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Retta Murphy's unpublished doctorial dissertation signed by advisors for the University of Texas. Leaves iii-iv:
"The presidio, the mission, and the town were characteristic features of Spanish imperial expansion in America. In the accumulation and preservation of official records, and consequently in the presentation of facts to historical investigators, the presidio was far less notable than either the mission or the civil settlement. In the study of the history of colonial Spanish America a great deal of interest and emphasis has centered upon the sites, the foundings, the efforts, and the significances of numerous missions, as well as upon the development or decline of some towns. Military institutions have received less emphasis, except in the narratives of campaigns and conquests. Increasing investigation of presidial affairs, however, is according a finer balance to the whole study of the Spanish American colonies. In the eighteenth century the Spanish colonial empire was usually more active in the work of maintenance than in that of expansion, and New Spain was the most important part of that empire. The military posts in northern New Spain contributed no little to the institutional life of the frontiers and to the problems of the governing officials in Madrid and in the City of Mexico. It is the purpose of this writing to portray many of these problems of military administration, as they were producing, early in the second quarter of that century, a program of reform which centered around the presidial inspection by Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera."

This is the transcript from the second of three interviews that Bruce Roche conducted with Dr. Flowers just prior to his retirement. Dr. Flowers (Class of 1913) was President of Southwest Texas State College from 1942-1964. In this interview, he talks about the development of general education requirements that brought the Humanities (arts and philosophy) back into mainstream course requirements. He discusses his opinions about faculty qualifications and who should supervise student teachers, about the college adopting a team-teaching approach, and the role of a college president. Flowers also talks about funding from the Danforth Foundation and the Hogg Foundation that allowed the school to implement programs it couldn’t otherwise afford. Interviewer Bruce Roche was director of the College News Service. This interview was the source material for his article “Goal: Excellence – Dr. Flowers’ Lifelong Watchword,” published in the Austin American-Statesmanon August 30, 1964.

Meeting minutes from the Texas State University System Board of Regents.