Descriptive Summary
Flanagan, Sue
Sue Flanagan Papers
1942-1990
Materials are written in English.
93-298; 94-286
6 ft., 10 in.
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The
University of Texas at Austin
Correspondence, subject files,
research notes, drafts, photographs, negatives, slides, albums, and a scrapbook
comprise the Sue Flanagan Papers, 1942-1990, and relate to Flanagan’s career as an
author, photographer, and journalist. The bulk of the papers concerns Flanagan’s
work on Sam Houston’s Texas and includes
correspondence, research notes, a bibliography and an index, drafts, letters of
permission, records of her photography trips, photographic material, and a list of
her pictures arranged on a timeline of Sam Houston’s life.
Biographical Note
Journalist, author, and photographer Sue Flanagan was born on July 17, 1926, in San
Angelo, Texas. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver in
1946 and the following year attended a one-year program at the New York Institute of
Photography. After returning to San Angelo in 1947, Flanagan worked as a
photographer and journalist for the San Angelo Standard-Times until illness forced her to quit in 1949. She later
became an advertising manager for a furniture store and the managing editor for
Sheep and Goat Raisers Magazine. In the fall of
1952, she accepted a Rotary Scholar International Scholarship and studied English
literature at Trinity College, University of Dublin. Upon returning to Texas, she
again worked for the Standard-Times, helping to produce
its 70th anniversary edition in 1954. Afterwards she served as the coordinator of
the volunteer council at the McKnight Tuberculosis Hospital outside of San Angelo.
While working at the hospital, she arranged for Attorney General Will Wilson to
dedicate a new chapel there and subsequently became his administrative aide during
the late 1950s. From 1960 to 1963, she ran the Capitol Press Bureau for the Wichita
Falls newspapers, the Times and Record News, until she quit to work on a book about Sam Houston.
During her time with the attorney general’s office, Flanagan became interested in the
letters of Sam Houston and began traveling and staying in places he visited. Her
photographs of these places ultimately turned into a book, entitled Sam Houston’s Texas, which the University of Texas Press
published in 1964. In 1965, she received a grant to write a book on cattle trails in
Texas, eventually published in 1974 under the title Trailing
the Longhorns.
Governor John Connally derailed Flanagan’s progress on Trailing
the Longhorns in 1966 when he asked her to plan a Texas museum for the
1968 Hemisfair celebration in San Antonio. Serving as assistant director, she helped
develop the museum’s theme and mission to display the ethnic and cultural heritage
of Texas. This museum turned into the Institute of Texan Culture attached to the
University of Texas at San Antonio. Flanagan worked with the museum until 1972 when
she became the director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville. On March
10, 1993, Flanagan died in San Antonio.
Source:
"Flanagan, Sue," Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American
History, University of Texas at Austin.
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, subject files, research notes, drafts, photographs, negatives,
slides, albums, and a scrapbook comprise the Sue Flanagan Papers, 1942-1990, and
relate to Flanagan’s career as an author, photographer, and journalist. The bulk of
the papers concerns Flanagan’s work on Sam Houston’s
Texas and includes correspondence, research notes, a bibliography and an
index, drafts, letters of permission, records of her photography trips, photographic
material, and a list of her pictures arranged on a timeline of Sam Houston’s life.
Additionally, the collection contains correspondence, photographs, and news
clippings pertaining to the creation and publication of her second book, Trailing the Longhorns. The remainder of the papers
documents Flanagan’s college years at the University of Denver, her time as a Rotary
Scholar in Ireland, and her career as a journalist in San Angelo and Austin. Her
subject files, consisting of printed materials, news clippings, notes, and
correspondence, cover topics such as religion, U.S. affairs, San Angelo,
Scandinavia, and Scotland. Finally, the scrapbook contains newspaper articles
tracing Flanagan’s career as an author and journalist.
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research use.
Index Terms
Subjects (Persons)
Flanagan, Sue, 1926-1993--Archives.
Houston, Sam, 1793-1863
Subjects (Organizations)
Sheep and goat raisers’ magazine.
San Angelo standard-times.
Wichita Falls times.
Wichita Falls record news.
Subjects
Cattle trails--Texas--Pictorial works.
Cattle drives--Texas--History.
Women in journalism--United States--History--20th
century.
Places
Texas--History--Republic,
1836-1846.
Texas--History--Revolution,
1835-1836.
Texas--History--1846-1950--Pictorial
works.
Preferred Citation
Sue Flanagan Papers, 1942-1990, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The
University of Texas at Austin.
Processing Information
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe
Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.
This collection is unprocessed.
Detailed Description of the Papers
Inventory
2.325/G198-199c
Papers [unprocessed]
2.325/G277
Papers [unprocessed]
2.325/T53c
Scrapbook [unprocessed]
3So3
Oversize photographs [unprocessed]
3W37.1-37.5
Photographs [unprocessed]