Friday Follies: Hanging Out, 1915, Plus Mystery Solved

I’m feeling grateful today for everyone who hangs out here.

I needed a lot of help from readers to figure this out but I believe we have it. (Special thanks to Bob Swanson and Dan McCormack, whose email made me start thinking in this direction.)

This isn’t Houston at all–it’s the Forty Acres!

Here’s a closer look at the large buildings in the middle of the image:

And here’s an early photograph of the approach to Old Main on the UT campus:

[University of Texas Old Main Building, front exterior], photograph, [1904..1908]; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124218/: accessed January 5, 2018), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

Everything lines up correctly, although there are a few new buildings in the c1915 picture. If you made me guess I’d say it was taken from high up in the capitol building.

Rice football traveled to Austin to play UT in 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917. A large contingent of students from the Institute took the train up there to see the game each year. I’d be stunned if Elmer Shutts wasn’t among them. Here’s a picture of the Rice band marching in Austin in 1916:

And just for fun here they are again in 1917, the year of Rice’s first win over the Longhorns:

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