Chair
Richard B. McCaslin, Ph.D.
Texas State Historian
Panel · Session 31
Repatriating Texas History: TSLAC’s Efforts to Recover “Alienated” Records
About this event
Texas law recognizes that government records belong to the citizens of Texas and it is illegal for them to be sold or alienated from public custody unless done in accordance with established, legal retention procedures. Unfortunately, it is a fact that many official government records that detail the history of Texas – particularly from its Colonial, Republic, and early Statehood periods -- have been alienated from its custody, either by theft, neglect, or ignorance of the law. When missing government records appear it is the duty of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to reclaim them on behalf of the state. This session will discuss the agency’s use of the state’s replevin statute, Texas Government Code, § 441.192, the Right of Recovery, since its adoption in 1997 to repatriate lost records, including those of the Republic’s legation in Washington, DC, stolen Texas Supreme Court case files, and the only known copy of a printed broad side announcing the fall of the Alamo.
Participants & presentations
Presenter
Jelain Chubb
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Repatriating Texas History
Texas law recognizes that government records belong to the citizens of Texas and it is illegal for them to be sold or alienated from public custody unless done in accordance with established, legal retention procedures. Unfortunately, it is a fact that many official government records that detail the history of Texas – particularly from its Colonial, Republic, and early Statehood periods -- have been alienated from its custody, either by theft, neglect, or ignorance of the law. When missing government records appear it is the duty of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to reclaim them on behalf of the state. This session will discuss the agency’s use of the state’s replevin statute, Texas Government Code, § 441.192, the Right of Recovery, since its adoption in 1997 to repatriate lost records, including those of the Republic’s legation in Washington, DC, stolen Texas Supreme Court case files, and the only known copy of a printed broad side announcing the fall of the Alamo.
Speaker
Hon. Ken Wise
14th Court of Appeals