Joseph Milton Nance (September 18, 1913 – January 17, 1997) was an American historian and educator with a focus on the history of Texas. From 1941 until his 1979 retirement, he taught at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, and he was the department chair of the Department of History and Government from 1958 to 1968, and of the successor Department of History until 1973. The J. Milton Nance Lectures in Texas History

lecture series A public lecture (also known as an open lecture) is one means employed for educating the public in the arts and sciences. The Royal Institution has a long history of public lectures and demonstrations given by prominent experts in the field. In ...

at TAMU is named in his honor. During the 1966–1967 year, he served on a program committee 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 N ...

. For much of his life, he lived in

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin. ...

Background

Nance was born in Kyle, Texas September 18, 1913. Joseph was the oldest of the eight children of Jeremiah Milton "Jerry" Nance Jr. and Mary Louise Hutchinson, who married in 1912. Joseph Milton Nance married Eleanor Glenn Hanover in 1944. They had three sons, Jeremiah Milton Nance III (born 1948), Joseph Hanover Nance (born 1952), and James Clifton Nance (born 1957).

Education

Nance had received a B.A. in 1935, an M.A. in 1936, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1941, all from

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. He also received a certificate in naval communications from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1943.

Works

Nance's personal papers are archived by the

Briscoe Center for American History The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is an organized research unit and public service component of the University of Texas at Austin named for Dolph Briscoe, the 41st governor of Texas. The center collects and preserves documents and a ...

and are available online. Nance wrote or edited multiple books, including: * * * * * ** *

Footnotes

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nance, J. Milton American writers American historians People from Kyle, Texas People from Bryan, Texas University of Texas at Austin alumni Harvard University alumni Texas A&M University faculty People from College Station, Texas 1913 births 1997 deaths