Next year marks San Antonio’s 300th anniversary, which will be recognized through a series of events and initiatives celebrating Alamo City’s distinct culture and rich heritage.
Officially announced as a Tricentennial partner on January 24, UTSA Libraries is proud to join the ranks of other distinguished organizations like AT&T, Bank of America and KSAT12 in commemorating this significant milestone.
To honor San Antonio’s tricentennial anniversary, UTSA Libraries will host two events to take place in 2018 and create a digital portal to San Antonio history, which will feature archival materials held by UTSA Libraries Special Collections.
“We are delighted to be named as Tricentennial partners,” said Dean Hendrix, dean of UTSA Libraries. “As one of the primary stewards of San Antonio history, we are happy that our historic collections will have the chance to shine and really enhance the celebration of our city’s rich heritage.”
The first event, A Culinary History of San Antonio will showcase the evolution of Mexican cuisine in San Antonio and South Texas through UTSA Libraries’ Mexican Cookbook Collection, one of the largest in the nation with over 1,650 titles. The event will feature a meal inspired by the historical recipes in the Mexican Cookbook Collection, as well as a talk on the evolution of Mexican cuisine in San Antonio.
The second event, A History of San Antonio Activism, will highlight the various activist communities that have, over the years, defined San Antonio. The talk will draw inspiration from primary sources housed in UTSA Libraries Special Collections that provide first-hand documentation and evidence of the events, decisions, ideas, and actions that have shaped the development of San Antonio. These primary sources include papers from the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, as well as San Antonio’s African-American and LGBTQ communities.
Dates and locations for both events will be announced later this year.
As a companion resource to all the Tricentennial events, UTSA Libraries will create a Portal to San Antonio History serving as a gateway to the university’s rare, historical and primary source materials. The website will provide visitors with a launching point to explore UTSA Libraries’ 125+ collections related to the development of the Alamo City, which include the papers of prominent San Antonio families, corporate archives from local businesses, and photographs from the San Antonio Express-News and San Antonio Light dating back to 1938. The portal is expected to launch in late 2017.