Students in a public history graduate course at The University of Texas at Dallas are hoping their research will help enhance the narrative of a local house built in the 1840s.
According to Dr. Whitney Stewart, assistant professor of history in the School of Arts and Humanities, the purpose of the spring project was to dig deep into historical sources to find untold stories about the Gano Farmstead at Dallas Heritage Village (DHV) at Old City Park.
“These students had a great opportunity to do practical hands-on public history research that otherwise they would not have been able to do,” she said. “I saw it as a chance for both DHV and my students to gain something.”
Previously located near Grapevine, Texas, the house, which was designated as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1975, was moved to the historical village, as were the 20 other North Texas 19th-century homes and commercial buildings that comprise DHV. The dwelling is named for one family that lived there — the Gano family. The patriarch, Richard M. Gano, was a doctor, minister and Confederate general who moved his family and several enslaved laborers to Texas around 1857 and lived in the house until after the Civil War.
The UT Dallas students wanted to look into various aspects of the farmstead, such as the natural environment and the lives of others who lived on the property.
“Through documentation, we knew that Gano — and other owners of this building and the site — had owned enslaved individuals. But we wanted to dig deeper and find more information to help DHV paint a more inclusive picture of those who lived and worked at this farmstead,” Stewart said.
“This project will continue to live on and have real use in this world, which is great for our students and reiterates the impact our students can make on our community.”
Dr. Whitney Stewart, assistant professor of history in the School of Arts and Humanities
One group of students from Stewart’s class in public history — the practice of historical research and interpretation outside of the academic realm — reviewed interviews conducted in the 1930s with an enslaved woman who lived at the Gano Farmstead. Harriet Mason was born in the late 1830s or early 1840s. Her interviews, along with other records, provided significant information about life on the Gano farm.
“Besides looking at the interviews, our group was able to dive into census records and see how many enslaved people actually lived there. I also went to Dallas Heritage Village and looked at the space that Harriet Mason would have inhabited when she was living there,” said Stephen West, a history graduate student.
He said the DHV project allowed the UT Dallas students to put into practice what they learned each week in class.
“We talked a lot about ethics and trying to include multiple perspectives in historical narratives. I think that’s very important when you’re looking at a house that was owned by someone who participated in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy,” West said. “It’s vital to incorporate another voice into the story.”
Class members presented their historical findings to DHV leaders in May. The information also is being shared with members of the DHV interpretation, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) committee, of which Stewart is a member.
Stewart said DHV has already taken steps to expand the stories that are told at its buildings, noting that interpretation is an ongoing process.
“This is a multiyear initiative. They are working with an external public historian, and they’re doing a lot of work on their own to decide what stories they want to tell. One of the goals of this report was to provide a number of potential avenues for the staff to consider in the interpretation at the site,” Stewart said. “This project will continue to live on and have real use in this world, which is great for our students and reiterates the impact our students can make on our community.”