The City of Galveston was a busy port of entry for people coming to America from the mid-1800s until 1924.
A new exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum explores the Texas port.
The exhibit, “Forgotten Gateway: Coming to America Through Galveston Island,” is divided into four historical sections, each featuring issues or themes in immigration in America, guest curator Suzanne Seriff said.
“It’s interesting for us historically because it allows us to look at lots of different kinds of immigration patterns, including forced migration of slaves,” Seriff said.
Some of the sections and items featured are a bit controversial, including a Protestant Bible from Checkoslovakia that immigrants kept secret by hiding it in a beehive.
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Immigration Exhibit
News 8 Photo Journalist Sean Farrar takes viewers inside the exhibit at the Bob Bullock museum.
 
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Dave Denney, the director of public programming at the museum, said there’s an area at the end of the exhibit in which visitors can leave comments. He said not all the comments are positive.
“Eighty percent of the reviews are glowing, and then we have another 10-20 percent where it’s just, ‘What were you thinking?
You’re being so political,’ and all these sort of things. And, we feel pretty good about that, too,” Denney said.
Seriff said the discussion is welcomed and the museum is a safe place to talk about issues that are difficult.
The exhibit runs until Oct. 11, and then it travels to Moody Gardens in Galveston before heading to Ellis Island in 2011.
The Bob Bullock museum is located at 1800 N. Congress Ave., at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
For more information visit: www.forgottengateway.com.
