Whitehead Memorial Museum
Encyclopedia
The Whitehead Memorial Museum is a western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
complex in downtown Del Rio
Del Rio, Texas
Del Rio is a border city in and the county seat of Val Verde County, Texas, United States.. Del Rio is connected with Ciudad Acuña via the Lake Amistad Dam International Crossing and Del Río-Ciudad Acuña International Bridge...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Located on two and a half landscaped acres, the museum consists of nine buildings. Its thirteen exhibits with period artifacts, many from the 19th century, express the history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of Val Verde County
Val Verde County, Texas
Val Verde County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2008, estimated population was 55,000. Its county seat is Del Rio. In 1936, Val Verde County received Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 5625 to commemorate its founding.Val Verde, which means "green...
.
Encompassed within the museum grounds are a replica of "The Jersey Lilly" saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, as well as the graves of the frontier Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
Roy Bean
Roy Bean
Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. was an eccentric U.S. saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos". According to legend, Judge Roy Bean held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande in a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert of...
and his son Sam Bean. (The original Bean saloon is at the Texas Tourist Bureau site in Langtry
Langtry, Texas
Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where "Judge" Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos", had his saloon and practiced a kind of law.-History:...
west of Del Rio, but numerous replicas are found throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.)
In 1962 the Whiteheads, a Del Rio ranching family, purchased the former Perry Mercantile building and donated it to the city and county for a museum. The San Felipe irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
flows through the back of the property occupied by the museum.
Among the exhibits is the Hal Patton Office (1905), dedicated to Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
scouts stationed in Del Rio. The War Room contains exhibits about the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and Del Rio's Laughlin Air Force Base
Laughlin Air Force Base
Laughlin Air Force Base is a facility of the United States Air Force located five miles east of the central business district of Del Rio, Texas.-Overview:...
.
La Zappa Chapel is encouraged for prayer and meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
and is used for special occasions. It also contains the museum gift shop. "Cadena Nativity" is a permanent Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
cultural and folk-art exhibit in a separate building.
Other popular exhibits include:
- The office of Dr. Simon Rodriguez, who in 1925 became the first HispanicHispanicHispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
in Del Rio. Among other achievements, he delivered some 3,000 babies during his medical career. - The Perry House (1870) contained the largest mercantile store between San AntonioSan Antonio, TexasSan Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
and El PasoEl Paso, TexasEl Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, on the first floor. Family living quarters were above. *The building called "The Barn" has a comprehensive exhibit of Native AmericansIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. - A restored cabin shows furnished living and dining quarters of frontier settlers.
A Border Radio exhibit relates to Del Rio's history of radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
stations with a continental reach. Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
stations XERA and XERF broadcast from Ciudad Acuña
Ciudad Acuña
Ciudad Acuña, also known simply as Acuña, is a city located in the Mexican state of Coahuila, at and a mean height above sea level of 271 meters...
. With 500,000-watt signals, the stations could be heard at night as far away as Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Wolfman Jack
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
, legendary deejay
Deejay
A deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...
, broadcast from XERF in the 1960s with a Del Rio address to sell goods.
The museum has a Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
caboose
Caboose
A caboose is a manned North American rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.-Function:The caboose provided the...
through which visitors may stroll.
An exhibit includes the figure of the notable English
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
actress Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...
standing on the deck of a train. While visiting the US, she came to Langtry, Texas
Langtry, Texas
Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where "Judge" Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos", had his saloon and practiced a kind of law.-History:...
after Judge Bean’s death.
The museum, located at 1308 South Main Street, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 1-5 p.m.
Pictures of the grave markers of Roy and Sam Bean can be accessed through FindAGrave.comhttp://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1339
External links
- Whitehead Memorial Museum - official site
Texas°N date=December 2010°W