Rosenberg Library

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name = Rosenberg Library
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location = 2310 Sealy St
Galveston, Texas
nearest_city = Galveston, Texas
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built = 1904, Expanded 1971
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added = August 14, 1984
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refnum = 84001722
mpsub = Central Business District MRA
governing_body = Rosenbery Library Board of Trustees

Rosenberg Library is a public library serving Galveston, Texas is the oldest continuously operating library in Texas. It serves as headquarters of the Galveston County Library System and its librarian also functions as the Galveston County Librarian. [ [http://www.rosenberg-library.org/countlib/countynewslt/Fall%202007a.pdf Fall 2007 Galveston County Library System Newsletter] ]

History

The library was the successor to the Galveston Mercantile Library, which was founded in 1871 making it the oldest in Texas, and one of the oldest in the United States. With funding provided through a bequest from Henry Rosenberg in 1900, the Rosenberg Library Association was organized as a private corporation to give free library services to all Galveston residents.

"... I desire to express in a practical form my affection for the city of my adoption and for the people among whom I have lived for so many years, trusting that it will aid their intellectual and moral development, and be a source of pleasure and profit to them and their children, and their children's children, through many generations." [ [http://www.rosenberg-library-museum.org/About_Us_webpage/About_Us.htm Rosenberg Library Museum ] ]

Since its incorporation the institution has been governed by a board of twenty trustees, who meet annually to elect a nine-member board of directors.

After opening in 1904, the Rosenberg Library absorbed the collections of the Galveston Public Library and has served as more than a simple book repository, maintaining a cultural importance among the community, with programs initiated by Frank C. Patten (First librarian, 1904-1934).

In addition to developing special collections and circulating over 250,000 books annually, the library offers art and historical exhibits, lectures, film series, and meeting facilities for over 1,600 meetings per year.

Since 1941 the city and county of Galveston have contributed to the support of the library. About three-fourths of the operating budget comes from public funds, while the remainder derives from private endowments and gifts. The Rosenberg Library is the headquarters library for the Galveston County Library System, a structure in which the head of the Rosenberg Library is also the county librarian.

In 1967 the library board of directors launched a campaign to build a wing that more than doubled the size of the original library building. Funded by the Moody Foundation and countless gifts from other sources, the Moody Wing opened in 1971-100 years after the Galveston Chamber of Commerce established the Galveston Mercantile Library.

Galveston & 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, John Grant Tod, Jr., and James Morgan; the records of several nineteenth and early twentieth 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 twentieth-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 Caribbean Sea, and adjacent coasts dating from the sixteenth century to the present. Holdings of the museum department include historical artifacts pertaining to Galveston or early Texas, paintings of Galveston subjects or by such local artists as Julius Stockflethqv 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.

In 1871, only thirty-five years after Texas won its independence from Mexico, twelve men gathered to form the Galveston Historical Society. They recognized the importance of collecting and preserving papers, maps, and artifacts that illustrated the history of Texas.

COLLECTANEA

It is the aim of the society to receive and preserve manuscripts, printed matter, maps and all objects that may serve to illustrate the general history of Texas, and of localities and events therein. However slight and unimportant a single letter, printed sheet, or object possessing historical interest may seem to be when considered singly; it acquires a new value when placed in position with other links in the chain of testimony to which it may properly belong. Private letters, memoranda, old newspapers, and pamphlets of little or no apparent value, always throw some light on contemporary times.

--From the Constitution of Galveston Historical Society, 1871--

By 1876 interest in the organization began to wane. When D. G. Herbert, custodian of the documents, died, the location of the collection became unknown. The papers were lost for nine years, but in 1885 Philip C. Tucker, the society's president, found the collection and took responsibility for it.

In 1895 the Galveston Historical Society died out. Later that year Rabbi Henry Cohen and E. G. Littlejohn reorganized the Society to create the Texas Historical Society.

Part of the archives was lost or damaged during the 1900 Storm. In September 1904, the Texas Historical Society moved its papers into the newly constructed Rosenberg Library.

The Rosenberg Library, opened June 22, 1904, was established by a bequest from Henry Rosenberg in 1893. After the Texas Historical Society deposited its holdings with the Rosenberg Library, the manuscripts were wrapped in bundles, labeled carefully, and filed by date in deep drawers.

In 1921 the Texas Historical Society requested the Rosenberg Library to become the "official custodian" of the collection, whereby the Library housed and arranged the papers but the Society retained ownership. Ten years later the Texas Historical Society officially transferred all ownership of the collection to the Rosenberg Library.

By 1929 the manuscripts were listed chronologically mainly through the efforts of Ruth Madden and volunteer John M. Winterbotham. Library Director Frank C. Patten recognized the importance of the historical collection and continued and encouraged the practice of collecting important local history.

When Frank Patten died in 1934, cataloguing stopped. Eventually the manuscripts were stored in boxes or bundles in the attic of the old Lecture Hall on the second floor.

On January 18, 1942, the John Miller Winterbotham Memorial Room opened through an endowment from his estate. Over 1,600 volumes and 25,000 manuscripts were included in the collection at this time.

In 1945 the Library hired Ruth G. Nichols to organize and catalog the archives collection into one large chronological file including a subject index.

In 1971 the Rosenberg Library added the Moody Wing, which doubled the size of the original building. This wing included space for the Archives Department to be housed in a fire-proof, climate-controlled, vault with a reading room, workroom and department head office. A separate book room was constructed in 1996.

The Rosenberg Library received a grant of $12,580 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in 1976 to provide access to the Archives Collection through processing and creating finding guides.

The Archives Department was officially renamed the Galveston & Texas History Center in 1983. In addition to answering reference requests for information about Galveston, prepares public programming events, and conducts oral histories.

ee also

*History of the Jews in Galveston, Texas

External links

* [http://www.rosenberg-library.org/ Rosenberg Library]
* [http://www.gthcenter.org/ Galveston & Texas History Center]

References