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MS 476 Tom Lea papers Span Dates, 1905-2001 Bulk Dates, 1924-1995 114 feet (linear) Processed by Laura Hollingsed Donated by Sarah and James Lea in 2002. Citation: Tom Lea papers, 1905-2001, MS 476, C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, The University of Texas at El Paso Library. C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department University of Texas at El Paso

Table of contents

Images
Biography
Selected Literary and Artistic Work
Series Description
Scope and Contents Note
Provenance Statement
Restrictions
Literary Rights Statement
Notes to Researchers
List of Materials Removed
Related Collections
Container List

Biography

El Paso native artist and writer Tom Lea (Thomas Calloway Lea, III) was born on July 11, 1907 to Tom and Zola May Utt Lea. His father, the elder Tom Lea, was a prominent attorney, and served as mayor of El Paso, Texas from 1915-1917 during the tumultuous years of the Mexican Revolution. People and events during this period in the Southwest and on the United States-Mexico border greatly influenced Lea’s life and his art.

Tom Lea and his younger brothers, Joe and Dick, attended El Paso public schools, where Tom displayed an early talent for art. After graduating from El Paso High School in 1924, he left home to attend the Chicago Art Institute. After two years of instruction, Lea quit art school in 1926 and began various residential and commercial art projects in the Chicago and Midwest areas. To supplement his income he worked part-time as an art teacher.

In 1927, Lea became an assistant to Chicago muralist, John Norton.  Lea also married his fellow art student, Nancy June Taylor, that year. He and Nancy toured Europe in 1930 where they studied the great art masterpieces of Italy.  When Lea and his wife Nancy returned to Chicago, Norton urged them to move to the art colony in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Lea could continue his career in the Southwest, the area which was most familiar to him.

In New Mexico Lea built a small house near his old friend, artist Fremont Ellis, and found part-time work at the Santa Fe Laboratory of Anthropology. When Nancy became ill, the Leas moved back to El Paso where she passed away in 1936.

During this time, Lea won commissions to paint murals in government buildings for the United States Department of the Treasury and the Works Progress Administration. Those projects included The Nesters mural for the Post Office Department Building in Washington, D.C.; Back Home, April 1865 for the Pleasant Hill, Missouri post office; Comanches for the Seymour, Texas post office; and the dramatic Stampede for the post office in Odessa, Texas. In 1938, while working on the Pass of the North mural for the Federal Courthouse in El Paso, Lea met and married Sarah Dighton, who was visiting a friend in El Paso. Sarah became his lifelong companion and inspiration, and he adopted Sarah’s son, James, as his only child.

In the same years, Lea also worked as an illustrator for various authors. His father’s longtime friend and famous Texas writer, J. Frank Dobie, asked Lea to illustrate his books, including Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver, published in 1939, and The Longhorns, published in 1941. Lea’s finely-crafted drawings for books by Dobie and other authors helped establish his national reputation as an illustrator.

Tom Lea began another enduring professional relationship with El Paso printer and book designer Carl Hertzog in the 1930s. In 1936, Lea and Hertzog printed a limited edition of The Notebook of Nancy Lea, 1932-1936, in memory of Tom’s late wife. Later, in 1947, Hertzog designed and printed the Calendar of Twelve Travelers through the Pass of the North, containing reproductions of Tom’s original drawings of the Twelve Travelers which had appeared on the covers of menus for the Hotel Paso del Norte’s restaurant in El Paso. Tom’s interest in bullfighting led to the publication of his Bullfight Manual for Spectators, printed in 1949 by Hertzog.

In 1940, Tom Lea received a Rosenwald Fellowship but turned it down later because Life magazine hired him as a war artist and correspondent. From 1941 through 1945 his art and stories on the war front appeared regularly in Life. During his association with Life magazine, he traveled all over the world with the military, including the North Atlantic, Great Britain, North Africa, Italy, the Middle East, India, China and the western Pacific. While in China in 1943, Lea painted portraits of important military figures such as Jimmy Doolittle, Claire Chennault, Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek and his wife, Madame Chaing.

Tom Lea accompanied the 1^st Marine Division during the invasion of the tiny island of Peleliu in the western Pacific in 1944. His books A Grizzly from the Coral Sea (1944) and Peleliu Landing (1945) contain prints of some of his most famous paintings, The Price and That 2,000 Yard Stare, which portrayed the horrors of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific.

In 1947, in order to recover from traumatic memories of the war, Lea painted one of his best known paintings, Sarah in the Summertime, a portrait of his wife, Sarah, standing in their backyard in El Paso with his beloved Franklin Mountains in the background. During his travels to Mexico after the war he attended bullfights and began to study the lives and training of bullfighters. His first novel, The Brave Bulls, came out of that experience and became an international best seller in 1949. Another novel, The Wonderful Country, followed in 1952. Both novels were made into films. Some of his other books include The Primal Yoke: A Novel, published in 1960, and The Hands of Cantu, in 1964.

In the early 1950s, Lea began to write a history of the world-famous King Ranch in Texas. The project, a collaborative effort with Carl Hertzog as printer and book designer, Holland McCombs as researcher, Francis Fugate as annotator and Tom Lea as illustrator and writer, took five years and two volumes to complete. In 1974, Lea wrote and illustrated another book, In the Crucible of the Sun, which covered the history of the King Ranch in Australia.

In his later years, Tom Lea continued to paint and write, and he garnered many honors and awards for the excellence of his work. For his lifetime achievements in the fields of literature and art, he received honorary doctorates from Baylor University in 1967 and from Southern Methodist University in 1970. Among his many awards are the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award in 1971; the Lon Tinkle Award from the Texas Institute of Letters in 1981; the Ima Hogg Historical Achievement Award in 1990; and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Hall of Great Westerners Award in 1995. In 1975 he was named to the El Paso County Historical Society’s Hall of Honor. He received numerous other awards throughout his career, including many honors by the City of El Paso and State of Texas.

His paintings hang in the Smithsonian Institution, the Pentagon, the White House and the Texas Governor’s Mansion, as well as in art galleries, museums and private homes throughout the country. President George W. Bush, a friend of Tom and Sarah Lea, has quoted Lea in his speeches many times.

Tom Lea was active in many community and professional organizations. A few of his many memberships included the Century Association, the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Headliners Club, and Texas State Historical Association. He was very active in the El Paso Museum of Art, serving as president.

Tom Lea passed away on January 29, 2001, in El Paso, Texas. A cenotaph in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin was dedicated in his honor on May 14, 2005.

Sources:

Antone, Evan H. (1988). Tom Lea, His Life and Works. El Paso, TX: Texas Western Press.
Hjerter, Kathleen. G. (compiler). (1989). The Art of Tom Lea. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press.
Lea, Tom (1968). A Picture Gallery; Paintings and Drawings by Tom Lea, with Text by  the Artist. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Lea, Tom (1995). Tom Lea: An Oral History. R. Carver and A. Margo (eds.). El Paso, TX:Texas Western Press.
Tom Lea papers, 1905-2001. MS 476. C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department. University of Texas at El Paso Library.

Selected Literary and Artistic Work

Selected Literary Work

Dobie, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Illustrated by Tom Lea. Boston: Little,Brown and Company, 1939.
____. The Longhorns. Illustrated by Tom Lea. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1941.
Lea, Tom. Peleliu Landing. El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1945.
____. Calendar of Twelve Travelers. El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1947.
____. The Brave Bulls. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1949.
____. Bullfight Manual for Spectators. Cd. Juarez, Mexico [El Paso, Texas]: Carl Hertzog, 1949.
____. The Wonderful Country. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1952.
____. The King Ranch. Research by Holland McCombs. Annotation by Francis Fugate. Kingsville: Carl Hertzog, 1957.
____. The Primal Yoke. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960.
____. The Hands of Cantu. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964.
____. In the Crucible of the Sun. Kingsville: King Ranch, 1974.
____. A Picture Gallery. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968.

Selected Art Work

Snake Dancers, 1933
The Nesters mural, 1936
Lonely Town, 1937
Pass of the North mural, El Paso, Texas Federal Court House, 1938
Stampede mural, Odessa, Texas Post Office, 1940
Trail Herd, 1941
Death of the Wasp, 1942
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, portrait, China, 1943
Madame Chiang, portrait, China, 1943
Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, portrait, China, 1943
The Price, Peleliu, 1944
That 2,000-Yard Stare, 1944
Twelve Travelers, Hotel Paso del Norte menus, c. 1940-1945
Carl Hertzog portrait, 1946
The Hills of Mexico, 1946
Sarah in the Summertime, 1947
The Deathless White Pacing Mustang, 1948
J. Frank Dobie portrait, 1953
Judge Robert Ewing Thomason portrait, 1953
Rio Grande, 1954
Southwest mural, El Paso Public Library, El Paso, Texas, 1956
Word in the Night, 1961
Sam Rayburn portrait, 1963
Sam Houston postage stamp, 1963
Ranger Escort West of the Pecos, 1965
Recuerdo de Lagrimas, 1967
Sabbath Afternoon, 1969
Socios, 1971
My Son Jim, 1973
Yesterday, 1974
Summer’s Green Arcanum, 1975
Contemplando, 1975
Great River of the North, 1982
Who Came to Stay, 1984
Lone and Wide, 1987

Series Description or Arrangement

The Tom Lea papers are arranged in eight series: Correspondence, Biographical Information, Creative Work, Activities and Organizations, Photographs and Other Media, Realia, Publications by Others, and Family Papers.

Series I. Correspondence

The Correspondence series consists of six subseries: General Correspondence, Individual Correspondence, Fan Mail and Autograph Requests, Family Correspondence, Greeting Cards and Thank You Letters. Individual Correspondence and Family Correspondence are arranged alphabetically by name and then chronologically by date. All other subseries are arranged by date.

Series II. Biographical Information

Biographical Information is arranged in fifteen subseries of Biographies, Interviews and Speeches, Eulogies, Genealogy, Personal Material, Family, Friends, Honors and Awards, Exhibitions, Bibliographies and Catalogs, Reviews and Publicity, Books about Tom Lea, Articles about Tom Lea, Business and Financial, and Other Material. All of the subseries are arranged by the date of the materials, except for the Genealogy, Personal Material, Family, Friends, Business and Financial, and Other Material subseries, which are arranged alphabetically by name or topic.

Series III. Creative Work

The Creative Work series is made up of six subseries:  Work Diaries, General Professional Correspondence, Project Files, Research Files, Work by Others, and Other Material. The subseries Work Diaries, General Professional Correspondence and Project Files are arranged in order by date, while Research Files, Work by Others, and Other Material is arranged by topic or name.

Series IV. Activities and Organizations

The Activities and Organizations series has two subseries: Activities and Organizations, and Travel Material. The subseries Activities and Organizations is arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the organization, activity, or event, and then by date. Travel Material is arranged by the date of travel.

Series V. Photographs and Other Media

Photographs and Other Media are arranged in eight subseries: Photographs, Postcards, Slides, Negatives, Prints and Posters, Maps, Video Recordings and Audio Recordings. The Photographs subseries is arranged further into five sub-subseries of Honors and Awards, Exhibitions, Personal, Tom Lea’s Studio and Art, Research and Travel. The material in each sub-subseries is arranged by date. The Slides, Negatives, and Prints and Posters subseries have the same arrangement as the Photographs. The Postcards, Maps, and Video and Audio Recordings are arranged by subject and date.

Series VI. Realia

The Realia series is arranged by subject and then by date.

Series VII. Publications by Others

The Publications by Others series has seven subseries of Books, Journals, Serials, Newspapers, Catalogs, Government, and Other Publications. Each subseries is arranged by topic or name and then by date of publication. Catalogs include two sub-subseries of Booksellers’ Catalogs and Other Catalogs.

Series VIII. Family Papers

The Family Papers series includes four subseries: Tom Lea, Sr., Sarah Dighton Lea, Joe Lea, Dick Lea and James Lea. Material in each subseries is arranged by topic and then by date.

Scope and Content Notes

The Tom Lea papers, 1905-2001, consist of materials related to his personal and professional life as an artist, writer and war correspondent. Lea spent most of his life in El Paso, Texas, but he lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a short time. He attended the Chicago Art Institute and traveled in the North Atlantic, Europe, North Africa, China and Western Pacific for Life magazine during World War II. The papers  include original art work, literary manuscripts, proofs and galleys of books, diaries, correspondence, awards, project and research files, business and financial records, photographs and negatives, posters, art prints, maps, slides, audio and video recordings, realia, scrapbooks, albums, clippings and printed materials.

 The first series, Correspondence, includes extensive correspondence from Tom Lea’s long-time publisher, Little, Brown and Company; his collaborators on the King Ranch history; members of the King Ranch family; and close friends such as Fergus Mead, Robert Parrish, C. R. Smith, Charles Leavell, Holland McCombs, H. Dodson Garrett, Billy Bob Crim, Carl Hertzog, William Weber, Liz Johnson, C. A. Luckett, Stanley Marcus, Robert Sparkman, Elliot Stevens, and Bill Wittliff. The papers contain very little correspondence from Tom Lea, except for his letters to friends Fergus Mead and Elliot Stevens. This series also includes general correspondence, fan mail, autograph requests, greeting cards and thank you letters. Family correspondence consists of letters from his Lea and Utt relatives as well as letters from Tom Lea, Sr., Sarah Lea, James Lea, Joe Lea and Dick Lea.

Series II, Biographical Information, contains biographies and autobiographies; transcripts of radio and television interviews; transcripts of speeches; eulogies for Tom Lea; genealogical material; collected clippings and other material relating to friends and family; awards, certificates, plaques and medals; exhibition programs and correspondence; bibliographies and catalogs of Tom Lea’s work; book and film reviews, publicity clippings and promotional materials; clippings and photocopies of articles about Tom Lea; copyright correspondence; royalty statements; and lists of art and literary works.

The Creative Work, Series III,  includes Tom Lea’s work diaries from 1939-1997; general correspondence related to his work; his project files with correspondence, clippings, and some original sketches, drawings, and manuscripts of his work; other sources using or reproducing his work; his research files; and creative work by other artists and writers. Many of the project files contain correspondence clippings and notes with histories of the projects. The series includes a collection of Life magazines from World War II with articles and illustrations by war artist and correspondent Tom Lea and other publications containing his work.

The fourth series, Activities and Organizations, consists of correspondence, programs, invitations, yearbooks and other materials relating to Tom Lea’s many activities and organizations, as well as correspondence, guidebooks, maps, souvenirs and other ephemera from his travels to Europe, China, Mexico; the King Ranches in Texas, South America and Australia; and his camping and fishing trips to Wyoming and Colorado.

Series V, Photographs and Other Media, contains photographs, slides and negatives of Tom Lea’s personal and professional life including special events, honors and awards; his family and friends; book promotions; his art studio; his art and literary projects; exhibitions; and his numerous trips all over the world. Of special interest are his photographs taken in route to China in 1943 during World War II; photographs of the King Ranch enterprises; photographs of cattle and horses on Texas ranches; and a series of photographs of Mexican ranches, bulls and bullfighters.  Prints of art works by Tom Lea and other artists are in this series. A collection of National Geographic maps dating from the early 1930s is also located in this series. Other items in the series are audio and video recordings of Lea’s speeches, interviews and radio programs.

Realia, Series VI, consists of Tom Lea’s paint tools, palettes, leather satchel, a matador’s cape and personal items kept in his studio.

The printed materials in the Series VII, Publications by Others, include books, journals, serials, newspapers, pamphlets, brochures, newspapers, booksellers’ catalogs, and various other catalogs.

The last series, Series VIII, Family Papers, is made up of materials collected by Tom Lea which belonged to his other family members. These materials are correspondence, clippings, awards, and other papers concerning Tom Lea’s wife, Sarah Dighton Lea; his father, Tom Lea, Sr.; his brothers, Joe and Dick Lea; and his son, James Lea.

Provenance Statement

The papers of Tom Lea were donated to the University of Texas at El Paso Library by his wife, Sarah Lea, and son, James Lea, in 2002.

Restrictions

Some materials may be restricted by copyright. Photocopying, scanning or other forms of reproduction may be limited due to copyright restrictions and to the fragile condition of the materials.

Literary Rights Statement

Permission to publish material from the Tom Lea papers, MS 476, must be obtained from the C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, the University of Texas at

El Paso Library.

The citation should read, Lea (Tom) papers, MS 476, C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, the University of Texas at El Paso Library.

Notes to the Researcher

Many of the documents and photographs in the Tom Lea papers are very fragile. Please handle with care. Materials with original signatures of prominent people and very old or acidic papers have been removed and replaced with photocopies.

List of Materials Removed

The following publications and serials were removed from the collection and catalogued separately:

El Paso, Texas: Sunshine Playground of the Border. El Paso: El Paso Sunland Club, 1946.
Arizona Highways, 1940-1980  (incomplete)
The British Racehorse, 1973-1976
Frontier Times, 1959-1970
The Graduate Journal, 1960-1973
Military Collector and Historian, 1948-1984
Old West, 1965-1970
Toro Bullfight Review, 1958-1965
True West, 1961-1970

Related Collections

Francis Fugate papers, MS 249, C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, University of Texas at El Paso Library. 
C. E. Waterhouse papers, MS 458, C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, University of Texas at El Paso Library. 
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
El Paso Museum of Art
Carl Hertzog papers, MS 295, C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, University of Texas at El Paso Library.

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