Podcast: From Mercantile Roots to Cultural Cornerstone: The 150-Year Evolution of Rosenberg Library

Mike:
We're what is referred to as a GLAM, and GLAM stands for Gallery, library, archive, and Museum. Very few institutions have all four. Many institutions that are 2 or 3 of those perhaps.
And so we're unique that we have all for under one and for a city of Galveston size, a GLAM. The size and scope of what we have here is truly amazing It was what brought me to Galveston was the ability to be a part of this.

J.R.:
Hello and welcome to Galveston Unscripted. In this episode today, I sit down with the director of the Rosenberg Library, Mr. Mike Miller. Mike and I discuss the 12 decade long history of the Rosenberg Library, one of Galveston's great institutions. Officially opened in June of 1904 as one of the many generous gifts to the city of Galveston from Swiss immigrant Mr. Henry Rosenberg. Rosenberg arrived on Galveston Island in February of 1843 at the age of 19. He became a wealthy merchant and died in 1893 with no children to pass along his wealth. Rosenberg's will outlined several projects, including the establishment of a new and improved public library for the residents of Galveston, but the roots of this library stem back to 1871, making it one of the oldest public libraries in Texas.

Without further ado, let's hop right into this episode with Mister Mike Miller, director of the Rosenberg Library.

J.R.:
The Rosenberg is the premier place to research history here in Galveston. So I wanted to have you on and just talk to you about the history of the library and talk a little bit about research libraries and what you guys have to offer.

Mike:
So a little bit about the library itself, as the Rosenberg Library got our start from Henri Rosenberg, who was a Swiss merchant in Galveston. He was a very successful merchant, made a whole lot of money, and died childless. And so he had all this money to leave and in his will he set aside portions of money for certain causes around Galveston. There's the Rosenberg fountains, I think it's about 17 other left around, the Orphan's home was funded with Rosenberg money, but the biggest chunk of his estate was set aside to create a public library for the city of Galveston. And that was Henry's wish that there was a place for people to come learn to grow, to hear lectures, to have access to literature and information. And that was that was really important for him to do that. So that's the bulk of his money. It was that time 1895 it was $600,000 in today's dollars but that was the genesis of the library.

In his will, he also said that nothing could happen for five years because he wanted the money to sit and grow before they would for what's called the Rosenberg Library Association, which is the governing body of the library. So they did form in 1900, but bids for a building were not. And they erected the building that we're in now in 1904. That's the Rosenberg Library. But our history actually dates earlier in 1871, the chamber of Commerce, of which Henry Rosenberg was a member, I believe he was a part of this effort to create what was called the Galveston Mercantile Library by its name. The Mercantile was a library put together by the area merchants. It was a subscription library, so people had to pay an annual subscription to be a member and be able to go in and use it. That was a pretty typical way the library started.

You saw that all across the country, kind of like what a subscription library sounds like. It was an opportunity for these businessmen. And it wasn't just the businesses, it was the business owners and the merchants. Then instead of them all buying their own copies of books, they could go in together. And so it was almost like a co-op. And that way it's a ways for people know what co-ops are. And so that's what it was there and it would be newspapers, magazines. So they would do like a subscription to the Mercantile Library.

J.R.:
It would have a subscription to the Cincinnati Times or something that would come in.

Mike:
Then they could have it, and then they could go sit and read it in the reading room at the Mercantile Library and then a book collection there. But there were also probably was reference collection as well, to help them with things that that would might help them with their businesses instead of, again, instead of each business buying their own copy, they could go in together. And yeah, it's our library, which is why this was a fairly common phenomenon across the country, as you saw mercantile libraries popping up in the mid to late 19th century.

Within a couple of years, it became a free library. So they dropped the subscription and then over time, from 1871 to 1904, it went back and forth between the chamber running it and the city running it. But and the city agreed to put up some money, and they ran it and then the city stopped caring about it. So the chamber stepped in to keep it going. And I just I went back and forth. When the Rosenberg Library opened in 1904, there was a competing what was called the Galveston Free Library, and it was run by the city at that time and so the city approached the Rosenberg Library Association and said, we don't need two libraries. So why don't you take over operations of the Galveston Free library, and the city will commit some funds to keep it going. The Rosenberg Library Association can take over that public library duties that you usually see in municipalities and so we date ourselves back to 1871 because we claim that libraries history, since we assumed their operations, we brought their collection over. I say we I was there at the time and and took over that and that's the kind of the genesis of the Rosenberg Library.

Mike:
So at the same time that the Galveston Mercantile Library started, there was an organization that was created in Galveston called the Texas Historical Foundation, and it went by different names at different times. When it started, essentially, it was a group of guys. They were acknowledging that a lot of the people who had lived through the Texas Revolution and the early Republic days of when Texas was an independent republic, that they were starting to die off and move up like that, and no one was making an effort to preserve their history. So they formed this organization for the sole purpose of reaching out to the people, collecting documents, collections, stories to create an early Texas history collection and they off and on they were active in active and active. And the collection just floated around Galveston throughout the first 20, 30 years.

When the storm, Great Storm hit (1900 Storm), the library and the historical foundation were both office in the Scottish Rite building, just down the street here. They were on the top floor. That building was, of course damaged as most of the island was. It wasn't completely destroyed. The library side was spared. The side with the historical group was that's the side where the wall collapsed and whatnot. And so they lost a significant part of that collection.

J.R.:
Oh, man.

Mike:
And the guys that were running it at the time, in the early 1900s, recognized that maybe, one, they weren't the best equipped to be managing and protecting these records. They were also starting, that's when you start to see their focus to the built environment. So this organization is the predecessor to us now, the Galveston Historical Foundation. They renamed stars like the Galveston Historical Society. Like they went through different names at the time before they finally realized, okay, we're going to be focused on the built environment and historic buildings, and maybe we don't need to be collecting paper.

So shortly after the Rosenberg opened, this organization approached the library and said, can we deposit our collections at the library to keep them safe? And within a year after that deposit, they came back and said, why don't you just own them? They're now your collection, and that is the genesis of what is now the Galveston, Texas History Collection. Our collection has a statewide focus for for antebellum Texas because of the collective efforts of that early organization. And we had such a phenomenally rich early Texas history collection that came with that and we still build on to that, but we don't collect Texarkana after the Civil War. The focus is pre-Civil War Texas for Texas and then Galveston from pre-history to present day.

J.R.:
And you guys have some pretty amazing artifacts in the library on top of written accounts of early Galveston, early Texas old maps dating back to the 15, 16, 1700s.

Mike:
We do. Yeah. We have the first map that's known that identified Galveston Bay as Galveston Bay. It's, early 18th century, 1722. It's a map. It's a French map.

Mike:
There's a third kind of arm of the library is our museum, the special collections department of the library. It oversees the archives and the museum but in the information world, we're what is referred to as a GLAM and GLAM stands for Gallery, Library, Archive, Museum. So those are the kind of those are like the four pillars of the information library world. Very few institutions have all four. many institutions that are 2 or 3 of those, perhap. So we're unique that we have all four under one. For a city of Galveston size, a GLAM the size and scope of what we have here is truly amazing. What was what brought me to Galveston was the ability to be a part of this, because I think it really is unique.

J.R.:
Going inside that library, especially the old section, the 1904 building, the original part is really cool to see. So the original building, of course, is still there, and then it's had the addition onto the back.

Mike:
The Moody Wing which was built and opened in 1971. So even that is now more than 50 years old. Yeah, it's actually now part of our National Register listing to talk about race and libraries, just because we've, for so much of our history, has been segregated and the Rosenberg Library was no different. But we did have one of the, if not the first libraries for African-Americans at what's now the Old Central Cultural Center, that was the Old Central High. And so the Rosenberg had what was then called the "Colored Branch" which was the terminology of the day and that was something it was actually the community had requested the Rosenberg Library Association to open a branch there, and the Rosenberg Library Association agreed without any contention that I like in the minutes and stuff. That was one of the very first libraries for African-Americans in the state. And then the Rosenberg desegregated pretty quietly. I think, like a lot of things in Galveston, it just kind of just happened. When that did, they no longer saw the need to maintain a second location. So all that just kind of get absorbed. If you go to the Rosenberg Library Museum's web page and go to our treasures of the month, the backstories, there's 2 or 3 really nice blog posts on there about some of those first librarians of the "Colored Branch" and the work that they did. That's a great place if you want to learn more about that story.

J.R.:
Mike, thank you so much for coming in today. I really appreciate you. I appreciate everything the library has helped me with my research and live events that we've done over there in the past year or so. So thanks for everything, man. I really appreciate it. You.

Mike:
Thank you.