Below is a list of 50 basic publications about Houston, which you might want to include in your tour files.  If you know of any other publications which you feel should be added to this list, please let us know.

PROFESSIONAL TOUR GUIDE ASSOCIATION OF HOUSTON

50 BASIC WRITTEN SOURCES

For current information about Houston, read the daily Houston Chronicle, the weekly Houston Business Journal and Houston Press, and the monthly Inside Houston, Texas Monthly, and Texas Highways.

Below is a list of 50 basic publications about Houston.  Many can be found at the Houston Public Library; however, some are out of print and available only in the Texas Room at the Julia Ideson Building or at used book stores.  Some are for sale and available at local bookstores and the Visitors Center at City Hall.  The Visitors Center also has available free literature about things to see and do in the Greater Houston area.


Steven M. Baron, Houston Electric: The Street Railways of Houston, Texas, self-published, Lexington, Kentucky, 1996.

Trevia Wooster Beverly, editor, At Rest: A Historical Directory of Harris County, Texas, Cemeteries (1822-1992) with Funeral Home and Monument Company Listings and Including Burial Customs and Other Interesting Facts.

James E. Buchanan, editor, Houston: A Chronological & Documentary History, 1519-1970, Oceana Publications, Inc., Dobbs Ferry, New York, 1975.

Don E. Carleton and Thomas H. Kreneck, Houston: Back Where We Started, Houston City Magazine, 1979.

Gregg Cantrell, Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

Gary Cartwright, Galveston: A History of the Island, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1991.

Betty Trapp Chapman, Historic Houston: An Illustrated History and Resource Guide, San Antonio: Historical Publishing Network, 1997.

Betty Trapp Chapman, Houston Women: Invisible Threads in the Tapestry, Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Company, 2000.

Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Houston: A Cultural Guide.  Current edition available for FREE at the Visitors Center.

John L. Davis, Houston: A Historical Portrait, The Encino Press, Austin, 1983.

Arnoldo De Leon, Mexican Americans in Texas: A Brief History, Harlan Davidson, Inc., Arlington Heights, Illinois, 1993.

Claude Dooley, Betty Dooley and the Texas Historical Commission, Why Stop? A Guide to Texas Historical Roadside Markers, Fourth Edition, Lone Star Books, Houston, 1999.

Sarah H. Emmott, Memorial Park: A Priceless Legacy, Herring Press, 1992.

T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans, Collier Books, New York City, 1968.

George Fuermann, Houston: Land of the Big Rich, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, n.d.

James L. Glass, "The Original Book of Sales of Lots of the Houston Town Company from 1836 Forward," The Houston Review: History and Culture of the Gulf Coast, Vol. XVI, No. 3, 1994.

William Fairfax Gray, From Virginia to Texas, 1835: Diary of Col. Wm. F. Gray Giving Details of His Journey to Texas in 1837, Fletcher Young Publishing Co., Housotn, 1965.

Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau Visitor Welcome Center.  The Official Visitor's Guide to Houston, Houston.  To obtain a FREE copy of the current edition of the Visitor's Guide, call (713) 227-3100.

Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2003 Greater Houston Source Book.  Available FREE at the Visitors Center.

Greater Houston Partnership, This is Houston.  An indispensable guide to everything Houston available annually at the Visitors Center. $3.00.

Keith Guthrie, Texas Forgotten Ports, Vol. II, Eakin Press, Austin, 1993.

Robert V. Haynes, A Night of Violence, Louisiana State University Press, 1976.

Margaret Swett Henson, Lorenzo de Zavala: The Pragmatic Idealist, Texas Christian University Press, Fort Worth, 1996.

Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton, Barrie M. Scardino, Sadie Gwin Blackburn, Katherine S. Howe, Houston's Forgotten Heritage: Landscape, Houses, Interiors, 1824-1914, Rice University Press, Houston, 1991.

Houston Chapter, American Institute of Architects, Houston Architectural Guide, Houston, 1999.

Houston Fire Museum, Inc., History of the Houston Fire Department, 1838-1988, Taylor Publishing Company, Houston, 1988.

Marquis James, The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1999.

Marguerite Johnston, Houston: The Unknown City, 1836-1946, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 1991.

Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm, Crown Publishers, New York, 1999.

League of Women Voters of Houston, Houston Handbook, current edition, free.

League of Voters of  Houston Education Fund, Houston Women from Suffrage to City Hall, D. Armstrong Co., Inc., 1987

League of Voters of  Houston Education Fund, Voters Key to Voting Information & Elected Officials Representing Houston and Harris County, current edition, available for FREE.

Joy Lent, Houston's Heritage Using Antique Postcards, D. H. White and Company, Houston, 1983.

N. Don Macon in association with Thomas Dunaway Anderson, Monroe Dunaway Anderson, His Legacy: A History of the Texas Medical Center, 50th Anniversary Edition, Houston: Texas Medical Center, 1994.

David G. McComb, Galveston: A History, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1986.

David G. McComb, Houston: A History, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981.

Ray Miller, Ray Miller's Houston, Cordovan Press, Austin, 1992.

Merline Pitre, "Richard Allen: The Chequered Career of Houston's First Black State Legislator," Houston Review.

James W. Pohl, The Battle of San Jacinto, Texas State Historical Association, Austin, 1989.

Ben Proctor and Archie P. McDonald, eds.  The Texas Heritage.  Third Edition.  Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1998.

Jack C. Ramsey, Jr., Jean Laffite: Prince of Pirates, Eakin Press, Austin, 1996.

Robert A. Ricklis, The Karankawa Indians of Texas: An Ecological Study of Cultural Tradition and Change, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1996.

Ellen Robbins Red, Early Days on the Bayou, 1838-1890: The Life and Letters of Horace Dickinson Taylor, Texian Press, Waco, 1986.

Andreas V. Reichstein, Rise of the Lone Star: The Making of Texas, Texas A & M University Press, College Station, 1989.

Marilyn M. Sibley, The Port of Houston, 1968.

Elizabeth Silverthorne, Plantation Life in Texas, Texas A & M Press, College Press, 1986.

Daisy Lauretta Smith, The History of Harrisburg, Texas, 1822-1927, Cecil B. and Jernice S. Falk, Houston, 1981.

Dr. Fred R. von der Mehden, Greeks in Houston, Houston Center for the Humanities.  Part of a series on Houston's ethnic populations.  There is a similar series on Texas' ethnic populations.

Ann Quin Wilson, Native Houstonian: A Collective Portrait, The Donning Company, Norfolk Virginia, 1982.

Writers' Program of the Works Project Administration in the State of Texas Sponsored by the Harris County Historical Society, Inc., Houston: A History and Guide, American Guide Series, The Anson Jones Press, Houston, 1942.