You had europeans, mainly germans coming into the port of galveston and as a group settling a different parts of the state of texas. If you had been here in the 1850s german was the most common language spoken in galveston. On the streets, that is what people were talking in. We have a number of groups you can see in galveston today if you go to the garden, you can see what became the center for german entertainment and social life. You can go to st. Joseph church the first German Catholic Church in texas. You can see where they worshiped and where they were educated and how they spent their lives in galveston. But the height of immigration with the late 19th century and early 20th. And it continued up to 1954 when it was no longer a point of interest for immigrants. But the story of that is the backandforth between the state of texas managing immigration and eventually the federal government doing immigration. But it became a place where there want they wanted to push immigrants away from the northeast and bring them into the central part of the country. In the early 20th century, there were something called the galveston, a formal program to bring jewish immigrants to this part of the country. That movement continued for a while and was vve successful was very successful. It brought development to communities in texas but all the way up into kansas. The interesting thing about immigration here is that it wasnt they pulled a botat and everyone jumped off. Immigration was heavily regulated and created about a number of things in the nations history. So in the late 19th century, immigration was heavily inspected. You might arrive on a ship. You travel for months and you travel with the family or by yourself. You land here and look at the barrier island, pretty flat, almost no trees. You mustve thought, oh, my gosh. What is this place going to be . Then you would go through a health inspection. If you did not pass for some reason, and the reluctant ways you could fail, you would be sent to a quarantine station perhaps and you would be youd stay there or be returned to where you came from. And theres a lot of process involved and there was a lot of angst and points of being carefully checked if you cmaame in for Health Reasons as well as the ability to earn a wage and your ability to bring something to this new place you are landing. Today we forget there is this connection to how we developed in the country and in the state of texas, in particular. We think of it as being a 20th century state and area with large cities in land. But if not for the gulf coast this transportation and the viability of bringing in ships we would not exist. In galveston you have to think about it as being the point of creation in texas for what we see as a modern state. Announcer all weekend, American History tv is featuring galveston, texas. The oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery and the united dates originated in galveston. On june 19, 1867, Major GeneralGordon Granger and Union Soldiers landed at galveston with news the civil war was over and slaves were free. Our Comcast Cable partners worked with cspan cities tour staff when we travel to galveston to explore the citys history. Learn more about galveston all weekend on American History tv. [klaxon sounds] announcer in 1917, the submarine force was battling Public Opinion as well as the enemy. Both submarines were but war under the sea was unfair and inhuman. If we paid much attention to these protests, we would not have had that tough s boat and the longrange fleet that made up our small submarine force in 1941. When all the training of 25 useful years was suddenly put to the test. [explosion] a small submarine force based in pearl harbor was not attacked. Inand it soon had the japanese wishing they had been more thorough. Host cavalla is a world war ii summary gato class. She was built in 1943 in commissioned in 1944. She served gallantly. And one of for claims to fame is she sank the Japanese Carrier which was one of the aircraft carriers involved in pearl harbor attacks. Then she went on to think fou to sink four other enemy vessels. In 1944, after the ceasefire, she was put in a decommissioned status and standby. In 1963 she was turned into a submarine hunterkiller. The navy converted her into a platform that whose primary mission was to look for other summaries. They had to add sonar equipment. You can see the deck is falt. Is flat. A lot of people are taken by that. But the original configuration of the sub is not what it was during the war. She had a different sail that surrounded the tower that had machine guns and bigger guns 3 to 5 inch guns that was used for making service attacks. This boat primarily ran on the surface. If you submerged this vessel after a full Battery Charge which takes about six to eight hours. And then you went underwater with a welltrained crew could submerge this boat in under a minute. You would only last about 45 minutes. [explosion] announcer they sank 1178 japanese merchant ships, 214 japanese combat vessels, 2 3 of their merchant fleet, 1 3 of their navy. [explosion] host we are in the forward reporter torpedo room on the cavalla. You will see a couple of torpedo tubes. Two down below in the deck. Two on top. Originally she had six torpedo tubes. After the reconfiguration to make this vessel a hunter, they had to remove the top two tubes so they can install on the exterior of that bulkhead, more sonar equipment to make it one that is capable of going further distances. One of the interesting facts about submarine life is that the crew would often compete who could reload ultrapetrol faster. Ba0 reload a torpedo faster. The had black and tackle. Nowadays we have hydraulics. The guy had to be pretty strong to move these torpedoes. Behind me is the primary weapon used in world war ii. It is not live. The marc 14. 21 feet long and weighs 2500 pounds loaded. It has two speeds. At slow speed, it will go 36 knots for a distance of four miles. On high speed settings, she will go 51 knots for a distance of two miles. Steam driven. She in this version is a contact or peter which means she has to get the enemy to drive a pin in the precharge and into the main charge. Hundreds of men apply yearly for training. They are drawn by the camaraderie. They are screened three times. First for physical fitness, including 2020 vision. Then for intelligence and Fast Reaction time. The lives of 80 men may depend on the quick closing of a hatch. Theres no room for a mistake. The fthird screening is by Navy Psychologist for social adaptability. The easy going,steady sailor fits best into the crowded conditions peculiar to submarine operations. Host usually the biggest thing i hear from people is that the sumbarbmarines, they cannot work on them because they are so tight. 97 out of 100 sailors cannot do this job for one reason or another. Some people can be here in these tight quarters and does not bother them. Some people it bothers a lot. Most people it does. It is more than claustrophobia. There are a lot of Technical Details that at some point you have to learn all the details from stem to stern. You go before boards and make quiz you do you know this system . And then you have a final signoff. Ok, now was in officers country, what is considered officers country. To my right is the pantry, which is where the officers food was served up on nice place with the captain and his men. They were served in here, the ward room where the captain and his men ate, did war strategy, and any socializing the officers have done because they would keep to themselves and not socialize with the crew. But also, i will point out the hole in the wall between the pantry and the ward room. I like to ask people, what is that hole for . A lot of people say it is for passing food. Which is not the case. What it was back in the 1940s television had not been invented or was extremely rare. The officers would have a realtor real projector from the pantry side a reel to reel projector. They will have a movie screen. The officers would watch the old reel to reel type movies. Here you have the captains quarters. This is as good as it got. This is where the best accommodations were. The foot of the captains bed he has indications of the position of the ship, the gyro reprieved orpeater. He could wake up at any time and knkow which way the know which way the boat is going. He would already know what it should be doing because he had left orders. We are still in the after battery compartment. When i say compartment from watertight door to watertight door. This part is called the crews quarters. This is where the crews would sleep. Oftentimes they would share the same bunk. One guy would get up and go to work. The other guy would get back in it. Water was a huge premium because the water you made was primarily used for batteries. You got to take a bath every week or 10 days. The guy stinks as bad as you. Announcer each man must acquire a working knowledge of each department of the submarine. The men Study Communications and engineering classes they become familiar with both the diesel and the battery propulsion systems. They learn to load and fire torpedoes. They studied damage control and how to save a crippled ship. They learn how to dive their summaries, to take her donw iwn in less than a minute. Host here we have the control of what you see various panels for systems. I am looking at an electrical panel, the old style breakeres. You have Power Supplies to the right of that. Here you will see a power supply, which the navy uses on their vessels, gyro compass is as opposed to magnetic compasses. Gyro compass always gives you turerue north. A magnetic compass will give you magnetic north. You would have to use various competition competitions to make sure you got to true no rth. Plus all the metal would have an adverse effect. Here you see the controls. Two wheels control the the stern and bow planes which give the submarine angle to go up and down. To my right, you will see a bunch of handles that opera close open or close valves or open and close tanks which you can flood. Empty the tanks to put more weight on the sub. The way we get the water out is close out the introduce High Pressure air and it blows out of the bottom. A summary is two the submarine is towwo hulls. Between the two hulls are tanks that you flood or deflood to give you that balance affect. Visitors that come to our park and check out the cavalla, i hope they walk away with a sense of sacrifice these men make everyday. They are still out there today serving our country, but the conditions they face is something that most people have never seen or experienced. Announcer all weekend American History tv is featuring galveston, texas. Established by the proclamation issued by the Mexican Congress the port of galveston is the oldest in the gulf of mexico west of new orleans. Our Comcast Cable partners, the cspan cities tour staff recently visited many sites. Learn more about galveston all weekend here on American History tv. Announcer our collecting policy is collecting anything related to galveston from its founding in the 1830s to the present as well as documents relating to the history of the early republic of texas up to the civil war. Most of our patrons come in looking for genealogy information. Galveston was a port of entry for immigrants. So so there is a lot of genealogist coming here looking for information on their ancestors. The first thing i want to show you is our oldest map in the collection a map done by Jean Baptiste benard de la harpe in 1721. It is the earliest known rendering of galveston harbor and bay. The reason i wanted to show it is a lot of historians were unaware that this was a drawing of galveston and the harbor. They thought it was done of another bay. So they have not acknowledged it as a drawing of galveston, but it is the earliest known rendering of the island, the harbor, and the natural bay. Some of the other items we are going to look at today are documents from the collections of some of the founders of galveston. Again, they are the earliest collections we have here in the history center. Well head out to the reading room and take a look at the documents out there. The city began in 1837 after q a texas won after texas won its independence from mexico. Since galveston was already a major port, they wanted to start a city here. So a group of men were entrusted with the task of setting up basically a city on the island. The next document is actually from the james morgan papers. It was also an early founder of galveston. It actually lists the original stockholders of the galveston city company. Here you can see mckinney and williams who actually were in Partnership Together and had their own business. Mckinney and williams were actually businessman and they were cotton traders. And they really wanted to establish themselves as the primary route for Cotton Growers in texas to transport their cotton out of the republic of texas. They pretty much wanted to have be the primary transporters of that. So, they are businessman merchants, primarily. The next letter we are going to look at is a letter written from Andrew Jackson to sam houston. Andrew jackson at this point is in retirement at the hermitage in tennessee. And sam houston is president of texas. Its written in january 1844. Sam houston knew Andrew Jackson from his time back east. He had served under Andrew Jackson in the military. He was involved in politics in tennessee. And so, he and Andrew Jacksons knew each other from before houston time in texas. Circumstances pushed houston to texas. He became involved in the effor ts here to gain independence and the push for annexation and joining the United States. That issue had gone back and forth between prior president of texas and u. S. President s. Both sides at one point or another refusing. There were issues going on annexing a state that accepted slavery was an issue. Great britain getting involved. Sparing the United States to an spurring the United States to annex texas. In 1884 it became a major issue any gets revisited. So Andrew Jackson writes to his friend sam houston basically saying that it would really benefit the future prosperity of texas and the United States for this to happen. He ends the letter saying, god bless you. Is the prayer of your friend, Andrew Jackson. The 1900 storm for galveston is a major event in the islands history. Theres been a lot written about it and said about it, but it lingers today. So, it is still very much a part of galvestonians history and lives today. This letter is a recent acquisition, and its from francis lister, who was a railroad agent. It is written to his two sons. Dear boys. It is a letter basically describing what happened to him and his family during the storm. It goes into great detail about the water rising and the wind picking up and what happened to them through the night of september 8. Its basically letting the boys knoew tw they are ok. He had already sent them telegraphs, but i guess he wanted to go into detail and let them know what happened. It is very poignant. The detail is very descriptive and really gives you a good idea of the horrors these people suffered. Just to give you an idea of how horrible the night was we can read about the water rising and houses being moved off their foundations, but mr. Lister in his letter writes that he needed to send his wife and daughter off the island because he was afraid of the disease, and he was afraid of an epidemic. Ehhhe writes, will send mama and emma to palestine. The town witll be visited by an epidemic. They are so terribly shocked that they must be taken away from here. That gives you idea of the trauma so may suffer during a hurricane. Host the Rosenberg Library is unique in that it has not only in archive and of the collection but also a museum. We have approximately 8000 objects in the collection, including artwork, textiles, weaponry glass all sorts of wonderful things. Well recently, the smithsonian portrait gallery had an exhibit on the war of 1812 and borrowed this wonderful portrait of jeane la feete who had a base in galveston after the war of 1812. He came here about 1815. Relations between la fete and the u. S. Government soured. He and his brother pierre were hired on as informants for spain, which at the time, mexico was trying to gain independence from spain. So, he used galveston as a base of operations for not only the sort of spying but also his privateering endeavors as well. Its a unique piece. The provenance is interesting. A local family was building a mansion on broadway. And when they tore down the old house and were laying the foundation for the new one, they discovered a number of confederate artifacts and this painting rolled up in a tent. The family took this as possible jean lea fete painting. In the 1970s, the piece was donated to the library. However, it was speculation that led early foflslks to believe this was jean la fete. It has really caught fire, much like all the history with la fete there is a lot of mythology that is difficult to disentangle from fact. A few experts have taken a look at this portrait an and concluded it is most likely not la fete for a number of reasons, including the cost and hes wearing. The hat looks like it belongs more in the 1600s rathern than the 1800s. The lack of an undershirt, very central for an early 19th century proper portrait. Notice the way hes holding a dagger. That would be the dagger would be facing down. So this is a very foreboding man. He is going to stab you in the back when you in the back when youre not looking or stab from up above. Some folks have speculated that it might just be a fanciful victorian interpretation of la fete. And another idea is that it migh