Texas Centennial Carving by Fannie Bruce Shaw

This folk art carving depicts 100 years of Texas history. Displayed at the Texas Centennial, the roughly hewn carving features the six flags of Texas, hand-drawn portraits of Texas governors from 1846 to 1936, carved portraits of Texas heroes, and icons representing Texas’s past and future. A vignette at the bottom shows the 1936 Texas Centennial in Dallas with people arriving from all directions by car, train, and motorcycle.

Fannie B. Shaw (1894–1991), from the small town of Van Alstyne north of Dallas, learned the skill of carving from her father. In addition to the Centennial carving, she also carved a self-portrait and portraits of various Van Alstyne dignitaries. Two of Shaw’s carvings won blue ribbons at the State Fair of Texas, but she is best known for her 1929 quilt, “Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner.” Now in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, the quilt is a social commentary on President Herbert Hoover’s Great Depression-era promise that prosperity was coming soon.