Witte Museum, Cultural history museum in San Antonio, United States.
The Witte Museum is a cultural institution in San Antonio occupying multiple buildings with exhibits on natural history, science, and Texas heritage alongside dedicated galleries for temporary shows. The complex houses diverse collections spanning anthropology and paleontology.
The museum grew from a natural history collection bought for the city for $5,000 by botanist Ellen Schulz Quillin, housed in a high school until it outgrew the space. A $65,000 bequest from Alfred G. Witte funded a new building, and the Witte Memorial Museum opened in 1926 under the San Antonio Museum Association. It was renamed the Witte Museum in 1984.
The museum displays exhibits about Native American societies, African American cowboys, and Texas wildlife through artifacts and interactive displays where visitors can learn about different communities and their stories.
The museum stands in Brackenridge Park on the bank of the San Antonio River, in the Midtown Brackenridge area. A 350-car parking garage serves the campus, and the entrance faces a wide paved forecourt with steps. Inside, a glass-walled atrium holds a suspended pterosaur model above the wooden ceiling structure.
The museum's name honours Alfred G. Witte, a San Antonio businessman who left the city $65,000 for a museum of art, science and natural history in memory of his parents. The founding collection was bought for $5,000: natural history specimens assembled by Henry Philemon Attwater, purchased for the city by botanist Ellen Schulz Quillin, who became the first director.
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