Presented by: Lonn Taylor

Denton County is pleased to welcome back to Denton noted author and former Smithsonian Institution Curator, Lonn Taylor.  Mr. Taylor will speak and sign copies of his latest book, Texas, My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy, on Thursday, May 31, from 7:00 until 8:00 in the evening at the Courthouse-on-the-Square Commissioners Courtroom.

In a collection of essays about Texas gathered from his West Texas newspaper column, Lonn Taylor traverses the very best of Texas geography, Texas history, and Texas personalities. In a state so famous for its pride, Taylor manages to write a very honest, witty, and wise book about Texas past and Texas present. Texas, My Texas is a story of legacies, of men and women, times, and places that have made this state what it is today.

From a history of Taylor’s hometown, Fort Davis, to stories about the first man wounded in the Texas Revolution, who was an African American, to accounts of outlaw Sam Bass and an explanation of Hill Country Christmases, Taylor has searched every corner of the state for untold histories.

Taylor’s background as a former curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History becomes apparent in his attention to detail: Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, artists, architects, criminals, the founder of Neiman Marcus, and the famous horned frog “Old Rip” all make appearances as quintessential Texans.

Lonn Taylor’s unique narrative voice is personal. As he points out in the foreword, “it is the stories of Texans themselves, of their grit and eccentricities that have “brought the past into the present… the two seem to me to be bound together by stories.”

Lonn Taylor retired to Fort Davis, Texas with his wife, Dedie, after a twenty-year career as a historian at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. He received a BA in history and government from Texas Christian University in 1961 and did graduate work at New York University before returning to Texas to enter the museum field.

He has served as curator at the University of Texas at Austin’s Winedale Historical Center, the Dallas Historical Society, and the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe. Taylor’s books include Texas Furniture: The Cabinetmakers and Their Work, 1840-1880 (with David Warren, University of Texas Press, 1975); The American Cowboy (with Ingrid Marr, Library of Congress, 1983); New Mexican Furniture, 1600-1940 (with Dessa Bokides, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987); The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem (with Harry N. Abrams, 2000), and The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of a National Icon (with Kathleen Kendrick and Jeffrey Brodie, Smithsonian Books, 2008). He writes a weekly column about Texas called “The Rambling Boy” for Marfa Big Bend Sentinel.

All Courthouse Museum exhibits and lectures are free and open to the public.  The courthouse has handicapped parking and accessibility through the north entrance. The Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum is located in the historic Denton County Courthouse at 110 W. Hickory in Denton, TX.