Houston Ship Channel Early History (The "Diana" Docking)

Early History: The Diana Docking depicts everyday activity at the Port of Houston in the 1870s.  In the foreground, passengers and dockworkers await the approaching steamship Diana.  The Diana was a typical ship of the time that traveled from Houston to Galveston, transporting both people and cargo.   A man wearing the distinctive tin star of a lawman surveys the wharf scene.  Behind the lawman stands a cigar-store Indian sculpture, which was a popular form of folk art in the 1800s.  Functioning as a trade sign, these life-size, carved wooden statues were placed in front of tobacco shops to attract customers.  The figure of the American Indian became the tobacco shop trade sign because Indians were the first to cultivate tobacco and introduce its use to the early European settlers.  The presence of the cigar-store Indian in the painting indicates that a tobacco shop is likely just beyond the painting’s edge. 

Hogue took artistic liberties in placing two historically significant buildings in the painting’s background.  The three-story building in the distance is the Texas Capitol of the late 1830s, when Houston served as the Capital of the Republic of Texas.  In the 1870s, the building was a popular hotel.  The log cabin in the painting’s top right corner represents an early law office of Sam Houston, a central figure in the history of Texas and the city’s namesake.  Although these two buildings are out of place, both in relation to each other and to the port, Hogue included them to underscore the historical importance of the city.