“Stars, Stripes and County Fair Nights” has been named the theme for the 2026 Fannin County Fair Parade, scheduled for October 5! Embracing our nation’s 250th birthday celebration, the county fair parade conjures up memories of yesteryear and all things small town America.

Heather Boykin will discuss School Days on the Texas Frontier at the meeting on Tuesday, October 13. Heather has dabbled in women's and children's social history and 19th century material culture for over 25 years. In that time she has made a study of daily life including textile arts, historic dress, homemaking, and early education. She served as curator at Chestnut Square Historic Village in McKinney for three years and camp director for Prairie Adventure Camp for nine.

Not long ago, I acquired my great-grandfather’s 1947 M Farmall. It isn’t much to look at, but it tells quite a bit about what life was like in the 1950s and 1960s on the north end of the Blackland Prairies of Texas. The area was dotted with small farms that relied on equipment that, in its time, was the biggest and the best but, by today’s standards, would hardly pull the gravity wagon back to the barn.

Next month, at the Heartland Film Festival, Matt Hames and his production company, Alpheus Media, will premiere their latest documentary, Home from the Vietnam War. Produced for Wyoming PBS, Hames follows decorated U.S. Army veteran Lt. Lee Alley back to Vietnam more than fifty years after the war that left him carrying wounds he rarely spoke about. Joined by his friend John Nguyen, who fled Vietnam as a child and eventually made a new life in America, Lt. Alley set out to confront a past he’d spent most of his life trying to leave behind.

The Sam Rayburn Museum is pleased to announce that a capital improvement project is scheduled to begin on September 21, 2026. Planned improvements include repairs to the foundation and drainage system, landscaping upgrades, and enhancements to the main and accessible entrances. Due to scheduled repairs to the accessible ramp and concerns for visitor safety, the Sam Rayburn Museum will close on October 5, 2026, and remain closed for the duration of the exterior construction project.

1669 – death of Rembrandt, Dutch painter and illustrator. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), known mononymously as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of Western art. It is estimated that Rembrandt's surviving works amount to about three hundred paintings, three hundred etchings, and several hundred drawings. Unlike most Dutch painters of the 17th century, Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of styles and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological subjects and animal studies. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt never went abroad, but was considerably influenced by the work of the Italian Old Masters and Dutch and Flemish artists who had studied in Italy. After he achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime; his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. Rembrandt's portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible are regarded as his greatest creative triumphs.