Rosenberg Library, a public library located at 2310 Sealy Street in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

, United States, is the oldest continuously operating library in Texas. It serves as headquarters of the Galveston County Library System, and its librarian is also the Galveston County Librarian.

History

Henry Rosenberg set aside a portion of his estate to establish a library in his name. The

1900 Galveston Hurricane The 1900 Galveston hurricane, also known as the Great Galveston hurricane and the Galveston Flood, and known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm, was a deadly and catastrophic Atlantic hurricane which became the List of di ...

postponed this project. The following year, the trustees of the estate announced a design competition for the library, and

Eames & Young Eames and Young was an American architecture firm based in St. Louis, Missouri, active nationally, and responsible for several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. History The principals were Thomas Crane Young, FAIA and Will ...

of St. Louis submitted the winning proposal.Beasley and Fox (1996), p. 51. The library was established in 1900, and the building constructed a few years later. In 1905 it absorbed the collection of the defunct Public Library (est. in 1871 as the Galveston Free Library). The Rosenberg Library added the Moody Memorial Wing in 1971, doubling the size of the building and re-orienting the entrance to the Sealy Avenue side. The new wing houses the Galveston and Texas History Center. The Rosenberg Fountains were added north of the library in 1995.

Segregation

Like many institutions in the American South, during

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of human ...

the library maintained a separate branch for African Americans. This new library, built in 1905, was added to the western wing of Central High School, the city's high school for African Americans.

Galveston and Texas History Center

The Galveston and Texas History Center collects materials relating to Galveston and early Texas. Major manuscript collections include the papers of Samuel May Williams,

Gail Borden Gail Borden Jr. (November 9, 1801 – January 11, 1874) was an American inventor and manufacturing pioneer. He was born in New York state and settled in Texas in 1829 (then part of Mexico), where he worked as a land surveyor, newspaper publish ...

, John Grant Tod Jr., and James Morgan; the records of several 19th and early 20th century businesses, including those of I.H. Kempner, Harris Kempner, Henry M. Trueheart, and J. C. League; the records of several organizations and churches in the area; and 20th-century collections reflecting recent events and activities in Galveston and the upper Gulf Coast. The map collection includes maps and charts of Texas, the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, and adjacent coasts dating from the 16th century to the present. Holdings of the museum department include historical artifacts pertaining to Galveston or early Texas, paintings of Galveston subjects or by local artists including Julius Stockfleth and Boyer Gonzalez, and a sizable collection of Russian and Greek icons. The rare book collection contains incunabula, first editions, and examples of fine printing. RosenbergLibraryGalvestonTX

References

Bibliography

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External links