Want to preserve your memories of Galveston County? Come to the Galveston County History Round-Up, to be held on November 8th from 10 AM to 1 PM at the Texas City Museum! Sponsored by the Museums & Archives of Galveston County, the Galveston County History Round-Up is an in-person digitization event inviting you to bring your pre-1970 letters, photographs, documents…
Starting October 1 2025, the reading room hours at the Galveston and Texas History Center will be 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., Tuesday through Saturday. The fourth-floor museum exhibits will remain open Monday to Saturday from 9-5:45. For questions or further information, please contact us at (409) 763-8854 ext. 126.
In honor of the 125th anniversary of the 1900 Storm, the Rosenberg Library Museum has refreshed and expanded the "The Great Storm of 1900" exhibit in the Harris Gallery on the 4th floor of the Rosenberg Library. In addition to photographs and interactive touchscreens, this renovated exhibit features artifacts of the Storm, new bilingual (English and Spanish) exhibit labels, and…
We are proud to announce that The Great Storm movie debut at the Rosenberg Library on Monday, September 8, 2025, in the Wortham Auditorium. The film, which is approximately 30 minutes, will play every hour on the hour from 10:00am - 4:00pm. There is no charge, and no registration required. Following September 8th, the film will be permanently shown on…
Katelyn Landry-Carranza (she/her) is an early career archivist passionate about expanding equitable access to archives and resurfacing marginalized narratives. She graduated from New York University with her MA in Archives and Public History in May 2025 and completed her BA in history and anthropology at Rice University in 2022. Her interest in early Galveston and Texas history began in 202…
In May 1894, Henry Greenwall, theatre manager, and notable Galveston civic leaders including Leon Blum, John Sealy Jr., and Morris Lasker formed the Grand Opera House Company and were able to raise $100,000 for construction of the building. In almost every way, the Grand was intended to be an upgrade of the Tremont Opera House, formerly located on Tremont and…
Fort Point Light Station was a lighthouse on the northeast tip of Galveston Island, on the south side of the entrance to Galveston Bay. Construction began in 1881, four years after Congress earmarked $15,000 for the light. Its beacon was finally shown on August 15, 1882, and it would light the Galveston channel until 1909. The lighthouse was an eight-sided…
As the birthplace of Juneteenth, Galveston is overflowing with opportunities to dig deep into the history behind its celebration. Here at the Rosenberg Library and Galveston and Texas History Center, you can find a wide variety of experiences and resources unique to Galveston to get you into the Juneteenth spirit.
Galveston and Texas History Center has resources available for research on cemeteries across the island -- those located along Broadway Avenue and those elsewhere. For the latter group, these include two cemeteries that were almost lost to history: Rosewood Cemetery and Magnolia Grove Cemetery. Rosewood Cemetery was founded in 1911 by a group of African American shareholders that organized themselves…
Carmelo "Charles" Bertolino (1887-1960), nicknamed the "Dean of Galveston's Lifeguards," was born in Galveston on September 4, 1887, to Italian immigrants Salvatore Bertolino and Rosalia Trapani Bertolino. He worked as a commercial fisherman and as a baker at Graugnard's Bakery on 13th Street and Avenue L. Reportedly he would swim for five miles in the Gulf of Mexico every morning…
On Saturday night, September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane struck Galveston, Texas. The hurricane killed approximately 8,000 people on the island and several thousand more on the mainland. Galveston suffered an estimated $30 million worth of property damage. It remains to this day the deadliest storm to ever hit the United States. Galveston & Texas History Center has published a…
When the United States Constitution was written in the 18th century, it did not guarantee women the same voting rights and protections as men. It wasn’t until 1920 when the 19th amendment was ratified, that women were legally granted the right to vote. Gender and sexuality impacted every social, personal, and political component of the suffrage movement that parallels contemporary…
