We welcome your support of Our Mission.

Mailing Address: 325 West Main Street, Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
Email:
Phone: 830-990-8441
Fax: 830-990-2906

 

Donate through PayPal

 

 

A monetary donation is always welcome to help facilitate the care, housing, and exhibition of the Gillespie County Historical Society’s (GCHS) vast collection. Your donation may be used to purchase archival supplies, computer equipment, or cabinetry to house our textile and art collections. Additionally, your dollars can help fund a digitization project of a photography collection, a newspaper collection, restoration projects of our historic buildings, new exhibit space in our future master planning phases, and so much more.

 

Contribute a Document, Photograph, or Object

 

The GCHS’s collection is remarkably rich and varied. There are still many unknown documents, photographs and other materials in existence that could provide additional insight into the immigration to and settlement of the Texas Hill Country and the 150+ years of Fredericksburg history.

 

Museum Collections

 

The Gillespie County Historical Society welcomes donations of historical artifacts from the public. The museum accepts three-dimensional objects as well as photographs and archival materials. Possible donations are presented at monthly board meetings, and acceptance is into the museum's artifact collection is determined by considering the following factors:

 

1. Is the object relevant to the mission of the museum (Telling the Story of the Hill Country)?

2. What is the provenance of the object? (i.e., Who made it? Who used it? When and where was it used?)

3. Is the object redundant? Does the museum already have several examples in the collection?

4. Is the museum able to adequately store and care for the object?

5. Is the object in good condition?

6. Does the potential donor have the rights to give away the object?

 

Objects may also be accepted into the museum's educational collection. Objects in the educational collection may be used as exhibit props or hands-on items, and may eventually wear out and need to be destroyed. Educational objects are very important to the museum, and help visitors experience history first hand!

 

Would you like to donate an artifact to the museum? If so, please contact Evelyn Weinheimer, the museums archivist, , or 830-990-8441.

 

 

Contribute Your Story

 

What is it that binds us together as a community? The answer lies in the stories of each Gillespie County individual and families from the earliest days to the present. While these stories can be found in photographs, diaries and newspapers, it is in personal memories and family stories that the past comes to life.

 

By participating in an oral history interview, you can help create a more complete record of the people who built our community. Your memories of the past and your family stories and traditions can help to humanize and animate our community’s history for generations to come.

 

Contribute Your Time

 

Would you like to volunteer your time in the GCHS collections? We are seeking help with the following ongoing projects:

 

1. Identifying cataloging and digitizing photographs.
2. Managing a database that holds artifacts and donor records as received by the museum.
3. Managing an inventory to include cleaning, labeling, photographing, and wrapping/boxing artifacts.
4. Performing general housekeeping of historic structures and exhibited artifacts.
5. Conducting research to include researching artifacts and genealogy exhibits.
6. Conducting and transcribing oral histories.

 

We will train you in any area that you select.

 

Learn more about these and other opportunities to volunteer!