Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XV I* No. 1 * Spring  2002

Robert Hanks Brister Papers Reflect Education in Texas in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
by Hollace Weiner

Robert Hanks Brister, ca.1912

Special Collections of the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries announces the availability of the Robert Hanks Brister Papers. Brister (1890-1965), a Burleson farm boy who became Waco school superintendent during the Great Depression, left behind a wealth of photographs, writings, clippings, publications, and keepsakes. The materials document his student days at Decatur Baptist College, the forerunner of Dallas Baptist University. They also chronicle a Texas soldier’s experiences during World War I and highlight issues facing educators during the first half of the twentieth century.

Brister, one of nine children born to a pioneer Burleson family, was a 1912 graduate of Decatur Baptist College and a 1917 Baylor College alumnus. He taught mathematics in the small Texas towns of Miles, Ennis, and Taylor, where in 1922 he became school superintendent. From 1935 to 1944 he was superintendent of Waco public schools. During his Waco tenure, he was elected president of the Texas State Teachers Association. After his stint as superintendent, Brister worked for the Veterans Administration’s Vocational Rehabilitation Service and then in the insurance industry.

A leading Texas educator in his day, Brister was described by the Houston Post in 1939 as a pioneer in vocational and health education. He instituted off-campus tutoring for the handicapped and brought health professionals into schools to screen for tuberculosis, poor vision, and dental decay. He lobbied for teacher pay raises and endorsed free school lunch programs in an era when Texans resisted federal aid. He advocated expanding facilities at schools for African Americans and saved several yearbooks from Waco’s segregated Moore senior high.

Decatur Baptist College dormitory on fire, February 22, 1912.

An avid photographer, Brister illustrated his life and times through six captioned photo albums. He kept scores of professional portraits of people and places. The collection’s earliest photo is an 1880s tintype image of Brister’s mother, Sudie Clark Brister. Other vintage photographs capture family reunions, with several generations crowded onto the front porch of a wooden farmhouse. Most unusual is the turn-of-the-century print of a group baptism in the waters of Burleson’s Little Booger Creek. An Eastman-Kodak camera, protected with a worn, brown leather case, is among the collection’s artifacts.

Campagine brochure for Brister's successful run for the presidency of the Texas State Teacher's Association , 1938.

Brister was also a prolific correspondent. He saved handwritten letters from relatives describing farm conditions, typewritten correspondence from colleagues, and affectionate letters from girlfriends, including a wartime sweetheart in Nevers, France. Among the collection’s WWI keepsakes are two patriotic silk handkerchiefs, presumably waved at victory parades, an Army spyglass, and a signaling mirror.

Brister was married in 1921 to Ruby "Bob" Neal, the descendant of another early Texas family. Her ties to Parker County’s Eddleman banking family are explored in a section of the collection devoted to genealogies. The Brister clan, originally from Scotland, dates its Southern settlement to a 1786 South Carolina land grant.

The Robert H. Brister Papers consist of 6.85 linear feet of materials arranged in 19 boxes (14 manuscript boxes and 5 oversized boxes). The materials are available to researchers in Special Collections located on the sixth floor of the UTA Central Library. Special Collections is open Mondays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The finding aid for the Brister Papers can be accessed online at http://libraries.uta.edu/SpecColl/findaid/AR434.html.For further information, contact Shirley Rodnitzky, Special Collections Archivist, 817-272-3393, or email at rodnitzky@uta.edu.

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This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003