Books on Texas Women's History

Black Women in Texas History. Edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Merline Pitre. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. 256 pp. ISBN 9781603440318. [A chronological look at the experience of African-American women in Texas through eight essays covering from slavery to the beginning of the 20th century.]

Chipman, Donald and Harriet Denise Joseph. Explorers and Settlers of Spanish Texas: Men and Women of Spanish Texas. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 2001.

Davis, Ronald L. Mary Martin, Broadway Legend. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. pp. 328. ISBN 9780806139050. [Biography of Mary Martin, 1913-1990, born in Weatherford, Texas.]

Hendrickson, Kenneth E. Chief Executives of Texas: From Stephen F. Austin to John B. Connally, Jr. College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, 1995. [Includes Miriam Ferguson.]

Hutchison, Kay Bailey. American Heroines: The Spirited Women Who Shaped our Country. New York: William Morrow, 2004. [Includes: Mary Austin Holley, Ann Raney Coleman, Jane Long, Adina DeZavala, Clara Driscoll, Anne Legendre Armstrong, Selena Quintanilla, Sally Ride, Sandra Day O’Connor, Oveta Culp Hobby, and Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias.]

Irwin, Mary Ann and James Brooks. Women and Gender in the American West. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004. [Includes essay: “Texas Newspapers and Chicana Workers’ Activism, 1919-1974” by Irene Ledesma.]

Jackson, Sarah Ragland. Texas Woman of Letters: Karle Wilson Baker. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. [Biography of Texas poet.]

Mackintosh, Prudence. Just As We Were: A Narrow Slice of Texas Womanhood. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 1996.

Mark, Eva H. A Brief History of the Denton County Federation of Women’s Clubs. Denton, Tex.: Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, 1976.

Marks, Paula Mitchell. Hands to the Spindle: Texas Women and Home Textile Production, 1822-1880. College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, 1996.

McArthur, Judith N. Creating the New Woman: The Rise of Southern Women's Progressive Culture in Texas, 1893-1918. Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1998. 199 pp. ISBN 13-978-0-252-02376-7 (Hardback). ISBN 13-978-0-252-06679-5 (paperback). [This is one of the textbooks I use in my Women in Texas History class]

McArthur, Judith N. Minnie Fisher Cunningham: A Suffragist's Life in Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 266 pp. [Also available electronically through NetLibrary, Inc.]

McElhaney, Jacquelyn Masur. Pauline Periwinkle and Progressive Reform in Dallas. College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, 1998.

McLeRoy, Sherrie. Daughter of Fortune: The Betty Brown Story. Plano, Tex.: Republic of Texas Press, 1997.

McLeRoy, Sherrie. Red River Women. Plano, Tex.: Republic of Texas Press, 1996. [Women of the West Series. A Collection of biographies of eight North Texas women.]

McNair, Joseph D. Barbara Jordan: African American Politician. Chanhassen, MN: Child’s World, 2001.

McQueary, Carl Randall and May Nelson Paulissen. Ma’s in the Kitchen: You’ll Know When It’s Done: The Recipes and History of Governor Miriam A. Ferguson, First Woman Governor of Texas. Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1994.

Montgomery, Rosalis. Lady in Waiting, 1944-1945. Austin, Tex.: Nortex Press, 1995.
[“A collection of letters written the last two years of World War II by the author to Col. James Robert Montgomery.”—Dust Jacket.]

Morin, Isobel V. Women of the U.S. Congress. Minneapolis: Oliver Press, 1994. [Includes Barbara Jordan.]

Morrow, Herbert C. Women's Army Corps Buildings, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Fort Bliss, El Paso County, Texas. Fort Bliss, Tex.: Cultural Resources Branch, Directorate of Environment, 1995.

Nash, Sunny. Bigmama Didn’t Shop at Woolworth’s. College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, 1996. [Award winning writer, photographer, and television producer, Sunny Nash writes about her grandmother and growing up in Candy Hill, a segregated neighborhood in Bryan, Texas, in the 1950s in a time of segregation and change.]

Neblett, Elizabeth Scott. A Rebel Wife in Texas: The Diary and Letters of Elizabeth Scott Neblett, 1852-1864. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.

Paulissen, May Nelson and McQueary, Carl R. Miriam: The Southern Belle Who Became the First Woman Governor of Texas, Miriam Amanda Ferguson. Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1995.
[Biography of Governor Miriam Ferguson.]

Payne, Darwin. Indomitable Sarah: The Life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes. Forward by Barefoot Sanders. Afterword by Sarah Weddington. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2004.

Perry, Nellie M. and Sandra Gail Teichmann. Woman of the Plains: The Journals and Stories of Nellie M. Perry. College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M Press, 2000.

Pierce, Paula Jo and Liz Carpenter. Let Me Tell You What I've Learned: Texas Wisewomen Speak. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 2002.

Puryear, Pamela Ashworth. Dressing Victorian: Being a Brief Overview of Women's Victorian Clothing in Texas, 1837-1900; with Notes on Recreation of the Styles. Brenham, Tex.: Hermann Print Shop, 1987.

Quarles, Deborah. “Lewisville Woman Takes Silver at Pan Am,” Denton Record Chronicle, March 15, 1995, C1-2. [Gypsy Lyn Lucas, a 20-year-old roller speed skater, won second place in the Women’s 500-meter race at the Pan American Games in Mar Del Plata, Argentina.]

Ramsey, Jr., Jack C. Texas Sinners and Revolutionaries: Jane Long and Her Fellow Conspirators. Plano, Tex.: Republic of Texas Press, 2001.

Reynolds, Clay. A Hundred Years of Heroes: A History of the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show. Fort Worth, Tex.: Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, 1995.
[Includes information about Texas women, such as the Boys and Girls Hog Club Show, Cowgirls, Girls Rodeo Association, Kirmiss (a debutante-like presentation of young ladies at the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show), Tad Lucas, Prostitution, Daughters of Southwestern Ranchers, and Glamour Girl competition.]

Rice, Melinda. Lone Star Ladies: A Travel Guide to Women's History in Texas. Plano, Tex.: Republic of Texas Press, 2002.

Rogers, Mary Beth. Barbara Jordan: American Hero. New York: Bantam Books, 2000.

Rowe, Beverly J. Women's Status in Texarkana, Texas in the Progressive Era, 1880-1920. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002.

Russell, Charles H. Undaunted: A Norwegian Woman in Frontier Texas. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. [A biography of Elise Waerenskjold. “Opens a window into immigrant life in Texas’ Norwegian colonies from 1847 to the end of the nineteenth century.”]

Sanders, Marc, Ruthe Winegarten, and Harry Robinson, Jr. The Lives and Times of Black Dallas Women. Austin, Tex.: Eakin Publications, 2002.

Seagraves, Anne. High Spirited Women of the West. Hayden, Idaho: Wesanne Publications, 1992. [Includes Belle Starr, pp. 101-121.]

Shire, Al, compiler and editor. Oveta Culp Hobby. Houston, Tex.: Western Lithograph, 1997.

Siegel, Dorothy Schainman. Ann Richards: Politician, Feminist, Survivor. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1996. [From childhood in Lakeview, Texas, to the Governor’s mansion.]

Silverthorne, Elizabeth and Geneva Fulgham. Women Pioneers in Texas Medicine. College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.

Sizemore, Evelyn. The Turtle Lady: Ila Fox Loetscher of South Padre. Plano, Tex.: Republic of Texas Press, 2002.

Snapp, Elizabeth and Harry F. Snapp. Read All About Her! Texas Women's History: A Working Bibliography. Denton, TX: Texas Woman's University Press, 1995. 1,070 pp. ISBN 0-9607488-3-0 (Hardback)

Spruill, Marjorie Julian. One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. [Includes essay: “Minnie Fisher Cunningham’s back door lobby in Texas: Political Maneuvering in a one-party state,” by Judith N. McArthur.

Stillwell, Hallie Crawford. My Goose Is Cooked: The Continuation of a West Texas Ranch Woman’s Story. Assembled by Betty Heath. Edited by Kelly S. Garcia. Alpine, TX: Center for Big Bend Studies, 2004.

Taylor, Quintard and Shirley Ann Wilson Moore. African American Women Confront the West: 1600-2000. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003. [Includes in Chapter 3: The Antebellum West: A Texas Slave’s Letter to her Husband, 1862, and Chapter 15: Lulu B. White and the Integration of the University of Texas, 1945-1950 by Merline Pitre.]

Watch here for new titles being added each week . . .