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Back in June, Richard B. McCaslin, a professor of history at the University of North Texas, published At the Heart of Texas: One Hundred Years of the Texas State Historical Association, 1897-1997.
"I didn't realize I was writing an obituary," he says.
The association departs from the campus of the University of Texas at Austin this month, ending a 110-year relationship with the flagship institution. Some interpret the split as a sign that the university no longer cares about state history. Some also blame an internal struggle over the association's future.
Founded in 1897 by an Austin history professor, George P. Garrison, the association has a membership of about 2,200. including scholars and lay historians. Since its founding it has published a scholarly journal, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
The association also publishes books on Texas history, including Mr. McCaslin's, and distributes them through the Texas A&M University Press. Its Handbook of Texas is a staple reference work, with an online version, run as a joint project with the Austin campus's library system, that gets more than four million page hits a month from around the world.
J.C. Martin, the association's interim director, says it was only space constraints that forced the association out. "In recent years, the University of Texas has run out of space for various nonprofits on...