About the Harris County Historical Society
The Harris County Historical Society was organized on October 2, 1923, a date chosen to honor the 88th anniversary of the Battle of Gonzales, after the Texas State Historical Association asked that county societies be formed across the state. A newspaper notice of the day announced the organizational meeting at the University Club, called by Colonel A. J. Houston of La Porte, and extended a special invitation to school teachers interested in Texas history. Harris County's was the first to answer the call, which makes the society the oldest non-genealogical public history organization in the county.
Its founders had direct ties to the Texas Revolution. Andrew Jackson Houston was the son of Sam Houston; Adele Lubbock Briscoe Looscan, Clarence R. Wharton, Sam Houston Dixon, Mae Wynne McFarland and Judge Lewis R. Bryan rounded out the founding group, many of them children or grandchildren of signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence or veterans of San Jacinto. The society's stated purpose is to encourage, advocate and administer the discovery, collection, preservation and publication of historical information, records, oral histories, visuals and other materials relating to Harris County, and to educate the public about the county's history. Membership is open to anyone, not only descendants.
The society marked its centennial in 2023 and continues with monthly dinner programs. Recent speakers have included architectural historian Stephen Fox on classical Houston, Civil War author Ed Cotham on the Battle of Sabine Pass, preservationist Minnette Boesel on Market Square, photographer and collector Story Sloane III on Houston's visual history, and James P. Bevill on the finances of the Texas Revolution. A Living History Interview series records long-time Houstonians on film, and a Cursive Transcription project, chaired by architect and historian Terry Marie Hebert, transcribes historic letters so they remain readable.
Collections and Research Services
The society does not run a museum, archive or reading room of its own; its contribution is programming, publication and support for student research. Each year it presents the Harris County Historical Society Award of Excellence, a scholarship for an undergraduate or graduate student at the University of Houston completing a public-history project on Houston or Harris County, with the recipient presenting the work at a society dinner. Its website also offers a guide to the county's historical markers and a digital handout on the society's programs. For records, the main local repository is the Houston Public Library's Houston History Research Center in the restored 1926 Julia Ideson Building downtown, which the society has featured in its programs. Our guides to free family history research and old city directories show how to use a library collection like that one to trace a Houston family or address.
Planning Your Visit
Because the society has no permanent headquarters, "visiting" means attending a program. Dinner meetings are held at Houston-area venues such as the Houston Racquet Club on Memorial Drive, and reservations are taken in advance online at the society's events page or by email to hchs1923@gmail.com or phone and text to (832) 428-5252. Programs, membership information and the current calendar are posted at harriscountyhistory.org.
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