Museum & Visitor Center of the Bastrop County Historical Society
904 Main Street, Bastrop, Texas 78602
(512) 303-0904
Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm
Museum Archives
The Society's Research Library contains 5,300 books, publications, newspapers, letters, maps, and genealogical and biographical material on the history of Bastrop County, its towns, communities, schools, historical buildings and early families. Cemetery records, family files and many out-of-print materials are available for research.
The museum archives house past issues of the Bastrop Advertiser, dating back to the 1880s.
While books and other archival materials are restricted to on site use, staff members are available to assist and make copies (subject to copyright) for a minimal fee. You may search our records during your visit. Please use our contact form to make an appointment so we can be available to assist.
Archive Resources
Our extensive photograph archive contains over 5,500 items, including a picture of the 1889 reunion of Terry's Texas Rangers, classroom photos of rural schools in the late 1800s, a fat man contest on Bastrop's Main Street circa 1900, the 1889 Old Iron Bridge across the Colorado River, and the beautiful entrance into the cemetery where German prisoners of war who died at Camp Swift are buried. The archive also contains 9,000 documents, 2,050 objects and 716 reference books.
For more information about the Bastrop County Historical Society Archives, call 512-303-0057.
Artifact Donation Process
Thank you for your interest in donating an artifact (including historical records) to the Bastrop County Historical Society! New artifact donations help us better tell the story of Bastrop County and its people by filling gaps in our collection. Most of our artifacts are received as donations from the public.
We cannot accept objects dropped off. Please read the information below and complete the Artifact Donation form (to the right).
What to Tell Us!
The more information you can tell us about your artifact, the better. Who used it? How and where did they use it? Who made it? How did you come to have it? What Bastrop County story does it tell? We also need to know the object is in good condition and free from contaminants like mold, unsafe chemicals, or hazardous materials such as asbestos.
Send Us Pictures!
Photographs of the artifact will help us evaluate your potential donation. Please send an image of what the object looks like today. Historical photographs of the object in use or of the people who used it are also valuable. If your artifact is accepted, we would be grateful for digital copies of these historical photographs! Although we prefer you email the photos, you can also drop them off at the Visitor Center desk labeled for Heather Bloom, our Collections Manager.
What Happens Next?
The Collections Manager will make an initial assessment of the artifact. We may contact you if we need more information, or we may need to conduct outside research. If the artifact meets the basic requirements per our policies, it will be put on the agenda for our next Collections Committee meeting. We will check to make sure the condition of the artifact is suitable, compare it to artifacts already in our collection, and determine if it meets BCHS's criteria. We will contact you once a decision to accept or decline your offer is made, typically within two to four weeks after the Collections Committee meeting.
The Paperwork!
If your object is accepted, we will send you a Deed of Gift form, which transfers unrestricted ownership to BCHS. Come in to sign the form or return the signed copy by mail. We are unable to accept donations with limiting conditions such as requiring the artifact to go on exhibit.
What Do We Collect?
BCHS decides whether to accept or decline an artifact donation based on criteria set in our Collections Management Policy found on our website. We appreciate all offers, but we cannot accept everything. Storage space and resources are limited. Part of managing the artifact collection is having to respectfully say "no" to new offers of artifacts that are already well-represented in our collection.