The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum may be the new kid on the block in downtown Austin, but it is already playing to sellout crowds. The museum opened about six weeks ago, but last week was the first chance I got to check it out. I just wish the place wowed me a little bit more...

Overall, this is a decent museum, and well worth a visit if you're in the Austin area -- especially if you've got an interest in Texas legend and lore. But there are some things I don't especially like about the place: It feels too slick with more of an emphasis on selling IMAX movie tickets than in presenting exhibits, it's a bit on the expensive side, and I didn't see a single exhibit label in spanish despite being in a state that's more than 1/3 hispanic. Most important stuff first...

Sure Is a Big Museum...It's a VERY big museum...WHERE'S THE BEEF?
Maybe I'm out of touch here, but let me throw out this radical notion. Does anyone think that it might be nice for museums to maybe concentrate a little bit on exhibits?

The Texas State History Museum is a huge pink granite structure with thousands of square feet spanning three floors. Yet I can't help but feel like I'm in a multiplex theatre complex that, oh by the way, has a few history exhibits tucked into the back room.

When you first enter the museum's cavernous lobby, you can't help but admire the winding staircases that lead your eye upwards towards the dome three floors above, or to the fanciful tilework of Texas history that makes up the floor, or to the long lines of people waiting for movie tickets. That's right...movie tickets. There are two movie theatres in this museum so that you can get more than your fill of Texas legend and lore filmed in all its IMAX glory (how many IMAX films about Texas actually exist is anybody's guess). On a recent Saturday morning the line stretched out the door, down the street, out onto I-35, and down to about San Antonio. Even the lines are bigger in Texas! If you just want to see exhibits, there is a table selling exhibit-only tickets for $5 -- no waiting necessary.

Besides the lobby and a movie theatre, the first floor has a small exhibit area for "temporary" exhibits and a permanent exhibit on the origins of Texas.

The temporary exhibit is called "It Ain't Braggin' If Its True" and is supposedly about the "distinctive" character of Texas. I wasn't all that impressed by this exhibit. It's small, and most of the things being displayed aren't terribly significant or important.

There's a Cadillac covered with rhinestones -- but you can see dozens of these in the Houston Art Car Parade, so I don't see what the fuss is about for this particular car. There's a model of the battleship Texas -- but extremely limited information about the ship itself. Frankly, I'd rather just go down to San Jacinto and see the real McCoy... A desk made by a 13-year old kid is kind of cool -- but I don't go to museums to see furniture (unless maybe it's the desk where Bill Clinton and Monica...WHOOPS! gotta keep this G-rated for the kids!). Then there's the Tour de France jersey worn by Lance Armstrong, but this is so recent and sports is so incidental to the notion of state history that I don't know why I'd go to a "history" museum to see something like this. Bottom line: BO-ring!

The permanent exhibit hall is labeled "The Story of Texas" and it focuses mostly on the life of native american tribes as it existed at the time of the first Spanish settlements in the early 16th century. Hmm. So Comanche isn't just a trademark of Jeep. No foolin'...

Go from the first floor to the second then the third to follow exhibits chronologically.

Second floor exhibits focus on the turmoil of the 19th century. The revolution against Mexico, the Alamo, the debate over joining the Union, and so forth. Some were interesting, like the story of the debate over open ranges versus barbed wire fences. (Did you know Texas actually had a law against herding cattle while carrying wire cutters? What rebels those cowpokes!)

I found some of the exhibits, particularly those dealing with the Texas revolution and the issues of slavery in the Civil War era, to be unsettling in the amount of white-washing of events that the museum does in order to portray Texans as heros, but I suppose such is the fate of any museum tied to a government or business entity. Sure can't spend those tax dollars telling people that Davy Crockett actually surrendered the Alamo when the story of him going down fighting like a man makes for such a darn good yarn!

Move up to the third floor and explore 20th century technology. There's an exhibit about oil drilling, another about the changing face of communities in the state, and so forth. Some of these exhibits are unduly small and dull, lacking the breadth that they deserve. NASA's Johnson Space Center may be the nation's leading facility for manned space exploration, but the exhibit space it gets in this museum is essentially one model of a lunar lander occupying about 30 square feet. Ah well, I guess they couldn't spare more space to actually spark the imagination of a few young Texans, after all the museum does need another huge honking lobby for the IMAX movie theatre...

Overall, I found the exhibits to be disappointing. There were too few of them, the exhibit space was too small in relation to the size of the building, and

Logistics
The museum is located near the University of Texas campus at the corner of N. Congress Ave. and M.L. King Blvd. Admission is $5 for adults. IMAX movies cost extra. Parking anywhere in downtown Austin is scarce and over-regulated, but the museum has its own parking garage which will set you back another $8 (youch!).

Of What Educational Value?
I feel that this museum could do much more to reach out to the public and to serve as a real educational resource to the community. They need to do something about their pricing to make access affordable to poorer working-class families, and they need to do something to reach out to the hispanic community.

I won't hash through all the many reasons why I think that museums have a duty to provide free or very low cost access, especially to students, but suffice it to say that the Texas History Museum does not have free museum days like museums in some cities do.

I've ragged on other museums in states with large hispanic populations for their pitiful efforts in making information accessible to latinos, so its only fair to rag on the Bullock Museum too. Despite being in a state with a huge hispanic population, the museum couldn't be bothered to label exhibits (not even the most significant) with both english and spanish labels. There were also no maps nor guides available in spanish that I could see.

Who the Heck is Bob Bullock?
I can never figure out quite how public buildings get named. For some bizarre reason, they always seem to end up bearing the monikers of people that history and the general populace couldn't really care less about. When Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City it was probably the very first time any of us had ever heard the name "Murrah" uttered. Does anybody know who Murrah was. Hmmm....no hands.

By the same token, I can't recall ever having heard the name "Bob Bullock" mentioned in polite company. (No, I don't think he was the dad of Sandra.)

There are a heck of a lot of famous politicians from Texas, not to mention some pretty darn famous Texans who have done a lot of things in other fields of human endeavor to put Texas on the map. Why wasn't the museum named after somebody we've heard of?

Okay, so everything else in the state has already been named after Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, Lyndon Johnson, or George Bush. Still, I think there are plenty of famous Texans who deserve their name on a few buildings or bridges. In my opinion, the museum should have been called the Buddy Holly State History Museum. There could even be a few exhibits about rockers who wore cool glasses.

For the record, I did do a search on Google to figure out who Bob Bullock really was. Turns out he was a lieutenant governor in the 1990s and comptroller before that. He's also the guy who proposed the idea for building the museum, so I guess maybe he does deserve to have his name on it after all. Oh well...maybe they could rename DFW airport "Buddy Holly Airport." It's an idea...

Long and Short
Do I recommend this museum? Absolutely. It's a beautiful place with some fascinating stories backing up the exhibits. My real complaint is just that I wish there was lot more meat to it all. More exhibits, more stories, better community outreach. Maybe less movies and less polish. If you go, I'd really like to hear your impressions of this place...I'll bet you like it!



Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Students
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime