Entries Tagged as 'Museums'
In the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards, in a converted warehouse a few yards from the Visitor’s Center, lies the amazing historical repository known as the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Despite the name, it’s not merely a place where individual cowboys (and, yes, cowgirls) are lauded for their achievements; it’s also a storehouse of the items that working cowboys actually used in the heyday of the profession. They’ve also got a powerful large collection of wagons used by everyday people back in the 1800s and very early 1900s. Think of it as a hybrid facility that covers everything from frontier Texas life to modern rodeo, with the wagons acting as continuity, and you’re not too far off.
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Tags: Attractions · Museums
You know, nothing beats a good, dark planetarium for a grand spectacle. I have fond memories of the Bert Baker Planetarium in Houston, as well as the smaller planetarium at Sam Houston State University, both of which I visited several times way back when I was in high school. For several years I’ve been aware of the presence of a planetarium at the Science Place in Fair Park, but for one reason or another I’ve never been able to visit — mostly, I guess, because there are so many things to do in Fair Park. I’ve already written (at length) about the attractions of Fair Park in general, the State Fair, Leonhardt Lagoon, and the Fair Park Aquarium, but until recently, the Science Place Planetarium was one of the many Fair Park attractions I had yet to visit. It was always on my dance card, though, and last week I had the opportunity to attend the show for the first time.
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Tags: Attractions · Museums
Well, folks, I’m back from my trip to Far East Texas, otherwise known as the Carolinas. I had a great time while vacationing, and the landscape was beautiful, but alas — since it’s a bit far from DFW, I won’t be going into too much detail on this blog about what I saw and did. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to offer you a little information about my trip, so here’s a nice website about the cool archaeological site I visited while I was away. It’s called Topper, and contains evidence that people might have been in South Carolina as early as 50,000 years ago (!).
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Tags: Area Lakes · Attractions · Museums
Last episode I waxed poetic (as I so often do) about Dallas Heritage Village, which is located on the environs of the big D’s original city park — which is called, cleverly enough, Old City Park. The curators have collected and maintained 38 wonderful old buildings from all over North Texas, including a log cabin (and the mansion its owners subsequently moved into), barns, animal pens, a bank, a saloon, a law office, a print shop, et cetera. They’ve basically created a small North Texas village from the turn of the last century, and have included sweet little touches like a fountain, a clock on a column in front of the bank, benches, fences, and connecting streets to add to the verisimilitude and tie what could have been a jumble into a unified whole. There’s even a bandstand with a surrounding village green, shaded by majestic trees.
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Tags: Architecture · Attractions · Memorials · Museums
By an accident of history, it just so happens that there isn’t that much of it in the New World. (History, I mean.) Whereas it’s not uncommon for people in England or France to live in homes built four hundred years ago, in the U.S. structures of that age or older are vanishingly rare and, usually, heavily protected (few people would dare to live in one, given all the rules and regulations). We just don’t have that much historical time-depth to work with. In fact, the oldest continuously-occupied Euro-American city in the new world is St. Augustine, Florida, which was established in 1565 by the Spanish. Hell, London has privies still in use that are older than that, and some records (especially the Church’s) go back well over a thousand years. Longer, even.
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Tags: Architecture · Attractions · Museums
As long-time readers may recall, I currently live in Garland, which happens to be the tenth largest city in Texas (no, really). As such, it actually has a lot of good stuff going on, though by no means as much as Dallas, Fort Worth, or even, say, Plano or Arlington. Much of its cultural wealth is concentrated in old downtown Garland, which has existed as such since 1887, when the local post office was created midway between two rival towns, Duck Creek and Embree; the new post office was called Garland Station after the U.S. Attorney General of the time, Augustus Hill Garland. That’s him down there. Please note that I didn’t take this picture; I’m not quite that old. It was probably taken by the famous Mathew Brady, though no one’s sure.
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Tags: Architecture · Art · Attractions · Memorials · Museums
The Amon Carter Museum is a physically small but nonetheless major entry in Fort Worth’s Cultural District, that cluster of attractions that also includes (among other things) the Kimball Art Museum, the Will Rogers Memorial Center, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. It’s worth a close look if you enjoy American art.
The Museum is located in a rather minimalist building at the edge of a park. Here’s what it looks like from the outside. Just a simple concrete structure with five bays and a front wall made of glass.
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Tags: Museums
Constant readers might remember me mentioning once or twice, in previous posts, the fact that Fort Worth outshines Dallas as the cultural center of DFW. While some of us on the East side of the Metroplex may not like to hear this, that doesn’t lessen the fact that the statement is true. The Kimball Art Museum is an excellent case in point. Although Dallas has its share of fine art museums, none are as famous — or as well advertised, frankly — as the Kimball.
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Tags: Attractions · Museums
I’m not sure exactly why, but for some reason most museums seem paranoid that you’re going to steal their ideas, or even their properties somehow, if you take a camera onto the premises. That’s certainly the case with the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, which is dedicated to the women of the American West. It’s located in Fort Worth just across the street from the Will Rogers Memorial Center, where they hold the Fort Worth Stock Show every year. It’s also conveniently near the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (FWMSH), which is currently in ruins as they expand and renovate.
This is a preview of National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Fort Worth
. Read the full post (1019 words, 5 images, estimated 4:05 mins reading time)
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Tags: Museums
We all love odd and amazing things, right? Well, here’s a treat to enjoy while you’re visiting the Metroplex. On Highway 30 in Grand Prairie, halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth (and not far from Six Flags), sits this castle of commercialism, like something out of a Disney fantasy.
Recognize it yet? No? How about…now?
Don’t those onion domes and minarets kick architectural ass? Why yes. Yes they do. We don’t see that kind of thing all that often around here, except for the occasional mosque. Oh, and there’s that cool-looking Coptic Catholic Church in Richardson, which the congregation was very careful to identify as such with big banners right after 9/11.
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Tags: Attractions · Museums
