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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=smm_pbn@shsu.edu href="mailto:smm_pbn@shsu.edu">Patrick Nolan</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, February 28, 2005 8:03 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> 3/9 Sleuthing the Alamo</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><CITE>"A brilliant and original investigation into the birth and
myths of the Texas Republic [by] a master historian and detective."</CITE>
<P>This is how the History Book Club recently described "<CITE>Sleuthing the
Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas
Revolution</CITE>" (Oxford University Press, 2004), by James E. Crisp.
<P>Crisp will present a slide lecture at 7:45 p.m. March 9 in the Sam Houston
Museum's Walker Education Center auditorium, preceded by a reception and
book-signing beginning at 6:30 in the Walker Center atrium. The Walker Center is
located at 1402-19th Street.
<P>A native Texan, Crisp has spent the last dozen years trying to squeeze a few
reliable truths out of the myths of early Texas. "<CITE>Sleuthing the
Alamo</CITE>" is the culmination of this research.
<P>In his Walker Center presentation, Crisp will relate how he stumbled onto the
true identity of the author of a viciously anti- Mexican speech that for years
had been falsely attributed to Sam Houston.
<P>
<P>"This discovery opened the door to many others," said Crisp, "and by the
middle of the 1990s I found myself in the middle of the biggest Texan historical
controversy of them all--the circumstances relating to the death of Davy
Crockett at the Alamo."
<P>Crisp said he will explain how he uncovered a rare document in the Yale
University archives. This document unlocked the mystery of a tattered Mexican
manuscript held by the University of Texas at San Antonio, which described
Crockett's gruesome death by execution--a manuscript that by the year 2000 had
made its way into Guinness World Records.
<P>When Crisp began to receive "hate mail" in the midst of these controversies,
he decided to investigate the origins of the anti- Mexican attitudes that
pervaded much of traditional Texas History as taught in the twentieth century.
<P>"That research led to the discovery of the secret of the 1903 slashing of the
most famous historical painting in Texas--a painting which changed the story of
the Alamo," he said.
<P>Crisp promised to reveal the hidden messages in this and other paintings in
his March 9 presentation.
<P>
<P>Admission is free, and all interested in Texas history are invited. Call 936.
294.1832 or check the museum Web site at <A
href="http://www.SamHouston.Memorial.Museum">http://www.SamHouston.Memorial.Museum</A>
for more information.
<P>
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