Across america. Here is the recent program. I think people around here know a lot about ranching history. Texas tends to be about itself with its own history but this history is about middle american regional stories that havent really been told. It is almost like the isolation of the ranching history. It lookinghed without instead of looking within. Museumin the historical that is the largest Historical Museum in the state of texas if you count it by the number of artifacts. Cowboys,ition title is cattle, and culture. Here whenime curator we set up the show, both of us are native to kansas city. In why thisested space felt so familiar to us. And michael started looking at the number of objects in the permanent collection. And it turns out that there were over 1000 objects in the database. We started looking at what kinds of objects there were and we found such a good array of a variety of options. We needed to do a show that pulled the sister city hood. That amarillod might grow up looking to dallas, denver, or houston. It is basically around the train system and the cattle industry that drew those two cities together. In the 1870s, cattle are being driven by the cowboys. They are walked across the plane. For example, longhorns were the best walking cattle. But they are not the best beef cattle. The railroad had cut to this area cut through this area. Time, there was more shipping on the rails. By the time kansas city linked that railroad, the Cattle Market started really booming. We helped each other grow the cattle industry. Other aspect is the culture and fashion. Finding goods and services that were bringing sophistication back here. Cowboys would go shopping. People can understand beyond this area. It is a regional history. We have a newspaper from kansas city. It is dated to the era. Were oil26, there discovered in the town. There was a huge influx of investment money. What we have in this image is kansas city newspaper with the wonder city of the texas panhandle. Citydea that this amarillo , it is something that today sounds a little oldfashioned. We also have this blueprint above that is by an architect that i think deserves his own study. We have an image of the United States with the city of amarillo larger than any other city and showing the networking of amarillo as a crossroads for the United States. And you can see that the Santa Fe Railroad is just one straight shot of a line. It is quicker than even to dallas. Houston isnt even on this map. The idea that this network is what this whole show is about, it would be close for a number of reasons based on the cattle trade. These objects tell that story. We are standing in front of another object. This is a reproduction, a that was born in the kansas city area and studied for a few areas. When he didnt get the raise he outed, he decided to start in amarillo and found his new firm. He was in amarillo citizen and built so much of the landscape in this area. Also of the skyline of amarillo. After oil was discovered in the buildinghere was a boom that happened in the urban space of amarillo. Skyscrapers. Re meanwhile, they were seven to 10 stories tall. One of the things that we did during the promotion of this show is think back to the musical of oklahoma. Line, thatbout the it is as high as the building ought to go. The idea of scraping the sky at seven stories, it seems a little out of date for us. Thingsgned a number of here. He designed the Baptist Church and also designed the Fisk Building here. They designed the Amarillo Building and the rule building. This is also the era where it went from horse and buggy to streetcars and actual automobiles. Amarillo because of the route 66 connection, it becomes an automobile city very quickly. And i think the importance is to ,ive the sense that this area it is a big urban center. We are interested in the development of cities and the urban landscape. The idea of kansas city being another city that is not as appreciated as it should be for his role in u. S. Development, we were tying those two together and making sure people can understand. Also regional history and a national history. You can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country. Tv, is American History only on cspan three. Next, the university of notre dame professor talking about the impact of American Religion and politics. How christianity and crude made modern america. The center for president ial history for southwest studies cohosted this event. Good evening. Thank you for coming. It seems appropriate given the subject of todays lecture to encourage you to pretend as if you are in church and scoot in areive folks who fashionably on time