• TAMI released our latest lesson plan for grade 4 and grade 7, which uses educational films from the 1960s and 1980s to examine the varied experiences of the nineteenth century Texas Empresarios and identify the important contributions of significant individuals, including Moses Austin, Stephen F. Austin, Baron de Bastrop, Martín de León and Green DeWitt. The lesson highlights the Mexican settlement and colonization of Texas and traces the events that led up to the Texas Revolution, such as the 1825 Colonization Law of Coahuila y Tejas and its reversal in 1830, and the Fredonian Rebellion. The lesson focuses on Moses Austin and his son, Stephen F. Austin, as they worked to bring the first colonists, "The Old Three Hundred," to Texas. It serves as a great introduction to the Texas Empresarios and nicely segues into the Texas Revolutionary period.

• The Texas Film Round-Up concluded in Nacogdoches on May 3, and we received over 400 films and videos that we are now busy digitizing at no cost to the donors. We had so much fun in East Texas and cannot wait to see what our treasures have in store. A big thanks goes out to the Judy B. McDonald Public Library for hosting the event!

• TAMI teamed with the Bullock Texas State History Museum for their program B Movies and Bad History: Austin Edition. Our curator, Madeline Moya, and Elizabeth Hansen, Outreach Manager at the Bullock Texas State History Museum, screened movies and archive clips filmed in Austin. We had a blast showing some of our favorite archival footage of Austin!

• Around the web, TAMI was featured in Slackerwood's TAMI Flashback: The Mary Kay Way, and Austin's NPR station, KUT, used a TAMI film, "Progress Report Austin," to help illustrate Austin's history with traffic problems in a story about mass transit, currently a hotly contested issue in the city.

We had quite the eclectic mix this month for our most watched videos – from cheerleaders to the always popular Mary Kay to ice skating in Austin! The top 5 videos from May:

1. "Eyewitness News" - Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Tryouts (1976)

2. Mary Kay - All Your Tomorrows (1980)

3. America Welcomes President Ayub (1961)

4. The Carolyn Jackson Collection, no. 8 - Tour of Pflugerville, TX (1970s)

5.  The Coltman Collection, no. 3 - Ice Skating on Shoal Creek (1983)