and assembled many...