Eugene C. Barker
November 10, 1874–October 22, 1956
Eugene Barker, in the words of his biographer, "did more than any other historian to show the influence that Texas exerted in shaping the destiny of the United States."
Born in East Texas in 1874, Barker first attended The University of Texas at Austin in 1895. His life intertwined with that of the young school, helping to make it the "university of the first class" called for in the state constitution.
Between 1915 and 1917, Barker was a leading voice in the university's struggles with Governor Jim Ferguson over academic freedom. Barker had a reputation for being stern, fair, and honest, qualities that made him a legendary teacher and colleague.
As a scholar, Barker furthered the study of Texas and expanded the Texas State Historical Association. In 1925, he published the first biography of Stephen F. Austin. Through this and other works, Barker made narratives of the borderlands central to American history.
Barker's influence was large. His students Walter Prescott Webb and Carlos Castañeda continued to make Austin a capital for scholarship on the American Southwest. In 1950, UT dedicated the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, the first time the university named a campus facility for a living faculty member. Barker retired shortly thereafter and died in 1956.
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Eugene C. Barker stands alongside Nettie Lee Benson, Carlos Castañeda, and Harry Ransom as UT figures who understood that housing archives for humanities research was central to the mission of a flagship state university. Barker was instrumental in collecting materials related to early Texas. Along with George Garrison and Lester Bugbee, his interest facilitated the acquisition of Stephen F. Austin's personal papers from the family of Austin's nephew Guy M. Bryan. The Barker Texas History Collection also encompasses the Bexar Archives of Spanish and Mexican Rule in Texas and the Texas Declaration of Independence. Further, Barker convinced UT Regent George Washington Littlefield to fund the collection of archival materials on Southern history. Today, the Barker Collection remains one of the pillars of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History on The University of Texas campus.
Founded in 1897, the Texas State Historical Association grew and strengthened under Barker's guidance. Today the TSHA continues its mission of chronicling the state's past through annual conferences, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and a range of digital resources accessible via its website. This includes the Handbook of Texas Online, the descendant of a series of print volumes originally overseen by Barker's most prominent student Walter Prescott Webb.
The Eugene Campbell Barker papers are held by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin. They contain correspondence, speeches, lecture notes, class records, research materials, literary productions, scrapbooks, and photographs.
Eugene Barker's gravesite is located at Austin's Oakwood Cemetery. Oakwood also serves as the final resting place for prominent Texans such as ethnomusicologist John Lomax, humorist John Henry Faulk, and Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson. Paired with a visit to the Texas State Cemetery a few blocks away, Texans can pay their respects to a large number of the state's most important political, intellectual, and artistic historical figures.
Selected Bibliography
Bailey, Fred A. "The Best History Money Can Buy: Eugene Campbell Barker, George Washington Littlefield, and the Quest for a Suitable Past." Gulf South Historical Review 20, no. 1 (2004): 28–48.
Barker, Eugene C. The Life of Stephen F. Austin: Founder of Texas, 1793–1836. Nashville: Cokesbury Press, 1925.
Barker, Eugene C. Mexico and Texas, 1821-1835: University of Texas Research Lectures on the Causes of the Texas Revolution. Dallas: P. L. Turner, 1928.
Carleton, Don E. and Katherine J. Adams. "A Work Peculiarly Our Own: Origins of the Barker Texas History Center, 1883-1950." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 82, no. 2 (October 1982): 197–230.
Cox, Patrick and Kenneth Hendrickson, Jr., eds. Writing the Story of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013.
Franz, Joe B. "Eugene C. Barker." Great Plains Journal 18 (1979): 65–71.
McCaslin, Richard. At the Heart of Texas: 100 Years of the Texas State Historical Association, 1897–1997. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2007.
Pool, William C. "Barker, Eugene Campbell." Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed December 9, 2014.
Pool, William C. Eugene Barker: Historian. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1971.
Strickland, Rex W. "A Dedication to the Memory of Eugene Campbell Barker, 1874–1956." Arizona and The West 8, no. 4 (1966): 301–304.
Spanish Translation
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