Eugene C. Barker
Eugene Campbell Barker (November 1, 1874 – October 22, 1956) was an American historian at the University of Texas, the managing director of the Texas State Historical Association, and the editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. He chaired the history department while soliciting gifts to the university, which he used to build a collection of archives and artifacts. In 1950, the university dedicated the Eugene C. Barker History Center as a repository for his collections. These collections are an important part of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas. Early life Eugene Campbell Barker was born to Joseph and Fannie (Holland) Barker on November 1, 1874, in Walker County, Texas. Joseph operated a general store in Riverside, Texas, at the Houston and Great Northern Railroad station on the Trinity River. Barker's early education took place in a one-room school. Barker was about 14 years old when his father died, and he started working at the Missouri Pacific shops after he moved with the family to Palestine, Texas. He attended a local night school while holding down a job as a blacksmith. He started matriculating at the University of Texas in 1895, though he continued his employment with the Missouri Pacific in Austin as a mail clerk. He earned his baccalaureate in 1899 and his master’s degree the following year. His thesis was The Unification of Public Sentiment for the Texas Revolution. Career Academics In 1899, Barker began his career at the University of Texas as a history tutor before ascending the professional ladder as an instructor and then as an adjunct professor. He started a sabbatical in 1901 in order to continue graduate work, at the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania (where he received his doctoral degree in 1908), and Harvard University. He taught at Radcliffe College concurrently with his post-doctoral studies at Harvard. He returned to the University of Texas as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 1913, a title he retained through 1951. Barker’s early influences as a young scholar were Lester Gladstone Bugbee and George Pierce Garrison, both University of Texas professors and early organizers of the Texas State Historical Association. In 1901, he published his first article, "The Difficulties of a Mexican Revenue Officer in Texas", which appeared in the January issue of the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Society. That same year he successfully submitted multiple articles on the Texas Revolution to publications of the Southern Historical Association. He published two more articles in history journals in 1903. Barker assumed the chair of the history department at the University of Texas in 1910. At that time, only two other history professors worked for the department. During the first few years of his chairmanship, he recruited six professors to the department, including Walter Prescott Webb. He took on other responsibilities in 1910. That year he was appointed as managing director of the Texas State Historical Association, while also assuming the role as editor of