Amidst the numerous commemorations of TCU’s Sesquicentennial, five books were published by TCU Press to recognize and chronicle the university’s path to 150. From looking at the campus itself, to its history with race and to its overall evolution, the books pay tribute to TCU.
“TCU Press has been privileged to take part in TCU’s Sesquicentennial celebrations,” said Dan Williams, director of TCU Press. “My colleagues and I published five wonderful books to help celebrate TCU’s remarkable growth and achievements. Each book is quite unique, but together they offer exceptional insight into how TCU has progressed from its earliest days to the present. Anyone who cares about TCU will find something to love in these books, and we hope that they will be read as TCU continues to grow and achieve.”
As the books were released throughout the year, TCU News shared the stories behind the stories. Here, they are gathered in one place to enjoy once again.
Images and Stories of TCU’s First 100 Years 1873-1973
Self-proclaimed history enthusiast Gene Smith knows a lot about TCU’s past, but there were a few surprises even he discovered while compiling the recently released book Images and Stories of TCU’s First 100 Years 1873-1973.
“I’ve done a lot on TCU and knew what topics we wanted the book to cover, but I learned some things I didn’t know,” said Smith, a TCU professor of history, the director of the Center for Texas Studies at TCU and an author, primarily on early American history.
As TCU celebrates its Sesquicentennial, a history book about the first 100 years is important, he said. For example, TCU is one of the oldest continuously coed institutions west of the Mississippi River and began integrating during the mid-1940s through its Evening College.
Walking TCU: A Historic Perspective
With campus in its prettiest of palettes, spring is the ideal time to take a walk around TCU. Phil Hartman can be your guide, thanks to the recent publication of Walking TCU: A Historic Perspective, the second edition, in honor of TCU’s Sesquicentennial.
The original Walking TCU by Joan Hewatt Swaim, former TCU reference librarian with family ties to the university, was published in 1992 and gives an account of the university’s history and the people who shaped it. The book’s focus was on the buildings and other campus structures – and one of Hartman’s favorites.
“About 10 years ago I thought it would be good to update the book, given how many new structures had been built since it was first published,” said the emeritus dean and professor in the TCU College of Science & Engineering. “Walking TCU today is a very different walk.”
A History to Remember: TCU in Purple, White, and Black
The Black story of TCU doesn’t begin in 1964 with desegregation, when the first few Black undergrads enrolled (if only for a short while). The story begins long before and alongside the Black American experience, which shaped our nation, state, city and, ultimately, our university.
Frederick W. Gooding Jr., the Dr. Ronald E. Moore Honors Professor of Humanities – with colleagues Sylviane Ngandu-Kalenga Greensword, postdoctoral fellow, and Marcellis Perkins, doctoral candidate – are the authors of A History to Remember: TCU in Purple, White, and Black. Timed with TCU’s Sesquicentennial, their book represents a historical accounting of the collective Black American experience as filtered through the more specific lens of TCU, Gooding said.
“It’s not that no one has ever written about the Black experience in relation to TCU, but nothing is as concentrated to this degree,” he said. “It’s the beginning of conversation, and we hope to add more voices onto it and that there will be different iterations.”
A Hope of Wisdom
Over the past 150 years of TCU’s commitment to higher education, change may have been a constant, but so has the hope of the men and women who have come to our university with a dream to learn and lead.
This hope – and the underlying belief that education is essential for the well-being of individuals and society – is a topic that transcends time and for which many have thought and written about critically.
In 1873, when brothers Addison and Randolph Clark established their college to educate responsible citizens, their father, Joseph Addison Clark, wrote an essay on education in reference to the individual. Then, in 1973, as TCU celebrated its centennial, Chancellor James M. Moudy added an essay on his beliefs about education. The collection was called A Hope of Wisdom and was published by TCU Press.
Now a third essay on education, written by Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr., has been added to the publication as TCU marks its Sesquicentennial.
A Remarkable Story to Tell: TCU 1973-2023
Imagine brothers Addison and Randolph Clark returning to TCU and taking a guided tour of their beloved university, one that is now listed among the top 100 in the U.S.
“Remarkable” is likely the word they would exclaim again and again.
The story of how a small, regional college aspired to be nationally recognized university is being told through TCU Press’ Sesquicentennial book, A Remarkable Story to Tell: TCU 1973-2023. It recounts the journey of the past 50 years to realize that very ambitious goal.
At the core of Remarkable is how visionary leaders – administrators, faculty, trustees, alumni and others in the TCU community – saw the university’s potential and shaped it to be the highly recognized and distinctive institution it is today. As they led, they maintained the values that the Clark brothers committed to: helping students develop as responsible citizens.