Villa Finale Museum Shop
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Saving America’s Treasures * National Trust for Historic Preservation $35.00
excerpt from back cover:
“America seems quintessentially young, but in fact our recorded history now spans half a millennium, and our nation abounds with treasures of every description. All too often neglected, these historical sites and cultural relics represent priceless links to our past – a heritage whose preservation is the goal of Save America’s Treasures.
This profusely illustrated, wonderfully wide-ranging book showcases 47 places and artifacts from the cliff dwellings of the ancient Anasazi to the original Star-Spangled Banner to the yellowed, crumbling clippings of Babe Ruth’s personal scrapbook – a fascinating selection culled from more than 500 projects designed to rescue and renew our vanishing past. Featuring a forward by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, lively and thoughtful essays on the American experience, and a splendidly diverse display of our nation’s treasures, this is a vivid portrait of our country and the people who built it.”
This Green House * Joshua Piven $15.95
excerpt from back cover:
"Just the thought of “going green” can make you feel blue. Trying to live sustainably sounds like a whole lot of work and a whole lot of deprivation. Well, Josh Piven aims to both shrink your carbon footprint and soothe your eco-anxiety. In a homeowner’s manual that’s as funny as it is practical, Piven shows you how to green every room of the house—and have a good time doing it. Projects range from the quick and easy to big-time home alterations."
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"The plazas of late nineteenth-century San Antonio bustled with daytime activity as wagons, vendors, and customers mingled in the marketplace. When evening fell, lantern light illuminated another scene: rows of chili stands staffed by young hostesses who vied for loyal diners. In The Search for a Chili Queen, Marian Martinello creatively researches and renders the life and times of these industrious women. As a humanities detective, she chronicles her step-by-step investigation into an array of unique sources, particularly nineteenth-century photographs and artifacts. Her findings yield the imaginative yet historically credible story of Lupe Pérez, a fictional teenage chili queen who bolsters business at her family’s stand through hard work, a penchant for storytelling, and the allure of a beautiful fringed rebozo. Lupe’s experiences and encounters on San Antonio’s Military Plaza give life to the vibrant persona, trade, surroundings, and customers of her intriguing historical counterparts." Obsolete: an encyclopedia of once-common things passing us by * Anna Jane Grossman $15.95 "*This book is obsolete. How many iPods will you cycle through before finishing this paragraph? When did you stop saying “hello” when you answered the phone? Will your grandchildren one day think that a car-window crank was a tool for churning butter? Today, we experience in one year the same amount of change that it would have taken generations to experience a few hundred years ago. In this thoughtful and witty collection of short essays, journalist Anna Jane Grossman expands on this phenomenon, showing us the objects, ideas and behaviors that are taking their place in the history books next to the Dodo bird and Model T. Obsolete explores how this fast rate of disappearance leads to a heightened sense of nostalgia and ponders whether it’s human nature to cope with so much rapid change. Obsolete contains musings on more than one hundred fading subjects, looking at occurrences that once seemed commonplace (such as getting lost, writing in cursive, or going on a truly blind date) and objects that seem to quickly be approaching irrelevancy (we’re looking at you, e-mail). Twenty-five pen-and-ink drawings help us further remember the ephemera of a world that is so quickly slipping away." "Even before the Depression, unemployment, low wages, substandard housing, and poor health plagued many women in what was then one of America’s poorest cities – San Antonio. Divided by tradition, prejudice, or law into three distinct communities of Mexican Americans, Anglos, and African Americans, San Antonio women faced hardships based on their personal economic circumstances as well as their identification with a particular racial or ethnic group. Women of the Depression presents a unique study of life in a city whose society more nearly reflected divisions by the concept of caste rather than class. Caste was conferred by identification with a particular ethnic or racial group, and it defined nearly every aspect of women’s lives. Historian Julia Kirk Blackwater shows that Depression-era San Antonio, with its majority Mexican American population, its heavy dependence on tourism and light industry, and its domination by Anglo elite, suffered differently as a whole than other American cities. Loss of migrant agricultural work drove thousands of Mexican Americans into the barrios on the west side of San Antonio, and with the intense repatriation fervor of the 1930s, the fear of deportation inhibited many Mexican Americans from seeking public or private aid. The author combines excerpts from personal letters, interviews, and diaries with government statistics to present a collective view of discrimination and culture and the strength of both in the face of crisis." "It started raining after midnight. At first a few heavy drops, as large as pebbles, splattered against windows, and spotted the dry pavement of the streets. They plinked into half-full troughs of dirty water outside the saloons on Postoffice Street; horses tied there winced against the stings. People inside the saloons – sailors and dock workers and whores – paid no attention to the steadily quickening tattoo being pelted out on the tin sheets or slates of the roofs, but kept to the business at hand: the drinking, and gambling, and the sweaty, brief stabbing away at the very oldest of human exertions ..." “For years artist Don Collins has crisscrossed Texas looking for traves of the past. Drawings of these In this book Don has Chosen seventy from over three hundred works of art that he created for the Miller Blueprint calendars. The carefully detailed renderings record buildings from farmhouses to industrial plants, from shanties to mansions. Through these pages viewers tour the state both visually and through the artist’s own recollections about the remarkable range of places he has recorded with pencil and paper.” ______________________________________ “Large sums of money are not necessarily needed to save endangered historic properties, but knowledge and passion are required. In Buying Time for Heritage, Myrick Howard provides tips on how a neighborhood, downtown, or preservation group can get involved in beneficial real estate work with only modest resources. Inspiring photographs illustrate the premise that a property is rarely “too far gone” to be renovated, and the rewards are abundant. Rather than face off against developers, an organization can itself become a developer – for a community benefit.” “What are the best sources fro researching the history of your home? How do you know if a particular old house is right for you? The original siding on your historic house is missing – what can you do? How can you safely clean the exterior of your house? The answers to many questions such as these are given in this well-illustrated handbook for owners and residents of old homes. Caring for You Old House offers comprehensive advice to old house owners and residents on researching, repairing and maintaining an old residence to avoid the pitfalls of too many changes too soon. In this authoritative guidebook, the author demystifies the questions surrounding what is historically significant, what is an appropriate rehabilitation and when is restoration appropriate.” "While recounting the story of a childhood in San Antonio, Mary Livingston also tells a story that exemplifies the opportunities and struggles faced by countless people growing up during this time of The author’s memories and recollections are illustrated by over 100 photographs, providing readers with an authentic view of life in San Antonio in the early twentieth century. From detailed accounts of canning fruits and vegetables during the Depression, watching movies at the Majestic Theater, and life on a “domestic zoo,” to colorful anecdotes about making tamales, shopping for shoes using an X-ray machine, and visiting the San Antonio parks and missions, this entertaining and educational book will give older readers a chance to experience life in the 1920s and 1930s again and youngers readers a glimpse of a way of life that is long gone, but not forgotten. Author Mary Livingston spent years recording her rememberances with amazing clarity, while her sister, Frances Pryor, edited the text and provided the photographs from family scrapbooks as well as the Institute of Texan Cultures. Their effort has produced a book that will provide readers with a veritable picture of San Antonio as it grew into the vibrant and colorful city we know today.”
The Search for a Chili Queen: On the Fringes of a Rebozo * Marian L Martinello $17.95
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The Windows of Heaven – A Novel of Galveston’s Great Storm of 1900 * Ron Rozelle $16.95
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Traces of Fogotten Places * Don Collins $19.95
excerpt from back cover:
forgotten places have appeared for three decades in popular calendars issued by the Miller Blueprint Company. The publications themselves have become collectors’ items.
Buying Time for Heritage: how to save an endangered historic property* J. Myrick Howard $25.00
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Caring for Your Old House: A Guide for Owners and Residents * Judith L Kitchen $29.95
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San Antonio in the 1920s and 1930s * Mary E Livingston $19.99
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opportunity and change in America.
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Do you have ordering questions?
Email Visitor Services and Museum Shop Manger rob_abodeely@nthp.org
or call (210) 223-9800 extension 34328 for inquiries.
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