Celebrating 75

This online exhibit features photographs from the opening of the San Jacinto Monument and the San Jacinto Museum of History, April 20 and 21, 1939. Found in the museum's archives in a variety of formats including print and negative images, the majority of the photographs were acquired in 1948 from an unknown source. Other documents are from the archives of the museum's Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library.

The opening of the San Jacinto Museum of History was planned by a committee of historians, educators, and public persons across the state. Special care was taken to invite representatives of historical organizations throughout the United States, as well as those governments formerly exercing sovereignty over Texas and governments having diplomatic relations with the Republic of Texas. This oversized engraved invitationincludes an embossed image of the San Jacinto Monument, and shows the names of the lead organizers of the two-day opening event. Said the Dallas News on April 7: "State Press has never been in receipt of a more elegant invitation. If the program half lives up to the invitation, it will be a work of art."

Special guests responded using an engraved RSVP card, such as this one returned by Oveta Culp Hobby, who attended as the representative of the Texas Newspaper Publishers Association. Representatives from Great Britain, France, Italy, China, the Dominican Republic, and the Vatican were present.

Looking down from the Observation Floor, on the morning of the dedication of the San Jacinto Memorial Monument, Thursday, April 20, 1939, northwest side of the Monument. The chairs are