Texas Longhorn – 1895
Pen & Ink on Antique Map
Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State, symbolizing its independent spirit, as well as its former status as an independent republic. Texas is the second-largest state in the Union by both area and population. In 1845, Texas joined the United States of America as the 28th state. Texas is known for its cowboy culture and boasts a rich cowboy heritage with cultural icons like the Texas Rangers. In 1930, “Friendship” was adopted as the Texas state motto. The motto was most likely chosen because the name, o Texas or Tejas, was the Spanish pronunciation of the local Indian tribe's word meaning friends.
In 1995 the Texas longhorn became an official symbol of Texas. The Texas longhorn is a hybrid of Spanish and English cattle known for its extremely long horns. They are a breed resulting from a random mixing of the Spanish Criollo stock and the English cattle that Anglo-American frontiersmen brought to Texas from southern and Midwestern states in the 1820s and 1830s. 
By the Civil War the half-wild Texas longhorns emerged as a recognizable type. They behaved like the Spanish stock but had an appreciable amount of British blood. Steers four years old and older had extremely long horns. The large number of these animals in postwar trail herds produced the popular misconception that all Texas cattle had unusually long horns. In the 1880s, when younger cattle with improved blood were trailed north, the average horn spread was less than four feet.
I combine antique atlas maps, the art of pen & ink drawing, and then using my version of stippling into my own creative perspectives. The background for this drawing of a Longhorn is on a Texas map, which was published in 1895 in a Rand McNally Atlas.