News & Events

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…

By Casey Edward Greene, Rosenberg ScholarThe 19th century saw the evolution of two popular forms of entertainment. The first form of entertainment was vaudeville, whose heyday ran from the 1850s to the 1930s. Vaudeville offered something for everyone. Comparable to the modern televised variety show, it offered a smorgasbord of entertainment. Performances included comedy, singing, dancing, juggling, ventriloquism, and other…

By Casey Edward GreenePart 3 examines more Galveston and Galveston Island victims. The profiles include discussion of archival sources and their limitations. Victim lists often contain incorrect, incomplete, and contradictory information, making any effort to identify hurricane casualties a major undertaking.Parts 1 and 2 of this series can be viewed at the following links: Those Who Fell: Part 1 of…

By Casey Edward Greene, Rosenberg ScholarOn January 18, 1916, Galveston voters rejected Charter Amendment “O,” one of a series of fifteen local charter amendments, by a margin of 1,762 voters to 1,238. The Bathhouse Charter Amendment proposed “that no structures of floating materials shall be constructed or maintained outside of the seawall or extension thereof.” “Floating materials” was an oblique term for “wood.”

Galveston’s Rotary Club sponsored two appearances by Ray Bros. Circus in the mid-1940s. The first performance took place at City Auditorium. February 15-19, 1944. An advertisement in the Galveston Daily News, February 13, 1944, billed the event as “The Colossus of Indoor Shows” and “The Only Big Circus to Show in Galveston in Years.”

Casey Edward Greene

By Kevin KinneyThis article was originally published in the Galveston County Daily News on June 17, 2020: https://www.galvnews.com/lifes...

By Casey Edward GreeneSince the early twentieth century, the Seawall and Seawall Boulevard have defined Galveston’s beachfront. Each tourist season, multitudes trek to Galveston for beaches and Gulf bathing. They come mostly in cars, creating a constant challenge for authorities to ensure orderly traffic flow without endangering pedestrians. During earlier decades, city commissioners implemented a variety of methods, which drew…

Austin/Galveston, Texas, May 15, 2020 — The earliest color film of Galveston’s 1931 Pageant of Pulchritude, and one of the oldest extant color films of Texas, is now viewable at TexasArchive.org. The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) and the Rosenberg Library partnered to receive a National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) grant to restore the film, originally shot on…

By Mia SorrellsFor my last semester at Texas A&M University at Galveston, I had the opportunity to internship at the Special Collections Department located on the fourth floor of the Rosenberg library. On my first day, I was introduced to the different collections that the Galveston and Texas History Center has, as well as the kind of work that an…

Watch a recording of the workshop below:___Join the Galveston & Texas History Center in exploring the 1900 Storm, the construction of the Seawall, or even your family’s history through this vital newspaper with the University of North Texas’ Portal to Texas History, one of the many valuable research databases available at the Rosenberg Library.May 16, 2020 from 11 am –…

By Casey Edward GreenePart 2 examines more Galveston and Galveston Island victims. The profiles include discussion of archival sources and their limitations. Victim lists often contain incorrect, incomplete, and contradictory information, making any effort to identify hurricane casualties a major undertaking.