Music at the Universities
Artist SeriesThe short-lived Artist Series presented many of the major black American musicians and intellectuals to Austin during the mid-1940s.Read more…
The Texas Union Project, Texas Oil, and the New DealAn institution suffused in the spirit of the New Deal, the Texas Union was the main social and cultural hub for the University of Texas during the 1930s and 1940s.Read more…
The “Germans” and the All University Dances, 1901-1946One of the largest congregations of young Texans in the state, UT provided the biggest source of live modern dance music and Swing in Austin.Read more…
This category contains both popular and vernacular music, but locates them in specific locations in Austin. Giving universities their own slot highlights the incredible influence and power they wielded. Universities were also a central source of civic identity and a foundation for the vision of a middle class, educated citizen that Austin’s authorities and planners attempted to cultivate (Busch, City in a Garden).
There were four colleges and universities in Austin between 1930 and 1950: The University of Texas, Samuel Huston College, Tillotson College, and St. Edward’s.
These narratives topically include not just the performances that occurred on and connected to the campuses, but also feature their institutional, intellectual, and cultural histories.