Spring Street Museum Speaker Series

Author Don Frazier will talk on history, disillusionment and medicine in Love and War, the title of a recent book of the same name based on Civil War-era letters sent by a husband and wife from Cotton Valley, La.

Love and War: The Civil War Letters and Medicinal Book of Augustus V. Ball is not a typical Civil War letter collection. Ball’s circumstances and experiences allowed him to glimpse the war through two sets of eyes, that of a loving husband, and of an increasingly disillusioned physician.

The inclusion of Ball’s medicinal recipe book is the first of its kind to appear in print completely annotated. Readers will find themselves not only sympathetic to the struggles of one newlywed couple, but educated about the medical and herbal lore of that era.

Donald S. Frazier is professor of history at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas.  He  is the award-winning author of three books on the Civil War including Blood and Treasure, Cottonclads, and Fire in the Cane Field.  His other work includes serving as co-author of Frontier Texas, Historic Abilene, and The Texas You Expect, as well as general editor of The U.S. and Mexico at War.

In addition to his teaching duties, Frazier has been very involved in a variety of heritage and cultural tourism projects, including consulting on the development of three museums; two research centers; a Mexican War battlefield; work on Civil War and frontier heritage trails in Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana; and work on historical projects in Europe and Mexico.  He also helped Abilene, Texas achieve recognition as a Preserve America city and grant recipient.  He is the writer and director for the video Our Home, Our Rights: Texas and Texans in the Civil War, a winner of the Mitchell Wilder Award for Excellence in Publications and Media Design from the Texas Association of Museums.

Frazier is also active in historic preservation projects.  He is currently serving as President and CEO of the McWhiney Foundation, a Texas-based educational non-profit which, among its various activities, manages and preserves the Buffalo Gap Historic Village, a museum that includes a collection of more than a dozen antique buildings.  He has served as a consultant with several communities as they develop their heritage and cultural assets, and has been recognized for his efforts by numerous organizations including the American Association for State and Local History, The Texas Historical Foundation, the Historical Society of New Mexico, and the Louisiana Historical Association.  Frazier is also involved in two highly regarded history publishing enterprises, State House Press and McWhiney Foundation Press.