Democrat Party (U.S.)
Senator Carlos F. Truan Papers
Carlos F. Truan played an instrumental role in shaping the destiny of the Lone Star State, serving the citizens of South Texas with dedication and vision over the course of an impressive, and indeed unprecedented, career as a member of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senator Truan came from a humble, single parent home and worked hard to earn his college degree from a small South Texas college. He entered the work world in the early 1960s, before the Civil Rights movement had even hinted at including Mexican Americans in the quest for equality and justice. Through the legislation he authored and/or sponsored he worked to make government more responsive to the people it served.
Robert Runyon Collection
The South Texas Archives houses over nine hundred volumes of books relating to botany, entomology, and succulents primarily from the Lower Rio Grande Valley, a gift of Robert Runyon's family. Runyon's Botanical Library was the largest and most complete private botanical library in Texas in 1970 when the collection was donated. The collection includes correspondence to and from Robert Runyon. Runyon went to the Rio Grande Valley area in 1909 and before 1920 began a decades-long campaign to save the Sabal Texana, a palm tree that was indigenous to the area, through preservation of an ancient grove and planting thousands of seeds in city parks. Runyon is widely known for cataloging the flora of the Rio Grande Valley. With only a rudimentary education and no formal training in botany other than what he learned through correspondence, reading and observation, Runyon, in 59 years as a resident of the Valley, discovered no less than 20 formerly unknown species of plants and one new genus in his area of South Texas. This correspondence relates to his studies in botany.