This is what I intended to post for Easter before I came across those irresistible bunnies last week. As far as I can tell the two images have nothing in common:
This one is a small Easter card sent by Harris Masterson, Jr. to President Lovett. It’s undated but looks like mid to late 1920s. We’ve seen Rev. Masterson before in a post about the groundbreaking for Autry House. That post is actually worth another look but for those in a hurry here’s the main image, with Masterson standing second from the right:
We have his papers in the Woodson and I had a chance to look briefly at them this afternoon. They are quite interesting and even a bit odd. Here’s the biographical note from the finding aid:
Harris Masterson, Jr., born June 22, 1881, Brazoria, TX, was the son of Judge Harris Masterson and Sallie Stewart Turner. A graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, TN (1904) and the Episcopal Theological School of Cambridge [Harvard] (1907), Masterson began his career as chaplain of All Saint’s, Austin, TX, 1908-11. He worked with the YMCA in China (Hankow and Wuchang, 1911-16) and the US (1916-17), and became a Red Cross chaplain in 1918. He came to Houston in 1919 to become the organizer, director and chaplain of a community house for Rice Institute students, later known as Autry House. Masterson was active in civic and educational affairs and served in various positions including chairman of the Building Committee of the Houston Public Library Board and as a Trustee for the University of the South. In 1925 he married Elizabeth Simpkins who shared his work with Rice students. The Mastersons moved to France to work with American students in Paris and returned to Austin, TX in 1926 for Masterson to become Rector of All Saint’s Chapel. He resigned in Oct. 1935 and died in Austin in Nov. 1935.
Among the photos in this collection I found two of particular interest. This first one is a rather puzzling. What do you think is going on in the foreground?
The second one I’ll get to later. I need time to look some stuff up.
Bonus: I thought I’d seen it all on this campus but today I watched a man repeatedly throw a water bottle at one of the Italian cypresses.
I wish I’d thought of that myself.
Actually, it just turned out that his football got stuck up there when his daughter missed a pass.
The foreground could be some macro-mulch to keep the weeds from sprouting. I’d use smaller stuff, but that looks like slash from cutting down some other vegetation. “Slash” is the non-log stuff left over from logging, mostly small branches and leaves.