Galveston was a major gateway to Texas and the rest of the United States.
There were many ways to enter this country in its early history.
The one that comes instantly to mind is Ellis Island in New York. But, as an exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History reminds us, there was an equally important entry point in Texas - the Port of Galveston.
The exhibit is open at the museum through April 1. It's a project of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, named for the late and storied lieutenant governor of Texas. This is its fifth and final traveling venue in the state.
Dr. Suzanne Seriff, a museum consultant and anthropologist and senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, is the exhibit's guest curator.
The idea came from a comment by a 10th-grader from her synagogue she had chaperoned on a Jewish heritage trip to Ellis Island. The student asked, "Why do we need to go to New York? My grandparents came through Galveston."
The port was a major entry point from 1845 to 1924 and had a great impact on the state and the diverse groups that made Texas their home in the New World.
"Texas" growth and development would have been very different without the impact of immigrants who came through Galveston," said Van A. Romans, president of the Museum of Science and History.
Seriff said that not all of the immigration was voluntary.
"There was big traffic from other places in the United States through Galveston, where blacks were bought and sold on the auction block in downtown Galveston on the square and in auction houses," she said.
On June 19, 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed at Galveston and announced that slaves were now free. That date is commemorated in the widespread Juneteenth celebrations in Texas.
The Galveston Historical Foundation (galvestonhistory.org) has compiled a listing of immigrants who entered Texas through the Port of Galveston. (Select "Education," then "Texas Seaport Museum," then "Immigration Database.")
The display at the museum highlights the trials of immigration through personal stories, interactive kiosks and more than 200 original artifacts and documents.
Immigrants faced not only the dangerous journey but also bureaucratic challenges, establishing a new life in a new land and in some cases discrimination.
"My desire was to use this exhibit about a piece of immigration history as a way to create a dialogue to ask questions about who can be an American and who gets to decide," Seriff said.
Her biggest "aha" moment during five years of research by her team was that the stories of the challenges of immigration are essentially the same across 150 years of history.
"Dangers are similar. Conflict over who belongs is similar. Navigating the bureaucracy is similar. Trying to get by in a new land without speaking the language is similar. Facing racial prejudice is similar," Seriff said.
"The issues aren't that different," she said. "America has struggled with these questions through its history just as every country does, and it has had waves of being very open and being very closed."
