The Grady McWhiney Research Foundation was chartered in 1996 as a Texas 501(c)3 private operating foundation. Its purpose is to further education on topics regarding the history of the middle years of the 19th century in American history, Texas history, and topics in military history. The McWhiney Foundation seeks to promote, encourage, and fund research, writing, symposia, and publishing on topics of historical significance. It further seeks to make this information available to the public through traditional educational vehicles and emerging media such as the Internet. 

How Did the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation Get Started?

Dr. Grady McWhiney was the force behind the foundation. Committed to the mission of history education at the highest levels in the United States, he pledged his entire estate as the undergirding endowment that makes this venture possible. A well-known and respected scholar, McWhiney served as head of the Southern History Institute at the University of Alabama for many years, and his scholarship has been both ground-breaking and provocative. 

In the course of his nearly forty years as a professional historian, McWhiney earned a reputation for impeccable scholarship that often led to unconventional insights into our nation's history. His work has attracted supporters and detractors alike, but his list of close associates and admirers reads as a roll call of America’s most brilliant historians. The Grady McWhiney Foundation is fortunate to have many of these educators, authors, and scholars serving in an advisory role as Senior Fellows. These include Dr. Linda Crist (The Papers of Jefferson Davis), Dr. Forrest McDonald (E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic), Dr. Eugene Genovese (Roll, Jordan, Roll), Dr. Bud Robertson (Soldiers Blue and Gray), and others of equal reputation. McWhiney also attracted superior students, and these men and women, joined by other historians whom McWhiney said “he wished were his students,” serve as Fellows of the foundation and will continue to research and write the kind of history inspired by their friend and mentor.

Given Grady McWhiney's interest in Southern history and culture, a hog with a snake was an obvious choice to be the foundation's official logo.

What Is the Grady McWhiney Foundation Doing Today?

The Grady McWhiney Research Foundation is affiliated with McMurry University in Abilene, Texas. Its collection of books and manuscripts, which began as McWhiney’s private research library, is housed in McMurry’s Jay-Rollins Library building. In 1999, the Foundation was able to take advantage of an opportunity to acquire the Buffalo Gap Historic Village — a unique collection of original buildings and artifacts of the West Texas frontier, open to the public. Operation of the Village allows the Foundation to continue its mission of teaching history through a virtual laboratory of living history. The Village is now part of the new Texas Frontier Heritage Cultural Center.

In 2005, the foundation received the 2005 Mary Moody Northen Award of the Texas Historical Foundation for its publishing activities and for its development of the Buffalo Gap Historic Village.

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