Katherine Nelson Hall

About the presenter

Katherine Nelson Hall has recently retired as the Texas Heritage Curator for the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas. During her tenure at the Witte, Hall participated in the creation and curating of over 40 exhibitions; providing research, writing, and documentation. She was also responsible for developing and cataloging the Burns Family Archives at the Witte Museum.

She continues to consult with museums around Texas; including most recently for the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum in Cuero and the Grace Armentrout Museum in George West, Texas.

She specializes in utilizing family history and genealogical resources to link individuals and their families to artifacts, art and archival material in Witte Collections and within a broader historical context to tell a more complete story.

Hall worked on a number Witte exhibitions featuring Black Cowboys, including: Black Cowboys: An American Story, 2021-2024; How the West Was Fun: Circus, Saddles and the Silver Screen, 2019-2020; and The Wests of Texas: Cattle Ranching Entrepreneurs, 2015-2016.

A favorite project was researching the Witte Museum’s extensive Military Collection. An 8th generation Texan, her own family military legacy in San Antonio, Military City USA, began before 1718 with the arrival of Spanish soldiers from whom she is descended. Uncovering the person behind each military object was fascinating; keeping and sharing that connection was always an honor. Related Witte exhibitions Hall curated include: Confluence and Culture: 300 Years of San Antonio History, 2018-2019 and Your Country Calls: Art to Win World War I, 2017-2018

Other exhibition highlights include: Mi Cultura - Bringing Shadows into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón, 2023-2024; ; Your Country Calls: Art to Win World War I, 2017-2018; Connecting Texas: 300 years of Trail, Rails, and Roads and Mapping Texas: From Frontier to Lone Star State, both in partnership with the Texas General Land Office and Splendor on the Range: American Indians and the Horse, 2016.

Katherine has contributed to a number of publications, some of which received awards: Landmark Maps of Texas, Editor. Published by State House Press, Schreiner University, 2024; First Families of Bexar County: Descendant Lineages of Residents of Béxar, San Antonio, and Bexar County prior to 1850; San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society, 2019. Contributing author and Committee. San Antonio Conservation Society Publication Award, 2021; 300 Years of San Antonio & Bexar, Editor Claudia R. Guerra. Two Essays in Part Four, Global City: “San Antonio, Military City: Early Military Settlement”; “I Like Ike.” Published by Maverick Books, Trinity University Press, 2018; Texas State Genealogical Society Writing Competition 2017; 1st Place Book Award: “The Nelson Family in WWI,” Manuscript, published in San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society, Our Heritage, 2017; The Wests of Texas: Cattle Ranching Entrepreneurs, Researcher. Published by Texas State Historical Association, 2015. San Antonio Conservation Society Publication Award, 2017.

Hall has also held arts advisory board and committee positions in Texas and Seattle: Arbol de La Vida: Memorias y Voces de Tierra, a community public art sculpture for the Mission de San Francisco de la Espada Portal by Margareta Cabrera commissioned by the San Antonio River Foundation, 2018-2019; Alcaldes de Bexar Genealogical history, research and education project; Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission: Heirloom Birth Certificate.

Katherine Nelson Hall received a B.A. in Art History from the University of Washington, Seattle; after a year of postgraduate studies she moved to New York City for Sotheby’s American Arts Course Graduate Program and New York University’s Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Art. After completing both she worked for Sotheby’s Auction House in New York as an American Indian Art Department Cataloger and in Seattle as their first Northwest Regional Associate. Katherine later had her own firm as an Art Advisor and was curator and manager for The Weatherford Gallery. Hall also worked in production on the PBS Emmy Award Winning Antiques Roadshow for 25 years; the last three of those as Still Photographer.