News & Events

Casey Edward Greene, Rosenberg Scholar The time: 1906. The place: Galveston, Texas. Throngs of tourists have arrived here by train and taken streetcars from Union Depot to the Seawall. They’ve come to relax at the beach and bathe in the Gulf. As dusk approaches, night becomes day at Electric Park on the Boulevard. Beneath the moon, hundreds of vacationers and…

A recording of this program is available on the Rosenberg Library's YouTube channel. Click here to watch it online! ----- Join Galveston and Texas History Center in researching the 1900 Storm, the 1885 Fire, the Seawall, or even your family's history through the Galveston Tribune, a valuable newspaper freely available for use on the Portal to Texas History. May 15…

The Galveston and Texas History Center is excited to announce the upcoming digitization of Galveston Isle magazine and local labor newspapers! These collections will be digitized at the University of North Texas Libraries and made freely available for access on the Portal to Texas History. Galveston Isle magazine (1947-1951) was published by Sam Maceo and covers Galveston entertainment, including the…

The Galveston and Texas History Center's oral history collection is about to be much more accessible. 312 cassette tapes have been sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) for audio preservation. Once they are digitized, the files will be uploaded to the Archives Catalog where they will be freely available for listening. The cassette tapes contain interviews with notable…

By Sean McConnell, Senior Archivist Staff at the Galveston and Texas History Center continue to digitize manuscripts and photographs that document Galveston’s and Texas’ rich history. Digitization provides patrons both local and remote access to historically valuable material. Digital access remains especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic because many patrons cannot visit the collections on site. Staff at the GTHC…

Casey Edward Greene, Rosenberg Scholar Roller bathhouses were small wood bathhouses on wheels. These picturesque, portable structures graced Galveston’s beaches beginning in the late 1870s. They lasted until the early years of the 20th century. Jesse A. Ziegler (1857-1947), a local historian and author, recalled the bathhouses in the Galveston Daily News, March 26, 1944. They had two rooms intended…

By Casey Edward Greene A mysterious figure, “Yerger,” accompanied by Madamoiselle Viviana, came to Galveston in June 1927. The Galveston Daily News heralded Yerger as a “Hindu Mystic” and “Crystal Gazer.” The newspaper ran announcements of the pair’s forthcoming appearances at the Galveston Advertising Club, Crystal Palace Ballroom, Psychic Research Hal, and other venues. Yerger would demonstrate his “feats of…

By Casey GreeneStarting in 1909, the Galveston Commercial Association organized and hosted an annual Cotton Carnival and Exposition as its main midsummer event. The celebration highlighted the importance of cotton and cotton products to the local and state economy. It also was a means of bringing excursionists and their dollars to the city. The 1916 Cotton Carnival and Exposition was…

By Casey GreeneWhen one thinks of Galveston weather, what typically comes to mind is sunny days on the beach; on a bad day, perhaps tropical storms … but snow? Yet snow and ice storms have indeed befallen the island, wreaking havoc with transportation, disrupting telephone and electrical service, freezing water pipes, giving children a day off from school, and providing…

Most Galvestonians are familiar with the 1900 Storm and other devastating hurricanes which have struck the island over the years. Another catastrophic disaster you may not know about is the Great Fire of 1885 which burned hundreds of homes across 40 city blocks, displacing thousands of residents.This November marks the 135th Anniversary of this catastrophic event. This week, Rosenberg Library's…

By Casey Edward Greene, Rosenberg ScholarRosenberg Library staff recently made a remarkable discovery: an issue of the Galveston Tribune printed on Saturday, September 8, 1900, the day of the 1900 Storm. This issue is among thousands of Tribune issues which belong to Rosenberg Library and are being digitized and uploaded by the Portal to Texas History at the University of…

By Kevin Kinney, Rosenberg Library ArchivistRosenberg Library’s Galveston and Texas History Center has the log book to the steam dredger Texas of New York, captained by James Alexander Minot of Galveston. Built at a cost of $250,000, the ship was to have been employed in the grade raising of Galveston Island, an effort to protect the island from catastrophic flooding…