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William Trout Chambers was born November 14, 1896, in Sullivan County, Indiana. Chambers received a B.A. degree from Indiana State Teachers College and his master's and doctor's degrees from the University of Chicago. Upon completion of his doctorate, he joined the Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College in 1926 as the first SFA faculty member to hold a Ph.D degree. He came to Texas with very little knowledge of the state to find on his arrival that he was scheduled to teach a course on Texas geography that semester and there was no text book. A determined Dr. Chambers started studying Texas geography in order to be able to teach it. In 1927, he added the first course in conservation to the geography curriculum at SFA.
Dr. Chambers wrote many articles and essays concerning Texas and the United States and a few on other parts of the world. His work stresses the effects of geography on man and his civilization. Dr. Chambers wrote the first book on Texas geography entitled The Geography of Texas. It was published in 1946 by Steck Publishers and was adopted by the State Board for use in public schools. In this first geography of Texas, Dr. Chambers divided Texas into twelve regions based on soil, bedrock, climate, and vegetation. He later wrote several other books on Texas Geography. Chambers was also a rock collector, and by 1961, he had a collection of about 300 specimens .
Dr. Chambers was a member of the Association of American Geographers and the Southwestern Social Science Association. He presided over several conferences held for geographers. He was also a member of the Nacogdoches Boosters Club and the Rotary Club. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I. William T. Chambers died in Nacogdoches County in 1986.
This collection contains articles and essays written by William T. Chambers, many of which were published in geographic magazines. The first folder contains newspaper articles providing biographical information on Dr. Chambers. The second folder contains a letter written by Dr. Chambers in which he describes the land area of Nacogdoches County in 1840. The first 14 manuscripts, some of which were revised in 1946, are arranged in the order in which the regions appear in The Geography of Texas. The revised papers are divided into subheadings which closely match those found in the book. The papers which follow are arranged by those relating to Texas, those relating to other states or to the United States, and those papers relating to other parts of the world.
(Adams, Mrs. David D. "Chambers, William Trout." Nacogdoches County Families. Dallas, Texas; Curtis Media Corporation, 1985. p. 208).
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57 ITEMS. (A-127)
Box 1
Folder 1: William Trout Chambers Biographical Information, 1947-1986. Print, photocopy; 9 items.
Folder 2: Correspondence from William Chambers to Miss Alice Atchley regarding the land area of Nacogdoches County in 1840, 1953. Typescript; 1 item.
Folder 3: "Geographic Regions of Texas," reprint from TEXAS GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, 1948. Print; 1 item.
Folder 4: "Blackland Prairie," no date. Typescript; 1 item.
Folder 5: "The Pine Woods Region," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 6: "Pine and Oak Woods Farming Region," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 7: "East Texas Agricultural Region," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 8: "The Gulf Coast Plain," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 9: "The Gulf Coast Plain," revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 10: "The South Texas Plain," revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 11: "Grand Prairie," revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 12: "The Cross Timber Belt of Texas," no date. Typescript; 1 item.
Folder 13 : "The Cross Timber Belt of Texas," revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 14: "The Northwestern Lowlands" revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 15: "The High Plains," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 16: "The High Plains," revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 17: "Western Mountain and Basin Region," revised 1946. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 18: "Pine Woods Region of Southeastern Texas," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, no date. Print; 1 item.
Folder 19: "Edwards Plateau, a Combination Ranching Region,' from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, no date. Print; 1 item.
Folder 20: "Divisions of the Pine Forest Belt of East Texas," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, 1929. Print, 1 item.
Folder 21: "Kilgore, Texas: An Oil Boom Town," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, 1933. Print; 1 item.
Folder 22: "San Antonio, Texas," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, no date. Print; 1 item.
Folder 23: "Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, no date. Print; 1 item.
Folder 24: "The Gulf Port City Region of Texas," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, no date. Print; 1 item.
Folder 25: "Shopping Areas of the Near Southwest," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, no date. Print; 1 item.
Box 2
Folder 1: "The Redlands of Central Eastern Texas," reprint from THE TEXAS GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, 1941. Print; 1 item.
Folder 2: "The Central Mineral Region of Texas: The Llano-Burnet Country " from THE TEXAS OUTLOOK, 1934. Print; 1 item.
Folder 3: "Life in a Cotton Farming Community," from THE JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY, 1930. Photocopy of print; 1 item.
Folder 4: "Life in a Southern Sawmill Community," from THE JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY, 1931. Photocopy of print; 1 item.
Folder 5: "Bedrock as a Factor in the Origin of Texas Soil," from THE TEXAS GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, 1942. Print; 1 item.
Folder 6: "Dallas and Fort Worth; Why They Came to Be," 1953. Photocopy; 1 item.
Folder 7: "Leading Cities of Texas," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 8: "Shopping Areas of Texas," from THE TEXAS GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, 1940. Print; 1 item.
Folder 9: "United States of America: A New World Civilization," no date. Typescript; 1 item.
Folder 10: "United States of America: A New World Civilization," reprint from THE SOUTHWESTERN SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, 1938. Print; 1 item.
Folder 11: "Geopolitical Situation of the United States," (includes world map), no date. Carbon copy, print; 1 item.
Folder 12: "Geopolitics of the United States of America," reprint from THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE PROCEEDINGS AND TRANSACTIONS, 1944. Print; 1 item.
Folder 13: "Rise of the United States to World Leadership: A Geographic Interpretation," 1947. Photocopy of typescript; 1 item.
Folder 14: "Indigenous American Civilizations as Responses to Geographic Environment," no date. Typescript; 1 item.
Folder 15: "Geographic Areas of Cities," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY; no date. Print; 1 item.
Folder 16: "A Geographic Study of Joliet, Illinois, an Urban Center Dominated by Manufacturing," reprint from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ABSTRACTS OF THESES, 1926. Print; 1 item.
Folder 17: "The Intermontane Region," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 18: "The Rocky Mountains," no date. Carbon copy; 1 item.
Folder 19: "Cotton: The Leading Textile Crop," from ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, 1936. Print; 1 item.
Folder 20: "Geographers, Why Be Gullible?" derived from handwritten script presented to Southwestern Social Science Association in 1954. Photocopy of typescript; 1 item.
Folder 21: "Central America: A Land of Barriers and Disunity," no date. Mimeo of typescript; 1 item.
Folder 22: "Egypt: A Large Desert Oasis," no date. Typescript; 1 item.
Folder 23: "Ancient Palestine: The Evolution of an Advanced Religion," from THE SOUTHWESTERN SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, cat 1939. Print; 1 item.
Folder 24: "A Contact Zone: Palestine and Phoenicia," revised, 1947. Typescript; 1 item.
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