Joe P. Barentine III Collection

Biographical Note

Joe P. Barentine III worked as an attorney in Dallas for 30 years. Throughout his life, Mr. Barentine was interested in history and art, and volunteered with various organizations in different capacities, including acting as a docent at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Barentine also served as a volunteer with the Tarrant County Archvies from 2003 to the early 2010s. His extensive work with the Westbrook Hotel Collection housed in the Archives has won him recognition and awards.

 

Scope and Contents

Barentine began donating material to the Archives, forming his own collection, in 2006. His collection includes post cards; various historical publications and art and theater programs; as well as numerous binders of his unpublished research on Benjamin Johnston Tillar (1866-1923), who built the Westbrook Hotel, and his wife, Genevieve Eagon Tillar (1874-1961). The original Barentine gift encompasses an unpublished book and three binders filled with research collected concerning the Tillars. Items in the Barentine Collection cover a variety of subjects including: Early 20th century Fort Worth, cattle business, oil business, Texas Wesleyan College, Woman's Club of Fort Worth, various Fort Worth families, labor costs in depression and early 1940's, early history of the art museums in Fort Worth, hospitals, YMCA, fascist organizations in the 1940's, the American Society of International Law, and many other subjects. There are extensive lists of the art purchases made by the various institutions using the Tillar Trust. Barentine is also a member of Sons of the Republic of Texas and donated a copy of his family history.

Materials in this collection consist of the following:

Research

  • Binder One: Probate material for J. T. W. Tillar, Antoinette Tillar, Garland Tillar, Benjamin J. Tillar, and Genevieve E. Tillar. Early biographical material about the Tillar and Eagon families.
  • Binder Two: Probates and contested wills of Genevieve E. Tillar, information on institutions to which she contributed, information about the Westbrook Hotel, correspondence from her time away from Fort Worth (New York City), Van Zandt Smith biographical materials, occupancy/business maps of Fort Worth, American Society of International Law in Washington D. C., and her marriage to Allen Zoll in 1953 (later annulled), with information on his various extreme right wing political involvements.
  • Binder Three: Information about Allen Zoll, her gift on Lake Worth that led to the development of YMCA camp, Camp Carter, information and correspondence concerning the art purchased by the Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth Museum, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
  • Benjamin Johnston Tillar biography from The Book of Fort Worth, 1913. Published by the Fort worth Record.
  • Various copies from publications related to donor's research on Benjamin J. Tillar and his wife, Genevieve E. Tillar
  • Survey notes by Brookes Baker, Civil Engineer, for land to be donated for YMCA Camp Carter, in the J. L. Hansborough and N. H. Carroll Surveys, Tarrant County. March 16, 1940. Attached map showing approximate location.
  • Binder with copies of photographs and documents in the Tillar-Westbrook Hotel collection
  • Family Documentation: Barentine, Allred, Miller, and King Families

Publications

  • The Quiet Philanthropist, Genevieve Eagon Tillar and her bequest of the Benjamin J. Tillar Memorial Trust to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, by J. P. Barentine, III. Dallas. 2006.
  • Explorations in Managing, Allen A. Zoll III Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA, Menlo Park, CA. 1974.
  • Can We Afford Academic Freedom? A discussion by Carey McWilliams, Allen A. Zoll, and McGeorge Bundy. A Discussion Sponsored by The Harvard Law School Forum. The Beacon Press, 1952.
  • Texas Almanac, 2008-2009, Published by the Dallas Morning News
  • Texas Heritage, a publication of the Texas Historical Foundation, beginning Volume 4, 2008
  • Bartholomew's Song, A Bayou History, by Rebecca DeArmond-Huskey. Heritage Books, Maryland. 2008. paper cover. History includes county in Arkansas that was home base to the Tillar family. Pages 53-59, pages 62-63.
  • Capitols of Texas by Seymour V. Connor, et. al Texian Press, Waco, 1970
  • Inaugural Exhibition of the Fort Worth Art Center, October 8 to 31, 1954, 65 pages
  • "Elvis in Texas" Texas Highways Magazine December 2012
  • 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition program, May 22-June 7, 2009
  • The Preliminary Round: May 22-26, 2009, Van Cliburn program
  • The Semifinal Round: May 28-31, 2009, Van Cliburn program
  • The Final Round and Gala Awards ceremony (June 3-7, 2009), Van Cliburn program
  • Live webcast program for the final performances, Van Cliburn
  • Program for piano performance by Van Cliburn, 1969, University of Texas at Austin, The Texas Union. Program signed by Van Cliburn and President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Postcards

  • Westbrook Hotel from Main, showing 4th Street, c. late 1910's
  • Westbrook Hotel, drawing, 1951 postmark
  • Dining Room, Metropolitan Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Harris Memorial Methodist Hospital, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Westmoor Courts (Where the West and Rest Begins). Highway 80 west of Ft. Worth, Texas
  • Tarrant County Courthouse, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Interior Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas, 1913
  • Lobby, Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Lobby, Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth (Frey Post Card)
  • Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas (Seawall Specialty Co.)
  • The Westbrook, Fort Worth, Texas (Post Office News Shop)
  • The Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas
  • Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas (Acmegraph Co.)
  • The Westbrook, Fort Worth, Texas (E. C. Kropp)
  • The Westbrook, Fort Worth, Texas (Mid-West Map Co.)
  • The Westbrook, Fort Worth, Texas (Mid-West Map Co.) with message on back dated Jan 19, 1940
  • Tillar Residence, Little Rock, Arkansas, Allsopp & Chapple, 1908

Images

  • Genevieve Tillar receiving honorary degree from Dr. Law Sone, Texas Wesleyan College. Mr. J. W. Mitchell in center, Dr. Walter Glick, College Dean in background. May 1941. Black and white photo, UTA Special Collections, Fort Worth Star-Telegram collections.
  • Westbrook Hotel lobby, believed to be from 1913. Black and white photo, UTA Special Collections, Fort Worth Star-Telegram collection.
  • Westbrook Hotel, Fort Worth Images 1976. CD with photos taken by P. H. Hoffmann, Crawley, U.K. Copyright by P. M. Hoffmann, 1976. Hoffmann took images in 1976 when he was a MFA student at TCU.
  • Benjamin J. Tillar photograph collection taken by Joe Barentine, October 2004.
  • Benjamin J. Tillar photograph collection taken by Joe Barentine, October 2004.
  • J. T. W. Tillar, portrait copy, by Jenny Eakin Delony (1866-1949).
  • Tillar Photographs, 2008. Photos of Tillar family, home in Washington DC, 3 Hills grave sites in Dallas, home in Jefferson

Correspondence

  • Letter from Paul Hoffmann to Joe Barentine, August 2005
  • Note from Barentine to Susan Pritchett, Tarrant County Archives, March 17, 2005
  • Correspondence between Joe P. Barentine III and Vernon Nikkel, 2005-2015. Covers art in its various forms, legal aspects, art collecting, theory, etc. Vernon Nikkel sold two art pieces to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth which were purchased using the Benjamin J. Tillar Trust Fund.