{"id":6,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","content_modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","featured":0,"title":"Philanthropy as a force in placing memory","creator":null,"description":"<p>Colleges and universities depend heavily on philanthropy for funding for buildings as well as programming. While the institutions are grateful for this support, it does generate lasting effects on the everyday experience of every member of a college or university community, as these names become embedded in the everyday life for all of us. In so doing, their economic power becomes also about the power to place memory. Several of the building on campus are honorific, but many of them are named for donors. The commemorative landscape at Southwestern resonates with a few names of donors that seem to be present everywhere on campus: Cullen, Brown, Prothro, McCombs Lord, Garey, Olin. But who are these people, how did places come to be named after them here, and what are the implications?</p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/c477724ee248dc60d757125e7ec7f89b.jpg","items":[{"id":86,"title":"Who Was Red McCombs?","latitude":30.63549758520520072124782018363475799560546875,"longitude":-97.66587397243080204134457744657993316650390625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/c477724ee248dc60d757125e7ec7f89b.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/c477724ee248dc60d757125e7ec7f89b.jpg","subtitle":"Understanding how McCombs’ name came to be known on the Southwestern campus, and across the state of Texas","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":85,"title":"Deconstructing the McCombs Frontier Americana Collection","latitude":30.63562173990326442662990302778780460357666015625,"longitude":-97.66610183180370086120092310011386871337890625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/30a2e97f649b55ce706460d67e2cc0aa.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/30a2e97f649b55ce706460d67e2cc0aa.jpg","subtitle":"This problematic collection, which was met with anger, disbelief, and indifference among students, faculty, and staff over the years, haunted the majority of campus activities for over two decades.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":87,"title":"Remembering (and Rethinking) the McCombs Frontier Americana Collection","latitude":30.635589898908175854330693255178630352020263671875,"longitude":-97.66612608014048646509763784706592559814453125,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/0625cf396da9f82453ec87e7ed8645a8.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/0625cf396da9f82453ec87e7ed8645a8.jpg","subtitle":"A visual, material, and spatial analysis of who “earns” the right to create the social and cultural image of Southwestern’s place in history","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":44,"title":"Brown Foundation Matching Grant, 1963","latitude":30.6346946506044588431905140168964862823486328125,"longitude":-97.6651927355923135110060684382915496826171875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/e5d61d989386735da888d36205bb633c.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/e5d61d989386735da888d36205bb633c.jpg","subtitle":"With a remarkable matching gift proposal and the endowment of three professorships, the Brown Foundation expressed its initial interest in Southwestern.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":61,"title":"The Brown Family Portraits in Cullen","latitude":30.6338583892880507164591108448803424835205078125,"longitude":-97.6677272426087483836454339325428009033203125,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/5f476a52cfc6e9f913600b1d7459e516.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/5f476a52cfc6e9f913600b1d7459e516.jpg","subtitle":"These four portraits  hanging in Cullen outside the University Relations suite form a kind of shrine to the Brown family.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":60,"title":"Who was Margaret Root Brown?","latitude":30.633904546932580359452913398854434490203857421875,"longitude":-97.66755557519189778759027831256389617919921875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/1e57e86d6309d35fa8f55d478cbc5fcb.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/1e57e86d6309d35fa8f55d478cbc5fcb.jpg","subtitle":"A Southwestern Alumna, Philanthropist, and art patron whose legacy permeates the campus.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":67,"title":"Herman Brown Swimming Pool, 1955-1976","latitude":30.635583588403957122636711574159562587738037109375,"longitude":-97.6639506590348673853441141545772552490234375,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/9a24b3031471f13d97c9f45a79df0ff2.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/9a24b3031471f13d97c9f45a79df0ff2.jpg","subtitle":"There once was an outdoor pool on campus.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}