History of the Witte Museum

The Witte Museum is located between the ancient San Antonio River and historic Broadway, a bountiful riverside campus with large and open galleries, where Nature, Science and Culture meet through the lens of what we call Texas Deep Time and the themes of Land, Sky and Water.

When you visit, you will be immersed in the land, sky, and water inside and outside on the way to fully experiencing the place we now call Texas.

Since the museum’s founding in 1926, the Witte welcomed visitors from throughout Texas and beyond. It became a trusted keeper of historic artifacts, stories and scientific specimens. 

The exhibitions, collections and programs of the Witte encourage the exploration of Texas, not only the land, water and sky, but also humanity and culture.

The Witte is Texas State and Federally certified curatorial collection repository and labs in archeology, history, geology and paleontology.

The Witte campus provides countless moments of wonder. Many of these experiences are the result of a $100 million renovation and expansion of the Witte Museum over ten years, from 2007 to 2017 when the "New Witte" fully opened, with 174,000 square feet of change.

In 2012, the Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg South Texas Heritage Center opened in the historic Centennial building next to the original Witte Museum. The Center stands as a permanent home for exhibits on the history and art of Texas utilizing the latest museum practices.

In 2014, the Witte, along with more than 100 medical, public health and education leaders, opened the H-E-B Body Adventure, Powered by University Health. It was the first interactive health experience to use POWERpass technology and data retrieval in the U.S.

In 2014, the Witte opened the B. Naylor Morton Research and Collections Center to display the Witte’s iconic artifacts in visible storage, as well as offer space for scholars, archivists and school children to have close encounters with the still growing collection.

In 2017, the Witte opened the Susan Naylor Center, designed by Architects Lake Flato and with exhibitions designed by Gallagher and Associates. The New Witte architecture and galleries won numerous local and national awards.

The Susan Naylor Center opens with the H-E-B Lantern into the Valero Great Hall and Gates Mineral Orientation Theater, and includes the Naylor Family Dinosaur Gallery, McLean Family Texas Wild Gallery, and Kittie West Nelson Ferguson People of the Pecos Gallery.

Quillin enlisted the help of community leaders to form the San Antonio Museum Association. The natural history collection was installed at Main Avenue High School on October 8, 1923, and the search for a museum location was launched.

San Antonio businessman Alfred G. Witte died September 25, 1925, leaving $65,000 to fund a museum in Brackenridge Park. The Witte Museum opened, at the first bend of the San Antonio River and the third entrance to the Park, on October 8, 1926 as the first major museum in Texas.