W. Caleb McDaniel
@wcaleb.org
Professor of History at Rice University and author of "Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" (Pulitzer Prize, 2020).
Cross-posting from https://updates.wcaleb.org
Cross-posting from https://updates.wcaleb.org
Pinned
Now surveying the name badge options at the SHA.
November 6, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Now surveying the name badge options at the SHA.
Surveying the airport snacks in Houston while waiting to board my flight for the Annual Meeting of the SHA.
November 6, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Surveying the airport snacks in Houston while waiting to board my flight for the Annual Meeting of the SHA.
Always a good day to get an email from a special collections librarian who has been busily working away on a question you asked in May, and has turned up new sources to help! Thank you, librarians!
November 5, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Always a good day to get an email from a special collections librarian who has been busily working away on a question you asked in May, and has turned up new sources to help! Thank you, librarians!
Grateful to Rosie Nguyen for this video and news report on the Second Foundings Conference held here in Houston, October 10-13.
November 5, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Grateful to Rosie Nguyen for this video and news report on the Second Foundings Conference held here in Houston, October 10-13.
Just got my annual reminder from a stranger’s email that my Generic Syllabus Maker needs to be updated to include the next calendar year. Done! Now I just have to figure out why the Rice-specific one isn’t working …
October 31, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Just got my annual reminder from a stranger’s email that my Generic Syllabus Maker needs to be updated to include the next calendar year. Done! Now I just have to figure out why the Rice-specific one isn’t working …
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: AAHRC at Gregory School, Elias Dibble, Sandy Parker.
October 31, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: AAHRC at Gregory School, Elias Dibble, Sandy Parker.
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Elias Dibble, Houston Evening Star, Houston Fire Festival, Juneteenth, Sandy Parker.
October 30, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Elias Dibble, Houston Evening Star, Houston Fire Festival, Juneteenth, Sandy Parker.
LSU Press reminds me that today is officially publication day for the book! Thanks @lsupress.bsky.social. See https://bit.ly/secondfounding for more.
October 22, 2025 at 8:02 PM
LSU Press reminds me that today is officially publication day for the book! Thanks @lsupress.bsky.social. See https://bit.ly/secondfounding for more.
The Rice Thresher has a write-up today about the Second Foundings conference, which wrapped up on October 13. Grateful to all who came!
October 22, 2025 at 2:16 PM
The Rice Thresher has a write-up today about the Second Foundings conference, which wrapped up on October 13. Grateful to all who came!
It looks like you can preorder Slavery, Segregation, and the Second Founding of Rice University right now for 40% off if you use the code SAVE40LSU when checking out here.
October 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
It looks like you can preorder Slavery, Segregation, and the Second Founding of Rice University right now for 40% off if you use the code SAVE40LSU when checking out here.
It was wonderful to celebrate Jan West at her recent retirement party at Rice, where a photo from her student days was prominently displayed. One of the true founders of the university we enjoy today.
October 6, 2025 at 7:32 PM
It was wonderful to celebrate Jan West at her recent retirement party at Rice, where a photo from her student days was prominently displayed. One of the true founders of the university we enjoy today.
Wistar Cotton: https://updates.wcaleb.org/2025/10/03/wistar-cotton.html
October 3, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Wistar Cotton: https://updates.wcaleb.org/2025/10/03/wistar-cotton.html
Only one more week to the start of the Second Foundings conference, which I and others have been working on for more than a year. I’m especially looking forward to this.
October 3, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Only one more week to the start of the Second Foundings conference, which I and others have been working on for more than a year. I’m especially looking forward to this.
Yesterday on the free books cart in the library, I found a retired colleague’s undergraduate copy of Becker’s Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers (L). Then, in my office, I discovered that some 35 years later, I had underlined the same sentence in my undergraduate copy (R).
October 3, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Yesterday on the free books cart in the library, I found a retired colleague’s undergraduate copy of Becker’s Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers (L). Then, in my office, I discovered that some 35 years later, I had underlined the same sentence in my undergraduate copy (R).
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Juneteenth.
October 2, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Juneteenth.
All of us at Rice are mourning the loss of historian and professor emeritus Ira Gruber, who died last week. I joined with many of my colleagues in remembering him for Rice News. May his memory be a blessing.
September 30, 2025 at 8:16 PM
All of us at Rice are mourning the loss of historian and professor emeritus Ira Gruber, who died last week. I joined with many of my colleagues in remembering him for Rice News. May his memory be a blessing.
It was a good mail day. The book is here! And the cover design may well be the best part.
September 30, 2025 at 2:22 AM
It was a good mail day. The book is here! And the cover design may well be the best part.
A brilliantly red vermillion flycatcher appeared briefly on campus this morning! Feeling lucky to have gotten a good look. Also glad to see the student birding club enjoying the aforementioned screech owls.
September 25, 2025 at 2:46 PM
A brilliantly red vermillion flycatcher appeared briefly on campus this morning! Feeling lucky to have gotten a good look. Also glad to see the student birding club enjoying the aforementioned screech owls.
For class today, I’m cuing up Christia Adair’s account of her attempt to register to vote in Kingsville, Texas, in 1918, from the Black Women Oral History Project at Harvard. I wish the site were easier to navigate: This passage is in the third “Adair” link from the bottom on Reel 2.
September 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
For class today, I’m cuing up Christia Adair’s account of her attempt to register to vote in Kingsville, Texas, in 1918, from the Black Women Oral History Project at Harvard. I wish the site were easier to navigate: This passage is in the third “Adair” link from the bottom on Reel 2.
Tomorrow I’m teaching Liette Gidlow’s great article, “The Sequel,” in my voting rights history class, so it’s time to revisit the video I hastily made to accompany it in March 2020, just as the pandemic was shuttering classes—and before it was known that hand sanitizer alone would not save us.
September 23, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Tomorrow I’m teaching Liette Gidlow’s great article, “The Sequel,” in my voting rights history class, so it’s time to revisit the video I hastily made to accompany it in March 2020, just as the pandemic was shuttering classes—and before it was known that hand sanitizer alone would not save us.
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Houston Fire Festival, Juneteenth.
September 22, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Updated some notes in my open research notebook: Houston Fire Festival, Juneteenth.
The two great-horned owls who live in the front of campus were out on the same limb this morning, a rare treat.
September 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The two great-horned owls who live in the front of campus were out on the same limb this morning, a rare treat.
My day started by finding a very well-camouflaged screech owl in a tree on campus. I should probably quit while I’m ahead.
September 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
My day started by finding a very well-camouflaged screech owl in a tree on campus. I should probably quit while I’m ahead.
Well, that’s one way to measure … (From Flake’s Bulletin (Galveston, TX), June 1, 1866.)
August 29, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Well, that’s one way to measure … (From Flake’s Bulletin (Galveston, TX), June 1, 1866.)