Discover Texas History: Explore the Manuscripts at the San Jacinto Museum
OUR COLLECTIONS PROVIDE powerful insight into Texas’s past. Approximately 160 linear feet of manuscripts in the Museum’s collections include:
- Codices
- Colonial grants and conveyances
- Papal bulls
- Royal cedulas and viceregal decrees
- Acts of the Council of the Indies
- Orders of the Inquisition
- Chronicles and reports of the conquistadors and missionaries’ entradas
- Records of haciendas, pueblos, convents, presidios, and colleges
- Documents pertaining to the Spanish and Manila galleons and of the Navy of the Republic of Texas, schedules of taxation, mining regulations and manifestos of political juntas
- Journals and diaries
- Correspondence relating to the colonial period of Texas, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and life in late 19th century Texas
- Scrapbooks, photograph albums, and autograph albums
- Ledgers and prescriptions
- Tax receipts, deed records, and surveyor’s sketches
- Official government records
- Formal correspondence of great historical significance
From a grant by Queen Isabella of Spain (1502) to letters from a Civil War soldier to a brief history of the U.S.S. Houston in World War II — these pieces of the past put America’s memories right in front of you!
Be sure to take advantage of our finding aids at the Texas Archival Resources Online website. They can help you determine what you need — and where to find it — before you visit.
The library is available to the public on select Fridays and Saturdays, by appointment only. To schedule an appointment call the librarian at 281.479.2421 or reserve a time below.