On June 19, 1865, General Orders No. 3, was issued in Galveston, announcing to the people of Texas that, in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation, “all slaves are free.” This day—which has since become known as Juneteenth—is now celebrated nationwide as the day that marked freedom for all Black Americans. Juneteenth presents engaging text accompanied by dynamic works of art, photographs, and historical documents to chronicle this pivotal period in U.S. history.
Events
June 3–July 1, 2025
Exhibition
October 6-November 1, 2025
Exhibition
In the last decade, archeologists have made a number of fascinating new discoveries about the way Paleoindians lived and even how they arrived in the land we now call Texas. These first peoples passed on knowledge and traditions through the generations, eventually giving rise to many culturally distinct Tribes and Indigenous American communities. Some Indigenous Americans traditional stories say that their ancestors were always here. Archeologists, who study objects and evidence left behind from early cultures, believe people have lived here for at least 16,000 years. Both ways of understanding the past are important to the study of Paleoindian history. A Time Before Texas considers both current science and cultural tradition to explore what life was like for the first people to call early Texas home. A Time Before Texas is created by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and ciruculated in partnership with Humanities Texas. For more information contact the Falls on the Colorado Museum.
December 1 - 29, 2025
Exhibition
In the last decade, archeologists have made a number of fascinating new discoveries about the way Paleoindians lived and even how they arrived in the land we now call Texas. These first peoples passed on knowledge and traditions through the generations, eventually giving rise to many culturally distinct Tribes and Indigenous American communities. Some Indigenous Americans traditional stories say that their ancestors were always here. Archeologists, who study objects and evidence left behind from early cultures, believe people have lived here for at least 16,000 years. Both ways of understanding the past are important to the study of Paleoindian history. A Time Before Texas considers both current science and cultural tradition to explore what life was like for the first people to call early Texas home. A Time Before Texas is created by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and ciruculated in partnership with Humanities Texas. For more information contact the Texas Botanical Gardens & Native American Interpretive Center.
January 10 - March 8, 2026
Exhibition
In the last decade, archeologists have made a number of fascinating new discoveries about the way Paleoindians lived and even how they arrived in the land we now call Texas. These first peoples passed on knowledge and traditions through the generations, eventually giving rise to many culturally distinct Tribes and Indigenous American communities. Some Indigenous Americans traditional stories say that their ancestors were always here. Archeologists, who study objects and evidence left behind from early cultures, believe people have lived here for at least 16,000 years. Both ways of understanding the past are important to the study of Paleoindian history. A Time Before Texas considers both current science and cultural tradition to explore what life was like for the first people to call early Texas home. A Time Before Texas is created by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and ciruculated in partnership with Humanities Texas. For more information contact the Irving Archives and Museum.
March 14 - June 13, 2026
Exhibition
This exhibition presents photographs by renowned documentary photographer Russell Lee and draws from the magnificent archive that he donated to the Briscoe Center for American History just prior to his death in 1986. This exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the remarkable images he produced in 1935 and 1936 when he first took up a camera and goes on to highlight the vast body of important work that Lee produced from 1947 through 1977. The exhibition was created by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin, and is presented in partnership with the Humanities Texas traveling exhibitions program. For more information contact the Irving Arts Center.
March 20 - June 12, 2026
Exhibition
In the early 1970s, Bill Wittliff visited a ranch in northern Mexico where the vaqueros still worked cattle in traditional ways. Wittliff photographed the vaqueros as they went about daily chores that had changed little since the first Mexican cowherders learned to work cattle from a horse's back. Wittliff captured a way of life that now exists only in memory and in the photographs included in this exhibition. This Humanities Texas traveling exhibition features photographs with bilingual narrative text that reveal the muscle, sweat, and drama that went into roping a calf in thick brush or breaking a wild horse in the saddle. For more information, contact the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum.
March 22-April 17, 2026
Exhibition
In the last decade, archeologists have made a number of fascinating new discoveries about the way Paleoindians lived and even how they arrived in the land we now call Texas. These first peoples passed on knowledge and traditions through the generations, eventually giving rise to many culturally distinct Tribes and Indigenous American communities. Some Indigenous Americans traditional stories say that their ancestors were always here. Archeologists, who study objects and evidence left behind from early cultures, believe people have lived here for at least 16,000 years. Both ways of understanding the past are important to the study of Paleoindian history. A Time Before Texas considers both current science and cultural tradition to explore what life was like for the first people to call early Texas home. A Time Before Texas is created by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and ciruculated in partnership with Humanities Texas. For more information contact the Ranger College Library.