Unboxing History

Unboxing History: Back to School Edition

• Unboxing History | History Expert Jodi Wright-Gidley & Galveston Author Christine Hopkins • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Join hosts Christine Hopkins and Jodi Wright-Gidley as they unbox the rich history of Galveston County’s schools in this special Back to School edition of Unboxing History! Discover unique artifacts ranging from an 1885 teaching certificate to a 1920s report card, and hear the stories behind them. Whether you’re a history buff or just curious about Galveston’s past, this episode offers a glimpse into some unique artifacts in the museum’s collection. 

Special thanks to the Galveston Chamber of Commerce for their ongoing support and Shawn Schoellkopf for creating and performing the theme music.

Thank you for listening to Unboxing History, presented by the Galveston County Museum.
For more information on the Museum, visit our website.

History of the Galveston County Museum
The Galveston County Museum was formed in 1976. It was located on Market Street for many years. After Hurricane Ike damaged the HVAC and electrical systems in 2008, the unharmed artifacts were moved. Now, the museum is located in the Galveston County courthouse building at 722 Moody/21st Street in Galveston.

​Galveston County Museum is a joint project of the Galveston County Commissioners Court and Galveston County History, Inc. The museum cares for a collection of 20,000 artifacts and archives. We also maintain the Historical Commission's library. If you are interested in research or donating an artifact related to Galveston County history, please call 409.766.2340.

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Episode 16

[00:00:00] 

Christine Hopkins: Welcome to Unboxing History, a podcast where we take a deep dive into the collection of the Galveston County Museum.

I'm Christine Hopkins. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: And I'm 

Christine Hopkins: Jodi 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Wright Gidley. Each episode we unbox an artifact or two from the museum's collection and we uncover the stories behind them. 

Christine Hopkins: So we're calling this podcast Unboxing History Back to School Edition. So we have some interesting items that are part of the collection that we're gonna unbox in honor of the start of school.

What do we have, Jodi? 

Yeah, 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: so today we're unboxing eight school related items from the museum's collection. They range in date from 1885 to 1932.

So let's start with a teaching certificate from 1885. 

So this is from 1885 and this certificate states that Ms. Lizzie Seaman was certified by the Galveston Schools to teach third grade.

And so this was a time when cities [00:01:00] and counties managed their own school systems. It wasn't really state overseen by the state at all until 1911, and that's when the state took over certification and and created all of the rules that we have now with our school system. 

Christine Hopkins: So it was really on the job training.

Mm-hmm. To be certified to teach. That's pretty interesting. It had to be a little stressful too. 

Yeah. 

So at that time, how many schools or teachers did we have? 

Well, I found in 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: 1907 that Galveston County had 18 school systems. 

Wow, that's a lot, you would think. 

Mm-hmm. Yep. On the mainland, bolivar, everywhere.

And so what do we have next? Okay. We have more things in this box. 

So the next item we have is a report card. This report card is from the 19 25 26 school year. It belonged to Roy Nunn, who was a third grader. He went to Sam Houston School and he made pretty good grades, lots of Bs.

He missed a few days, but he was never tardy. And so in the research I did, what I found was this cute little story from the newspaper. [00:02:00] So at the end of the school year, the third graders got to have a picnic on the beach. 

Okay? 

And Mr. And Mr. Kelsey donated ice cream to the students. So then the next day in school, the teacher assigned the students to write a thank you note and they picked the best thank you notes to then send on to Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey and Roy Nunn's Thank You note was one of the chosen ones. 

Aw. 

Now we don't have the note, but that would be fun if we did. But, um, it's just really interesting to be able to connect an artifact to that story from the newspaper. It's just a cute story. 

Christine Hopkins: And when you're in third grade, or even anytime, I mean, for us it was, oh my gosh, we're in the newspaper, but now it's for, oh, we're online in the digital paper.

But what a cool treat. 

Mm-hmm. 

Your letter to be in this article in the newspaper when you're in third grade, especially at that time. That's a charming story. 

Mm-hmm. 

So, um, 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: oh, the other thing about this I was gonna mention was it includes this phrase, it says the home and the school should work together for the good of the child.

[00:03:00] That really stood out to me because it certainly still applies today. 

Yes, it definitely does. 

So do we have any photos of Sam Houston Elementary? 

Christine Hopkins: Yeah. Um, the school was originally known as Bath Avenue School because it was on, what was then Bath Avenue. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Mm-hmm. 

Which is today? 25th Street. 

Okay. 

But this is a picture of the school in the 1900 storm.

Oh my gosh. 

And so it was the one that many people may have seen somewhere before where the, the whole side of the building is gone and the the desks are hanging out. They're, they're actually bolted to the floor in, in the school. A lot of schools did that then, and they're falling out the wall. And so that was the Sam Houston school that was damaged in the 1900 Storm.

Christine Hopkins: Well, so this is before our student went to this school. 

Right. 

But what an amazing picture. And then when you think about that, Galveston, because of our resilience recovered, you know that you look at that kind of picture and you're like, okay, however many years later, we're gonna have this school ready for our students because we're gonna overcome the deadliest natural disaster in the United [00:04:00] States history.

Yeah, 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: with resilience and determination. 

And we're in the anniversary time, so it is the 125th anniversary this September of that storm. 

Christine Hopkins: So we've talked about teachers, we've talked about. Students, how about how they got to school? 

So the 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: next artifact we have is a bus pass. So I'm not really sure how many buses ran for the school at that time, but what this is is the Galveston Electric Company ran the street cars 

Uhhuh

 And they would allow students to ride the street cars to school if they were older.

And so this is for, um, a guy named Irwin Voight and he was a ball high school student. And so this pass lets him ride the bus to school. The city electric cars. And so what's interesting too about it is on the back it explains that if you tried to get this pass and you were not a student, you would, that was a misdemeanor and you would be fined 25 to 100 dollars. So they took this very seriously. Only students could have these special bus passes. 

And 

Christine Hopkins: they could only have it during the [00:05:00] school year. 

Yes. 

So I thought that's interesting. So no fun riding on the electric cars when you're not in school, but, and that's a pretty significant penalty given that time.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

So, um, I love that this gives us a good glimpse of what everyday life was. Mm-hmm. So before school buses, everyone, you rode the electric cars to school, so, oh, anything else about Irwin? 

Well, so 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: in our research with about Irwin, I found that he graduated Ball High School and then he became a minor league baseball player.

He played for the Galveston Rattlers in the 1940s. 

How cool is that? Do we have pictures of the Galveston Rattlers? 

I don't. I don't have those. 

Christine Hopkins: So if anyone has any donate 'em to the museum. 

Yeah, we can add that to the collection. There's always an opportunity to give. So you had mentioned we're approaching the 125th anniversary of the 1900 Storm.

What else do we have related to that? 

So 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: I was curious to, you know, think about Ball High School students around the 1900 Storm and I found this picture. So this is the class that graduated in 1900, so they would've graduated in [00:06:00] May, so before the storm came. And so then I got curious. To kind of read a little more into the storm and the students, and I found that there's a gentleman in this picture that is listed on the death list that Rosenberg library has on their website.

Wow. 

And so it was just really, um, just really sad to think about that. 

Well, 

Christine Hopkins: it really brings history to life. When you have, you can put names to the faces. Um, and you know, if you haven't been to the Galveston County Museum, we, I know we've done several podcast episodes about it, but this museum has an incredible 1900 Storm exhibit and, you know, it's here year round.

And to me, seeing the items in it really personalizes, um, that story, you know, um, do you wanna say just a little bit about that? 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Sure. So our 1900 Storm exhibit is here all the time. Like you mentioned, we have one of the really most unique artifacts in our exhibit that no, you can't see anywhere else, and that's the inquest book.[00:07:00] 

Um, so this inquest book was created, um, on Bolivar, so. People had washed ashore on Bolivar and the Justice of the Peace documented those people he found. He collected personal items if he could, and in hopes that the family would come around and look for their loved ones they had lost. It lists 86 people in the book, only four were identified by anybody after that.

So it's just, just a really poignant artifact.

Christine Hopkins: And to see those personal items, you know, glasses and buttons and rings and, I mean, it's just, it's really something. So we encourage you to come and visit the museum for that. So we have more, we have more photos. Um, what other photos do you 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: have? 

So a couple more.

So we don't wanna leave the mainland out because they certainly had schools there too. And so one of the unique stories about mainland schools is the Santa Fe ISD. So Santa Fe was a community of three different little smaller communities. Alta Loma, Algoa and Arcadia. They each had their own little school, but [00:08:00] they really struggled to get teachers to teach there.

And, um, so one of the things they did as, as the communities grew is the families wanted their kids to go to high school and not stop at elementary level. And so they built a consolidated high school. They named it Santa Fe after the railroad that connected all the towns. And so the school came before the town of Santa Fe.

Santa Fe didn't incorporate until the late seventies, but the school had already been there. And so it was just a, a unique thing that the school came before the town. 

Christine Hopkins: I never realized that Santa Fe wasn't incorporated. You said, you know, until the 19, late 1970s, I mean, to me it's been around forever.

Mm-hmm. 

So that's really fascinating. And, and, and again, look, what did you say? There were 18 school districts 

mm-hmm. 

At that, you know, way back when. Yeah. And now we have a lot less. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Mm-hmm. 

Christine Hopkins: So next up, what do we have? 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Okay, so the next thing we have is a picture from LaMarque. So this is LaMarque students in 1932, high school students. I don't know a lot about 'em, but what's interesting is [00:09:00] their clothing, um, they had the drop waist dresses and skirts were such the rage back then, I guess because almost all the girls are wearing them. 

Mm-hmm. 

So it's just fun to look at old fashion. 

Christine Hopkins: And it looks like we even have a girl in, you know, 

a little overalls. 

Overalls there. Oh my gosh. But yeah, this kind of shows, you know, the dress of the time and, and they all have real similar Bobbed haircuts too.

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. I think I had that haircut at one point. So, um, you know, remember if you have photos or information about anything in the collection, please reach out to Jodi at the County Museum 'cause we're always looking to add to those stories. 

One of the lesser known facts about Galveston is that we're home to a lot of Texas firsts. I mean the first public library, the first, um, hospital or teaching hospital, first nursing school, first courthouse. I mean, all these different things. First, electric lights, all these things. So one of the things that we are home to is the First African American high school in Texas. So you found something related to that? 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: I did. 

[00:10:00] Yeah. So we have a picture from Old Central, which was the high school for black students here from 1885. And the school was segregated until our, the schools in Galveston were segregated until 1968. And so this picture is Central High drill team, and we don't know the date, I'm guessing the fifties.

We don't know the names of the people, so we're working on that. Um, we have been to Rosenberg Library and we looked through the yearbooks they have in their collection and we didn't find this picture to help us identify it, but we're working on it and hopefully we will soon. If anybody thinks they can help us out, let us 

know.

Christine Hopkins: Well, when you look at the picture, they're standing, uh, for those of you that are listening, they're standing in the stands, and they have an American flag on one side and there's Central High Bearcats, um, flag on the other. And there's all these great uniforms and in the front it looks like they have like a little girl who's a mascot and probably their sponsor, but someone may know someone [00:11:00] in this photo, so we'd love to hear from you.

They have these great uniforms and on the top they have these kind of pill box hats. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Mm-hmm. 

Christine Hopkins: And they have their boots and I can't imagine, I bet those uniforms are made out of wool. You know how they did that? 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: They look hot.

Christine Hopkins: They do look hot. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: The other thing that's interesting is the megaphone in front of the group says AJ Rasmussen and Sun Sporting Goods.

So I guess they were the sponsor, you know, one of the sponsors of the group that year. 

Christine Hopkins: So reach out to the Galveston County Museum, you know, that we're always wanting to learn more from the community. If you have something in your attic those heirlooms that you're like, I don't really know what to do with this.

If it relates to Galveston County and its pertinent to our history, then talk to Jodi about it. It might be a perfect addition to the museum's collection.

Since we're on the topic of schools and we're about to start another. School year. How does the Galveston County Museum serve our schools? 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well, we certainly welcome field trips, so, um, schools can book a field trip with us. We can take about 30 [00:12:00] students at a time, takes about an hour to go through the museum.

A lot of groups may be bigger than 30. And in that case, let us know and we'll work it out where we'll bring half into the museum, half can go and read the historical markers out in our courtyard, and then we'll switch so everyone gets to experience everything. And so just give us a call. Go to our website, send us an email and we can book it.

Christine Hopkins: And for you parents that are homeschooling your children, this is an excellent educational opportunity. I mean, you could schedule something with Jodi on a Tuesday and Thursday and basically have the whole museum to yourself. Um, through something even like Padlock Mystery, um, which is a game, an interactive game that you can do through the museum.

And then if you are a, um, a, you know, a youth group, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, all those things, this is a wonderful resource. It's available to you. And, um, you know, I, every time that I come into the museum. I always see something new or something that I didn't really notice [00:13:00] before stands out to me and sometimes even gives me chills, you know?

But for those of you that are interested in history and appreciate learning about it, I think that we can all learn about how this, this county has changed and grown and evolved. And the County Museum just does an incredible job of maintaining that information and sharing this information with the public in this small, tight little museum.

You're gonna be surprised at how much there is here. So remember that the County Museum is always looking for donations and, um, please tune in to Unboxing History and subscribe and we'd love to hear from you and let's just keep exploring history one item at a time. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yeah.