Light Townsend Cummins (born April 23, 1946) is an American educator and historian. He was the Bryan Professor of History at Austin College in

Sherman, Texas Sherman is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area, and it is part of the Texoma region ...

prior to his retirement in 2018 and was the official State Historian of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

from May 2009 to July 2012.

Education

Cummins grew up in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, attending the San Antonio Academy,

Alamo Heights High School Alamo Heights High School is a public high school located in the city of Alamo Heights, Texas and is the only high school in the Alamo Heights Independent School District. Athletics The Alamo Heights Mules compete in the following sports: Cheerl ...

, and

TMI — The Episcopal School of Texas TMI Episcopal is a private school in San Antonio. Previously known as Texas Military Institute, TMI is a selective coeducational Episcopal college preparatory school with a military tradition in San Antonio, Texas for boarding and day students. ...

. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from

Texas State University–San Marcos Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

. He earned a PhD in history from

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

Professional activities

Cummins has been a Fulbright Scholar and an Associate of the Danforth Foundation. In 1993, Governor of Texas

Ann Richards Dorothy Ann Richards (née Willis; September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995. A Democrat, she first came to national attention as the Texas State Treasurer, w ...

appointed Cummins to serve on the Stephen F. Austin Bicentennial Commission. In 2003, Cummins served as historical consultant and on-camera commentator for ''Louisiana: A History'', a six-episode television series celebrating the 200th anniversary of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

, a series produced by

Louisiana Public Broadcasting Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television stations serving the U.S. state of Louisiana. The stations are operated by the Louisiana Educational Television Authority, an agency c ...

and aired nationally by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. Cummins has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Humanities Texas, the state based-arm of the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, the Louisiana Historical Association, and the Texas State Historical Association. He is a former president of the Southwestern Historical Association of the Southwest Social Science Association. In May 2009, Governor of Texas Rick Perry appointed Cummins as the official Texas State Historian, an office whose purpose is to advance the cause of Texas history throughout the state.

Awards

In 1994, Cummins was awarded the ''Premio de España y America'' by King Juan Carlos I of Spain for his scholarly research dealing with the history of Spain and the United States.

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. commissioned Cummins a

Kentucky Colonel Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and is the most well-known of a number of honorary colonelcies conferred by United States governors. A Kentucky Colonel Commission (the certificate) i ...

in honor of his publications dealing with the history of the Mississippi Valley. In 2010, Cummins' book ''Emily Austin of Texas'' was given the 2010 Liz Carpenter Award from the Texas State Historical Association, a distinction given to the best book of the year dealing with Texas women. Cummins was awarded the Francisco Bouligny Prize for his publications dealing with Spanish colonial

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and is a lifetime fellow of the

Texas State Historical Association The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, on March 2, 1897. , TSHA moved their offices from Austin to the University of ...

. He is also a lifetime fellow of the Louisiana Historical Association. In 2006, Cummins was named a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor. The following year, he received the Alumni Achievement Award from Texas State University-San Marcos, and in 2011, he was honored by the university's College of Liberal Arts with its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. Cummins is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

Books

Cummins has written or edited ten books and numerous articles on the history of Texas, Louisiana, and the Southwestern United States. As a historian of the Spanish Borderlands, his research interests deal with the advance of the Anglo-American frontier into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

valley, Spanish Louisiana, and Spanish colonial Texas during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. * ''A Guide to the History of Louisiana'' (1982) * ''A Guide to the History of Texas'' (1988) * ''Texas: A Political History'' (1990) * ''Spanish Observers and the American Revolution'' (1992) * ''Louisiana: A History'' 4th Edition (2001) * ''Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History'' (1999) * ''United States History to 1877'' (2006) * ''Emily Austin of Texas, 1795-1851'' (2009) * ''Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas'' (2015) Cummins, Light Townsend, Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas'', Texas A&M University Press, College Station TX 2015 * ''To the Vast and Beautiful Land: Anglo Migration into Spanish Louisiana and Texas, 1760s–1820s'' (2019)

References

External links