Galveston, TX – July 28, 2023
Long before housing The Bryan Museum, our historic building at 1315 21st Street in Galveston served as a refuge to children in need. For almost a century, The Galveston Orphans’ Home served our island community and provided care for orphaned children, as well as those whose parents were not able to support them.
In honor of the 6,500 young lives who passed through the Home, as well as the people, organizations, and local businesses that helped to keep it operating, The Bryan Museum is proud to announce our upcoming exhibit spotlighting their stories.
The exhibit will include information taken directly from newspapers of the time, personal accounts of former residents and workers, and detailed records from the former orphanage. These will be presented in an engaging timeline of the Home spanning from its founding in 1878, to its reconstruction after the 1900 storm, and through its eventual closure in 1984.
Featuring the Museum’s most interactive displays ever curated and video interviews from former orphan residents, this exhibit will transcend the cataloged history of the building by sharing personal stories of some of the individuals who experienced it firsthand. Please join us in an immersive retelling of this important part of Galveston’s history.
The exhibit will run from July 29th until January 7, 2024. Exhibit related programming will include specialty tours given twice a month as well as two Fall lectures.