Inside Texas

Inside Texas is about people and houses. Two hundred and ninety-six photographs, taken inside Texas homes between 1878 and 1920, document the way Texans lived, how they saw themselves, what they bought and what they treasured, how they fashioned their homes to reflect their interests. Eight separate identities--occupation, family, ethnicity, social group, region, refinement, class and style--provide the organization of the book, taking it far beyond simple chronological discussions of various styles. Inside Texas tests--and rejects--the notion that interiors, like all things Texan, were unique. In spite of popular misconceptions, not all turn-of-the-century Texans crowded their house with Victorian bric-a-brac nor did they lounge on horn furniture. Over this forty-year period, spanning the turn of the century, decorating ideas nationally--and in Texas--went from the era of Victorianism, with "all that stuff" to the spare and clean lines of the arts and crafts movement. By 1920, like Americans across the country, many Texans, especially the wealthier, were taking their decorating ideas from the new professionals--architects and designers--and their homes reflected less their own identity than the taste and eye of the decorator. Inside Texas is a social history, an invaluable resource for preservationists, docents, architects, interior designers, and anyone who loves old homes.