High Noon Talk: Rewind 1999

Katharine Austin takes the stage at the Bullock Texas State History Museum on Wednesday, November 4, for a High Noon Talk titled Rewind 1999. Austin is the curator for the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, and she'll be leading the session from 12 PM to 1 PM in the Texas Spirit Theater.

The talk is built around 1990s Texas news media and how Texans imagined the future as the millennium approached. It's a look back at the turn of the century through the lens of the news reports and broadcasts of the time, so it's as much about the decade as it is about the way people talked about what was coming next.

There's a larger context here: the talk ties into the museum's special exhibition The 90s: Last Decade Before the Future, which runs from November 14, 2026, to March 21, 2027. The show was originally created by History Colorado and works through the decade's technological revolutions, landmark moments, and the rapid social, cultural, economic, and political changes that defined the era. It draws on watershed events that range from cloned sheep and an impeached president to the booming internet economy.

If you're planning to stick around for the exhibition, it's a wide-reaching collection. It includes a piece of the Berlin Wall, costumes worn by Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Hanks, and signature outfits from Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., and the Backstreet Boys. There's also memorabilia from athletes like Mike Tyson and Kerri Strug. The talk serves as a lead-in to that, so if you're interested in the 90s, it's a good place to start.

Logistically, it's easy. The talk is free to the public and runs from 12 PM to 1 PM on Wednesday, November 4, at the Texas Spirit Theater inside the Bullock Texas State History Museum, 1800 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701. It's part of the museum's High Noon Talks, a long-running series of free lunchtime presentations.