Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles (542 km2), with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
Galveston County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, located along the Gulf Coast adjacent to Galveston Bay. As of the 2010 U.S. Decennial Census, the population was 291,309. The county seat is the City of Galveston, founded the following year of 1839, located on Galveston Island; the most populous municipality in the county is League City, a suburb of Houston at the northern end of the county, which surpassed Galveston in population during the early 2000s. The county was founded in 1838.
The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a 2.1-square-mile (5.4 km2) medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over sixty medical institutions, largely concentrated in a triangular area between Brays Bayou, Rice University, and Hermann Park, are members of the Texas Medical Center Corporation—a non-profit umbrella organization—which constitutes the largest medical complex in the world. The TMC has an extremely high density of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research.
The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In February 2019, it received an endowment of $560 million.
Port Bolivar is an unincorporated community located on the northern shore of the western tip of the Bolivar Peninsula, separated from Galveston Island by the entrance to Galveston Bay. The Bolivar Peninsula itself is a census-designated place, in Galveston County, Texas, and part of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The entire peninsula was severely damaged during Hurricane Ike on September 13, 2008; re-building efforts were still continuing as late as 2013.
Ben Taub Hospital is a hospital located in Houston, Texas within the Texas Medical Center. Having opened in May 1963, the hospital is owned and operated by the Harris Health System and is staffed by the faculty, residents, and students from Baylor College of Medicine.
The Galveston Island Trolley is a heritage streetcar in Galveston, Texas, United States. As of late 2006, the total network length was 6.8 miles (10.9 km) with 22 stations. The Galveston Island Trolley is operated by Island Transit. The rail system has not been operational in over a decade, when the city was hit by Hurricane Ike and its total fleet of five rail cars and its 6.8 miles of track were severely damaged. Subsequently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Transit Administration have agreed to fund repairs. In January 2017, a contract was approved to restore three of the trolleys at a cost of $3.8M. At that time, the trolleys were expected to be ready to return to service in 2018, but the date was later postponed to 2019 and now 2021. As of November 2020 two reconditioned trolleys have returned to Galveston, but the system still isn't yet operational.
The effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas were crippling and long-lasting. Ike's effects included deaths, widespread damage, and impacts to the price and availability of oil and gas. Hurricane Ike also had a long-term impact on the U.S. economy. Making landfall over Galveston, at 2:10 a.m. CDT on September 13, 2008, Category 2 Hurricane Ike caused extensive damage in Texas, with sustained winds of 110 mph (175 km/h), a 22 ft storm surge, and widespread coastal flooding.
As one of the oldest and more historically significant cities in Texas, Galveston has had a long history of advancements and offerings in education, including: the first parochial school (1847), the first medical college (1891), and the first school for nurses (1890).
The History of Galveston, Texas, begins with the archaeological record of Native Americans who used the island. The first European settlements on the island were constructed around 1816. The Port of Galveston was established in 1825 by the Congress of Mexico following its successful revolution from Spain. The city served as the main port for the Texas Navy during the Texas Revolution. Galveston was founded in 1836 by Matthew Sabo and served as the capital of the Republic of Texas. The Battle of Galveston was fought in Galveston Bay during the American Civil War when Confederate forces under Major General John B. Magruder attacked and expelled occupying Union troops from the city.
The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL) in Galveston, Texas, United States, is a high security National Biocontainment Laboratory housing several Biosafety level 4 research laboratories. The lab is run by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) for exotic disease diagnosis and research. The GNL is one of the 15 biosecurity level 4 facilities in the United States and the largest one in the world located on an academic campus.
The Shriners Hospital for Children (Galveston) is a 30-bed non-profit pediatric burn hospital, research, and teaching center located on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, US. Part of a 22-hospital system, it is one of the three Shriner's Hospitals that specialize exclusively in burn care and consists of an intensive care unit with 15 acute beds and a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 reconstruction beds along with three operating rooms. The hospital is verified as a burn center by the American Burn Association and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In 2012, the hospital joined the Texas Medical Center as its 50th member institution.
Rebecca Sealy Hospital was an eight-story hospital, and one of five hospitals on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1866 as St. Mary's Hospital, a private, Catholic, general hospital, but was purchased in 1996 by the Sealy & Smith FoundaFoundationtion. The foundation renamed it and donated it to the university for use as a psychiatric, outpatient surgery, and research hospital.
The Sealy & Smith Foundation is a charitable foundation incorporated in Texas and based in the island city of Galveston. It was established in 1922 by John Sealy, II and his sister Jennie Sealy Smith with a charter stating a mission to:
"support of a charitable undertaking in the City of Galveston, Texas, for the construction, remodeling, enlarging, equipping, and furnishing of the John Sealy Hospital, and other hospital building or buildings in the City of Galveston in connection with the John Sealy Hospital in said city, and endowment thereof, for the use of the people of said City of Galveston and providing them with the necessary medical care and attention therein."
The Shriners Hospital for Children (Houston) is a non-profit, 40-bed pediatric orthopedic hospital, research and teaching center located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, United States. It is one of 22 hospitals belonging to the Shriners Hospital for Children Network. Faculty work closely with the Baylor College of Medicine, Scott White Hospital and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Dr. Herman Aladdin Barnett, lll was an African-American fighter pilot, surgeon and anesthesiologist. He became the first African-American graduate from the University of Texas Medical School in 1953.
Marie Charlotte Schaefer was an early Texas physician and the first woman to become a faculty member of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).
George Sealy (1835–1901) was a Galveston businessman born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He moved to Texas in 1857 to join his brother, and worked at Ball, Hutchings and Company in Galveston. During the Civil War, he served as a private in the Confederate Army.
