ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The numerous modules that constitute the Bexar County Historical GIS Project are the product of many minds and many hands. The principle investigators are Jessica Nowlin and John F. Reynolds, both affiliated with The University of Texas at San Antonio. Clinton McKenzie with UTSA’s Center for Archaeological Research also played a key role in the project’s planning and implementation. This initiative was only possible through a generous grant initiated by Bexar County’s Heritage and Parks Department.
The Bexar County Team:
| Heritage and Parks | Information Technology |
|---|---|
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A number of scholars served on an Advisory Committee that identified key themes to develop and offered their historical expertise.
| Jesús F. de la Teja | Texas State University |
| Alston V. Thoms | Texas A&M University |
| Kay Hindes | City of San Antonio - Office of Historic Preservation |
| Timothy Draves | The University of the Incarnate Word |
| Eric Lomeli | Esri corporation |
| Katherine Smyth | Esri corporation |
| Amy Porter | Texas A&M University, San Antonio |
| Daniel Gelo | The University of Texas at San Antonio |
| David Carlson | Bexar County Spanish Archives |
| Mario Salas | The University of Texas at San Antonio |
| Gerald Poyo | St. Mary’s University |
| Louie Dean Valencia-García | Texas State University |
| Lawrence Knight | Texas A&M University, Kingsville |
| Gabriela Gonzalez | The University of Texas at San Antonio |
| Lindsey Wieck | St. Mary’s University |
| Char Miller | Ponoma College |
| Ana Luisa Martinez-Catsam | The University of Texas, Permian Basin |
| Philis Barragan Goetz | Texas A&M University, San Antonio |
| Rebecca Walter | The University of Washington |
| Art Martinez de Vara | The American Indians of Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions |
| John Philip Santos | The University of Texas at San Antonio |
Most of the modules represented a collaborative effort among numerous scholars sharing their knowledge and expertise. Jessica Nowlin, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, serves as the current principal investigator of the project and is responsible for most of its interactive features. John F. Reynolds served as the principal investigator for Phases I & II (Prehistoric & Indigenous Bexar County, Spanish Colonial Era Bexar County, and Time of Troubles) and continues to serve as the general editor and advisor to the project. The principal authors responsible for the content found in each module include the following:
| Author | Module Title | Spanish Translator |
| Clinton McKenzie | Natural Environment | Sara H. Quiñones |
| Julie Brown | Waters of Life | Sara H. Quiñones |
| Jessica Nowlin & Clinton McKenzie | Prehistoric Bexar County | Melissa Wallace |
| Clinton McKenzie & John F. Reynolds | Pavo Real Site | Leticia Padilla |
| William V. Scott & Clinton McKenzie | Richard Beene Site | Melissa Wallace |
| Jessica Nowlin | Late Prehistoric | Leticia Padilla |
| Clinton McKenzie | The Payaya | |
| Clinton McKenzie | San Antonio de Béjar | Kevin Álvarez Reyes |
| Clinton McKenzie | Acequias: Irrigation for a Growing Community | Marta Rosinbaum |
| William V. Scott | Early Ranching in South Texas: 1718-1845 | Marta Rosinbaum |
| John F. Reynolds | Guide to the San Fernando Burial Records | Kevin Álvarez Reyes |
| Kris Harville & Clinton McKenzie & Jessica Nowlin | San Fernando Burial Records Dashboard | |
| Mario M. Salas & John F. Reynolds | Social Caste in Early Béxar | |
| John F. Reynolds | Bexar County Overview | |
| Jason Lilienthal & Jesús F. de la Teja | San Antonio de Béjar 3D Tour | |
| Richard L. Curilla | Siege of Béxar | |
| Richard L. Curilla | Battle of the Alamo | |
| Thomas T. Smith & John M. Manguso | Post San Antonio | |
| Nancy Draves & Timothy Draves | Bexar County and the Civil War | |
| Jessica Nowlin & John F. Reynolds | Foreigners in their Native Land | |
| Monica Lampton & Jeromey Franklin | The Europeans | |
| Mario M. Salas | The African American Experience in Bexar | |
| Char Miller | Historic Overview, 1865-1914 | |
| Char Miller | Embracing the Twentieth Century | |
| Timothy Draves | Rail to Bexar | |
| Adrian Chavana | San Antonio Mission Indian Survivance: 1793-1940 | |
| Ana Luisa Martinez-Catsam | The Public Health Movement | |
| Daniel Max Orta | City of San Antonio Death Records, 1881-1901 | |
| John R. Reynolds | A Tale of Three Cities: San Antonio’s Race to Industrialize | |
| Mario M. Salas | African American Civil Rights: Late 1800s to Early 1900s | |
| Melissa Gohlke | Denimondes, Drag Queens, and Deviants | |
| Gabriela Gonzalez | Ethnic Mexican Women in Bexar County: A Legacy of Community | |
| Sarah Vegerano | Russell Lee’s Look at San Antonio | |
| William Bush | Juvenile Delinquency in San Antonio |
Sarah Vegerano, a graduate student at The University of Texas at San Antonio and current PhD student at Texas A&M, used her internship to contribute content to several modules. Other graduate students from The University of Texas at San Antonio who assisted in the research and design of the website included: Jessica K. Ceeko, Thomas Holdsworth and Mary F. Ledbetter. Special thanks to UTSA librarian Thomas F. Shelton for his assistance in furnishing illustrations from the Institute of Texan Cultures vast photographic collection.
Daniel Max Orta, Data Analytics graduate student at UTSA, served as data visualization expert. He built the majority of the Tableau visualizations across many of the modules and assisted in the creation and editing of many of the StoryMaps.
Rebecca Walter and Nathan Foote aligned and digitized the 1910 Sanborn maps, city directory data, and tax records that were used to create all GIS data from 1910 referenced across multiple modules. They generously provided their dataset for use within this project. You can read more about their research in these articles:
- Caine, I., Walter, R., & Foote, N. (2017). “San Antonio 360: The Rise and Decline of the Concentric City, 1890 – 2010.” Sustainability, 9(4), 649–665.https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040649
- Walter, R. J., Foote, N., Cordoba, H. A., & Sparks, C. (2017). “Historic Roots of Modern Residential Segregation in a Southwestern Metropolis: San Antonio, Texas in 1910 and 2010.” Urban Science, 1(2), 19–38. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci1020019
- Córdoba, H. A., Walter, R. J., Foote, N. S., (2018). “The Residential Segregation of San Antonio, Texas in 1910: An Analysis of Ethno-Racial and Occupational Spatial Patterns with the Colocation Quotient.” Urban Geography, 39(7), 988–1017. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2018.1433923
Data on the 1921 and 1946 San Antonio floods was compiled by Trinity University student Erin Hahn. She georeferenced and digitized USGS maps documenting the floods and plotted the addresses of the known locations of deaths from the September 11, 1921 issue of the San Antonio Light.
Special thanks to Melissa Wallace, who supervised, edited, and translated the Spanish-language versions of the modules produced by graduate students in UTSA’s Translation and Interpreting Studies program.
Specialized lesson plans were created by Andria Crosson, Assistant Professor of Practice at UTSA, and Gabe Rios, graduate student at UTSA. They were assisted in this work by a group of SAISD teachers: Perry Jackson (4th grade teacher, Neal Elementary), C. Scott Sierra (4th grade dual language teacher, Bonham Academy), and Austin Collins (7th grade teacher, Crockett Academy). Special thanks to Patrick Pyle, SAISD Social Studies Coordinator, for assisting with this collaboration. This work and the 2023 teachers workshop and walking tours were generously supported by the Whiting Foundation's Public Engagement Seed Grant.
