GALVESTON — “Forgotten Gateway: Coming to America Through Galveston” will open at Moody Gardens today and Sunday with special tours and a symphony concert.
The interactive exhibit chronicles the Port of Galveston’s immigrant history from 1845 to 1924. Three truckloads of documents, photos, and displays have been set up in the Discovery Museum to spin an old and yet new story.
Visitors will follow the journeys of immigrants through interactive kiosks and more than 200 original artifacts and documents. They also will be invited to add their story to the tales.
“I hope it will bring tons of people out of the woodwork who are here to tell their stories,” Dr. Suzanne Seriff, the Austin anthropologist who is creator and curator of the exhibit, said.
“I hope it will also bring contemporary immigrants who are here in Galveston working and living, and have them understand their own city a little bit better, and that they have a lot in common with the people who came here a long time ago.”
Seriff, a museum consultant and senior lecturer at the University of Texas, will lead special tours today and Sunday as part of the opening celebration.
“My goal was to use the story of Galveston as a historical lens through which to look at enduring issues in our nation’s history as a nation of immigrants,” she said. “I wanted to provide a safe place for visitors to be able to have a conversation about issues that are difficult to talk about, and immigration is one of those.”
The exhibit comes to Galveston from Austin’s Texas State History Museum, where it set records as the museum’s most well attended temporary exhibit. More than 13,000 visitors toured in the course of eight months there, with one in 10 visitors adding stories and comments.
The exhibit includes:
• Photos, film footage, graphics, narratives and historic artifacts;
• Profiles of the various groups of people who traveled to Galveston including those from Europe, Asia, Africa, Mexico and South and Central America;
• Writing and listening components embedded in the exhibit to provide a hands-on experience and opportunity for discussion;
• Modern immigration stories, with opportunities for visitors to share their stories.
“Forgotten Gateway” will remain at Moody Gardens through Sept. 11, 2010. The exhibit will then travel to Houston Museum of Natural Science, Ellis Island and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.
A pared-down version of the exhibit will come home to Galveston by 2012 in a project coordinated by the Galveston Historical Foundation as part of a comprehensive historical program at the Texas Seaport Museum.
“This exhibit is the first of its kind to explore Galveston’s legacy as a port of entry on a national scale,” John Zendt, Moody Gardens general manager, said in a news release. “We are very excited to have it here on the island and bring to light the little-known yet rich era of Galveston’s history and just how important it was to the growth of Texas and the American Midwest.”
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At A Glance
WHAT: “Forgotten Gateway: Coming to America through Galveston Island” exhibit chronicling the Port of Galveston’s history as a major gateway to America immigration from 1845 to 1924
WHEN: Special guided tours at noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. today and also at noon and 1:30 p.m. Sunday; regular exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, through Sept. 11, 2010
COST: $8.95
INFO: 800-582-4673 or www.moodygardens.org.
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Details To Note
At 3 p.m. Sunday, Moody Gardens and the Houston Civic Symphony will present a concert of three classic European works — Smetana’s “Moldau” from “Ma Vlast”; Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 by Brahms with violin soloist Aija Izaks; and Ravel arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” The concert features composers from countries common to immigrants reaching Galveston, and also music from that era.
Admission: $15.95 includes tickets to “Forgotten Gateway.”
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Companion Television Documentary
Today and Sunday, Houston PBS Station KUHT, Channel 8, will air the documentary, “Galveston: Gateway on the Gulf,” detailing how immigrants have shaped Galveston Island’s business, social and cultural history. The program was partially filmed on the tall ship Elissa in 2008, with a number of volunteers participating in period dress. The same group went to the Railroad Museum for filming.
The program will air at 7 p.m. today and at 4 p.m. Sunday.
The documentary also will be shown at Moody Gardens at 10 and 11 a.m. today and Sunday.
