Sunshine and clouds mixed. Hot and humid. High 88F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph..
A few clouds. Low 82F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph.
Updated: June 27, 2026 @ 7:26 am
June 27, 2026
Gerrianne Schaad, special collections manager at the Rosenberg Library’s History Center and Museum, walks among stacks of historical documents in the vault at the center in Galveston on Friday.
Gerrianne Schaad, special collections manager at the Rosenberg Library’s History Center and Museum, looks at photographic diplays removed from a small museum that was located in the American National Insurance Co. building Friday.
Photographs removed from a small museum that was located in the American National Insurance Co. building rest on a table at the Rosenberg Library History Center and Museum on Friday.
Gerrianne Schaad, special collections manager at the Rosenberg Library’s History Center and Museum, looks through photographs and signage removed from a small museum that was located in the American National Insurance Co. building Friday.
Gerrianne Schaad, special collections manager at the Rosenberg Library’s History Center and Museum, walks among stacks of historical documents in the vault at the center in Galveston on Friday.
Gerrianne Schaad, special collections manager at the Rosenberg Library’s History Center and Museum, looks at photographic diplays removed from a small museum that was located in the American National Insurance Co. building Friday.
Photographs removed from a small museum that was located in the American National Insurance Co. building rest on a table at the Rosenberg Library History Center and Museum on Friday.
Gerrianne Schaad, special collections manager at the Rosenberg Library’s History Center and Museum, looks through photographs and signage removed from a small museum that was located in the American National Insurance Co. building Friday.
GALVESTON
Behind a thick vault door inside the Rosenberg Library sits something far more valuable than gold.
Box after archival box stretches into the distance, each one carefully labeled and climate controlled. Inside are millions of pieces of Galveston’s story — handwritten letters from the days of the Republic of Texas, century-old photographs, insurance records, family papers, newspapers, maps and artifacts that together tell nearly 200 years of island history.
Every document is another thread in the fabric of Galveston.
“We’re going back to the Republic of Texas,” Special Collections Manager Gerrianne Schaad said as she described the breadth of the collection. The center houses millions of records documenting Galveston County’s people, businesses, churches, neighborhoods and everyday life.
And every day, Schaad worries about the stories that haven’t made it into the vault yet.
“The place on the island that collects history,” is how Schaad describes the Galveston and Texas History Center at the Rosenberg Library. But preserving the past isn’t just about protecting fragile documents from the 1800s. Increasingly, it’s about convincing people that today’s photographs and memories are tomorrow’s history.
Researchers visit to trace family trees, uncover the history of century-old homes or search for long-forgotten photographs. Others arrive hoping to find evidence of a relative whose existence has been reduced to family stories.
Sometimes, staff members are able to find a long-forgotten photograph in the archives, Schaad said.
For families searching for a glimpse of a grandparent or great-grandparent, that discovery can be overwhelming.
“The person who emails and says, ‘Do you have anything about my grandfather?’ … they’re crying, we’re crying, because we made them happy. Suddenly something that was just a story becomes real.”
The work has taken on new urgency in the digital age.
For generations, families stored photographs in albums that could sit safely on a shelf for decades. Today, thousands of images live only on cell phones, vulnerable to broken devices, forgotten passwords and obsolete technology.
“If we don’t preserve it now … we’re not going to do it in five years or 10 years,” Schaad said. “With photographs, it’s easier. You can put them on a shelf. But with phones, with digital, it’s different.”
That’s why the History Center has expanded its efforts beyond simply collecting old records. Staff members now encourage residents to donate digital photographs and documents from recent events — hurricanes, Mardi Gras, Dickens on The Strand, beach days, neighborhood gatherings and everyday life across the island.
“Photographs of events, photographs of places and photographs of people,” Schaad said when asked what the center hopes to preserve.
To many people, history means the 1900 Storm, pirate legends or Victorian mansions.
Schaad sees history differently.
Most people don’t realize that what happened only a few years ago is already becoming difficult to document, she said.
The library has extensive collections from the 1900 Storm, but far fewer materials from Hurricane Harvey, which struck in August 2017, because many people never considered their own photographs historically significant.
Things like snapshot of children playing on Stewart Beach, cars lined up for Mardi Gras, a neighborhood after Hurricane Ike or snow covering Galveston during the rare 2021 winter storm may seem ordinary today becomes invaluable decades later.
“I can say what cars looked like in that time period,” Schaad said while looking at an old photograph of Murdochs on the seawall. “I can say what bathing suit costumes looked like. I can say what people did.”
No photograph is too ordinary, she said.
Perhaps that’s because the History Center isn’t just preserving famous people.
“Everybody has a story,” Schaad said. “And every story should be told.”
That philosophy extends from prominent families like the Moodys to everyday Galvestonians whose names never appeared in history books but whose lives helped shape the island.
As new collections arrive — including materials recently donated following the closure of American National’s museum space — staff members are building digital exhibits that weave those images into Galveston’s broader story while continuing to ask residents for photographs and records from their own lives.
Living on the Gulf Coast means history can disappear in a single storm, Schaad said. Records kept in flood-prone homes or businesses can be ruined beyond repair, but donating them now allows the library to digitize and preserve them before disaster has a chance to erase another piece of Galveston’s story.
Preserving family photographs doesn’t necessarily mean donating them to an archive. Schaad recommends residents keep multiple copies of their digital images by storing them in at least three places — on their phone, backed up to a computer and saved on an external hard drive or another secure backup. She also encourages printing especially meaningful photographs and storing them in a safe, dry place above potential floodwater. Taking those steps now, she said, can help ensure today’s memories survive long enough to become tomorrow’s history.
For Schaad, preserving history isn’t simply about protecting the past.
It’s about making sure future generations can understand the present.
“We love Galveston history,” she said. “We’re here to help them preserve it — either here at the library or at their own home. If they live on the island, if they come visit, they have a piece of the history. And we can tell them how to preserve it.”
Corey Greineisen: corey.greineisen@galvnews.com; 409-683-5226
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