George O. Coalson
93 linear feet
A1995-015
1890-1945 (unknown)
In 1926 in the small town of Camp Wood, Texas on the outskirts of the Texas Hill Country, George Otis Coalson was born. Though he came from a poor family, George graduated from Uvalde High School before joining the military to serve in World War II. While serving in the European theater as a combat infantryman, George earned the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Returning to Texas, he enrolled at Texas College of Arts and Industries on the GI Bill and obtained his BA in History in 1947, followed quickly by his MA in 1950. He completed his Ph. D. at the University of Oklahoma in 1955, with his dissertation titled, “The Development of the Migratory Farm Labor System in Texas, 1907-1954.” Most of his research was acquired by interviewing individuals who worked as farm laborers. Little previous work had been done in the field, and the migrants themselves were usually uneducated and left few written accounts of their stories. Dr. Coalson returned to his alma mater, Texas College of Arts and Industries, in 1955 as an instructor, and became a full professor in 1962. Coalson served in many capacities at A&I including Chairman of the Department of History (1963-1978,) President of the Faculty Senate, and served twice as the interim Vice President for Academic Affairs (1977-1978 and 1981-1982.) Coalson published a number of articles in historical journals and contributed several works to the “Handbook of Texas”, including pieces on Kingsville, Kleberg County and Loyola Beach. Coalson was also known for his sense of humor by his students. In 1972 he gave the A&I Annual Faculty lecture titled “Pigs in History”. Throughout his 40 years of teaching Coalson worked on his “Dictionary” or “Encyclopedia” of South Texas history. He was appointed professor emeritus of History after retiring and was chairing is fiftieth Master’s thesis when he died on Sunday, June 4, 1955. South Texas Archives received the donation of the Dr. George O. Coalson Collection in 1995 from Coalson’s wife, Angelina. It is considered a flagship collection. The mission of the archives is to preserve and make available to the public both university and documentary materials regarding the cultural, geographical, political, and natural history of South Texas.
The George O. Coalson Annotated Bibliography of South Texas Historical Resources consists of 93 linear feet of 46,000 notecards that contain roughly 25,000 annotations, 10 time periods concerning the history of the area known as South Texas, 4 standalone topics related to South Texas History, and 6,000 different sub-topics within the 14 main topics.
The Collection is arranged into fourteen Series: Series I: Native Americans Series II: Spanish Period (1519 - 1821) Series III: Mexican Period (1821 – 1836) Series IV: Texas Republic (1836 – 1848) Series V: Mexican War (1846-1848) Series VI: Texas in the Union (1848 – 1860) Series VII: Civil War (1861 – 1865) Series VIII: Texas Statehood (1865 – 1900) Series IX: Texas (1900 – 1940) Series X: Texas (1940 – 1995) Series XI: Transportation Series XII: Crimes Series XIII: Baffin Bay Series XIV: Miscellaneous
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future developed methods or procedures must be obtained in writing from South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.
George O. Coalson Annotated Bibliography of South Texas Historical Resources, A1995-015.XXXX, South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A1995-015– Gift from Angeline Coalson in 1995
A1995-015 is currently being processed by the entire department of the South Texas Archives; Finding Aid was created and EAD document encoded by Daniel Thacker in January of 2019.