While looking for the Semper Fidelis Club letters I also came across a file full of materials from the dedication of the San Jacinto monument and museum:
The first thing you’d notice if you opened this folder is that this stuff had all gotten wet at some point. Take a look at Dr. Lovett’s badge and credential:
We’ve seen water damaged papers before (here and here, for example) but I have no idea when they got wet or whether they got wet at the same time .
The next thing I noticed was how many Rice people were involved in the two-day dedication ceremonies. Here’s the program, which features not only Lovett but also Marcel Moraud of the French Department, and in his capacity as president of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, our hero, Radoslav Tsanoff:
Bonus: I felt a small pang when I turned a page over and saw this. You can see where the Nifty Clips left rust stains when they got wet and then if you look closer the modern staples that were surely put there by one of our beloved predecessors in the archives. Which aside from any sentimental value also tell us a little something about when the paper got wet.
There was a lot of material stored in the basement, where the tunnels attach to the library, and the tunnels were basically completely flooded on 15 June 1976. There were no submarine doors on campus back then.
Wasn’t that the summer of 1966?? People were talking about an event much like that a few months earlier. Contractors building the tunnels had poured the bottom and sides, leaving a network of “U”-shaped troughs, which would have been bad enough. Then they punched a hole into the basement before leaving for the weekend. Add a thoroughly predictable rainstorm, instant flood!
Somewhere in this disaster area I call a home office is a copy of at least part of a Houston Post or Chronicle where the front page is all about a centennial celebration in 1936 of the battle of San Jacinto at the park, complete with a great field mass. I think it was saved by one of my great uncles for some reason. Must have been quite an event,
I have papers damaged like that, but they were never “wet” except by the Houston humidity in my attic in West University Place.
–Bill Wheatley, Wiess ’66
I have an extra undamaged program from the event. My grandmother was one of the five original trustees of the museum (the only woman) and was on the podium. I have a Bob Bailey photograph that shows the participants that I will scan and send you.
Might they have been in the Rare Book Room, which was flooded in the spring of 1966?
There was a great deal of connection of Rice and the dedication of the San Jacinto monument. On the second day, the invocation was given by Charles L. King who was the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church, just north of Rice Campus. Jess Nealy was listed as a member of the Ushers Guild when i was active there. At the encouragement of Dr. Jim Sims, I was a member of the ASCE national History Committee for several years. I was reviewing the final submission of the San Jacinto Monument submission for the national History award (1992)_and noticed the drawing supporting the survey for the height of the monument was incorrect. The surveying company quickly corrected it. Of great interest to civil engineers was the settlement of the monument. Readings had been carefully taken until it was the time for the final 50 year reading when it was discovered that the refererce monument had been taken out when the area was cleaned up prior to the celebration.