FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 4, 2021
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The second in a series of Tuesday Talks with Dr. Deborah Liles takes place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, at the W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center for the Industrial History of Texas in Thurber.
The free presentations focus on the history of Texas ranching; a Q&A follows each. “Oliver Loving: The Dean of the Trails” is the subject this week.
Dates and topics through 2021:
Nov. 2 — “In search of Lucinda: Women in the Early Texas Cattle Industry”
Dec. 7 — “The Stock Master: The Texas Cattle Industry Before and During the Civil War”
Dr. Liles became Tarleton’s W.K. Gordon Endowed Chair in Texas History in 2018. She teaches history with a focus on Texas, women, slavery, local communities and ranching; works with the W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center; and serves on the board of several historical associations statewide.
She co-authored the award-winning books Women in Civil War Texas: Diversity and Dissidence in the Trans-Mississippi (2016), the first book to examine the role Texas women played during the Civil War, and Texas Women and Ranching: On the Range, at the Rodeo, and in their Communities (2019), the first to examine contributions women made to Texas ranching. She’s also the co-editor of African Americans in Central Texas History: From Slavery to Civil Rights (2019), a critical study of Black lives in the center of the state.
Dr. Liles’ latest book, Thurber, co-written with several of her students, was released this year. Works in progress include Southern Roots, Western Foundations: The Peculiar Institution and the Livestock Industry in Texas and a biography of Oliver Loving, a noted rancher who lived on the Texas frontier.
The W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center, a facility of Tarleton State University, is at 65258 Interstate 20, Exit 367, Mingus, Texas, and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. It is a combined museum and special collections library located at the site of the Thurber ghost town. Visitors enjoy interactive exhibits that explore the birth, operations and death of a town owned by the Texas and Pacific Coal Co.
For more information on the W. K. Gordon Museum, call 254-968-1886, email gordoncenter@tarleton.edu or visit https://www.tarleton.edu/gordoncenter/#upcomingevents.
Contact:
Mary Adams, Museum Manager
254-968-1886
mkadams@tarleton.edu
