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Clear Lake Area Collection

Information on the Clear Lake Area Collection at the UHCL Archives and Special Collections; created by Erin Henry and Matthew M. Peek

CLA Collections, Alphabetical List

  • 1966 Clear Lake Theatre Time Capsule
    • This collection is composed of materials originally stored in a time capsule buried at the Clear Lake Theatre on April 20, 1966. These items were salvaged from the water-logged time capsule by the UHCL Archives and Special Collections on April 20, 2016, after the capsule was opened. Items stored in the time capsule featured original local Clear Lake City publications and materials, newspapers, Freeman Library documents, an American flag flown on Gemini 5 with a letter from astronaut Pete Conrad, and other materials. Items are housed in the UHCL Archives except for any items that may be on exhibit at the Freeman Branch Library in coastal Houston, Texas. A number of the items from the time capsule have been digitized and placed online in the UHCL Neumann Library Institutional Repository, and are available through the collection link.
  • Atheneum Study Club Records
    • The Atheneum Study Club was a literary and music club founded in Pasadena, Texas, on January 17, 1946. The founding members were president Mrs. Donald Miller; vice president Mrs. Frank J. Hinkley; secretary Mrs. C.F. Jaggers; treasurer Mrs. G.A. Hunt; historian Mrs. W.H. Sparks; press chairman Mrs. Ralph Hall; and parliamentarian Mrs. J.H. Swan. The founding members chose the marigold to serve as the club flower, and white and gold to be the club colors. “Good books are the best of friends” was chosen as the club motto.” Annual dues of one dollar were established, and a limit of 20 people for the club membership was set at the club’s founding. The collection contains program information, minutes, reports, correspondence, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and other materials documenting the activities and history of the Atheneum Study Club from the late 1960s through 2013.
  • Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership (BAHEP) Records
    • The Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership (BAHEP) Records is composed of original materials documenting the development and operational history of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership (formerly known as the Clear Lake Area Economic Development Foundation), from its beginning in 1976 to recent years. BAHEP operates as a promotional marketing and development membership agency for businesses in the Bay Area Houston region of southeast coastal Texas. Its mission has been to work attracting and bringing new companies to the area and creating new employment opportunities for residents, by attracting, retaining, and expanding industry within the region The collection includes organizational histories, board meeting minutes, newspaper articles, press releases, promotional brochures, events information and records, awards, photographs, and magazine issues.
  • Bay Area Medical Wives Club Records
    • The Bay Area Medical Wives Club (BAMWC) was established by the wives of the physicians in the Bay Area of Houston, Texas, for the holding of meetings and events for physicians’ wives. The early chair members of the club were Sandy Basso, Anna Mae Boyer, Sharon Dillard, Ann Wager, and Mary Sue Anton. Mary Sue Anton was a past president of the Bay Area Medical Wives Club, and the donor of this collection. The BAMWC involved varies social and education activities—particularly involving the St. John Hospital of Nassau Bay fundraising event gala, held from 1984 to 1994. Mary Sue Anton was the St. John Hospital gala committee volunteer member. The St. John Hospital was run by the Houston-based Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word until 2014. The Hospital became the part of Houston Methodist Hospital system in 2014, renamed as Houston Methodist St. John Hospital. Another renaming came in 2018, when it was changed to the Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital. The collection is composed of a scrapbook, correspondence, newspaper clippings, newsletters, agenda, miscellaneous documents, and oversized materials, documenting from the period of 1972-1994. The documents are Bay Area Medical Wives’ newsletters, events information, newspaper clippings, and St. John Hospital Gala fundraising events.
  • Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Records

    • The Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Records is composed of newsletters, magazines, newspaper issues, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, promotional booklets, and miscellaneous materials, created or compiled by the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce (CLACC) of the coastal Bay Area of Houston, Texas, region. Dating from the 1960s through the early 2000s, the materials document important business and community developments for the Clear Lake Area, that includes the following communities: port of Houston, Clear Lake Shores, El Lago, Kemah, League City, Nassau Bay, Seabrook, Taylor Lake Village, and Webster. In most cases, the information in these records is unavailable anywhere in the United States.

    • The majority of the collection is composed of CLACC newsletters and magazines published between 1967 and 2003. These publications document the roles and activities of CLACC in the coastal Houston region, as well as providing community and business history during this period. New CLACC board members, new CLACC programs and activities, new local businesses, and general community information are included in these publications. One of the largest sets of materials in the collection are different types of scrapbooks created by the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce between 1963 and 1986. An interesting series of scrapbooks were referred to as “Economic Growth Announcements Scrapbooks.” These mostly contain newspaper clippings, community profiles, and miscellaneous materials, about various aspects of local Clear Lake Area events, CLACC happenings, and local history columns published in the Clear Lake Citizen newspaper between 1967 and 1976.

  • Clear Lake Area Neighborhood Newsletter Collection
    • The Clear Lake Area Neighborhood Newsletter Collection contains original local community newspapers and newsletters for towns and cities in the greater Clear Lake area of Houston, Texas. The publications contain hard-to-locate local neighborhood information, and date depending on the publication between 1973 and 2010. The publications represent the neighborhoods, towns, and cities of Clear Lake Forest, Taylor Lake Village, Seabrook, Nassau Bay, and El Lago, Texas.
  • Clear Lake Area Reference Collection
    • The Clear Lake Area Reference Collection contains brochures, pamphlets, newspaper articles, event programs, flyers, publications, and miscellaneous materials, collected by the University of Houston-Clear Lake Archives and Special Collections to document the history of the Clear Lake area of Houston. The materials were originally organized as the “Clear Lake Vertical Subject Files”. The materials generally represent published and printed materials accessible to the local public, particularly area residents or visitors, including publications like quarterly newsletters. Many of the items were published by commercial entities, such as business organizations or chambers of commerce. The collection also includes a significant amount of newspaper or magazine publications, both clipping copies and full documents.
  • Clear Lake Area Subject File
    • The Clear Lake Area Subject File collection is composed of original vertical subject files compiled by reference librarians at the Freeman Branch Library in coastal Houston, Texas, to document the history of the Clear Lake City area from its founding in the early 1960s through 2007. The collection includes copies of deed restrictions for most of the original Clear Lake City neighborhoods; partially documents Houston’s annexation of Clear Lake City; Clear Lake City subdivision history and information; Clear Lake area history information; and issues of local publications.
  • Clear Lake Heritage Society Book Records
    • The collection is composed of reproduction and original photographs, documents, pamphlets, booklets, and other materials, compiled or created by the Clear Lake Heritage Society (later Clear Lake Area Heritage Society) for the purpose of the publication of a coffee table-style history book on communities in the Clear Lake area of Texas. The book was supposed to be published between 1992 and 1993, but the California publisher Windsor Publications, Inc., went out of business in 1993. The materials in this collection are the items sent in the packet of reproduction and original historical photographs, manuscript pages, and other information, by the Society to the publisher for the book project.
    • The collection features images and historical information on various Clear Lake area communities, individuals, and organizations, including Kemah, League City, Clear Lake City, Clear Creek, and Japanese pioneer Mitsutaro Kobayashi, among other topics.
  • Ellington Research Collection
    • The Ellington Field Research Collection contains organizational histories, newspaper articles, manuscript drafts, photographs, memos, correspondence, copied items, newsletter issues, and miscellaneous materials, compiled as research materials by NASA Johnson Space Center historian William Larsen for author and NASA summer fellow Erik Carlson to write the NASA publication Ellington Field: A Short History, 1917-1962, in February 1999. It appears that Larsen had begun a manuscript for this history, but Carlson finished it and it was published under Carlson’s name. The materials in the collection pertain to the history and operation of Ellington Field (also known as Ellington Air Force Base) near Houston, Texas. The field has been used since 1962 by NASA Johnson Space Center for test flights and other aviation-based research related to human space flight.
  • Emogene Brummerhop Newspaper Collection
    • The Emogene Brummerhop Newspaper Collection is composed of the original newspaper sheets and clippings from the records retained by Emogene Brummerhop, including from her time as a local Bay Area columnist. The collection includes periodicals published in the Houston-Galveston Area, with a small number of articles about the NASA Space Program from other sources. The subjects of the newspaper clippings are the newspaper columns of Emogene Brummerhop, as well as local information and news. The materials including content with an emphasis on the NASA human space flight program at Johnson Space Center.
  • Friends of Evelyn Meador Library History Collection
    • The Friends of Evelyn Meador Library History Collection is composed of original and copied historical documents, correspondence, photographs, land records and deeds, school records, board meeting records, calendars, family histories and genealogical information, newspaper clippings and articles, oversized materials, and miscellaneous materials, documenting aspects of the history of the city of Seabrook, Texas, and the wider Clear Lake area. The collection was created by the Friends of Meador Library, the nonprofit support organization for the Evelyn Meador Branch Library of Harris County Public Library, located in Seabrook. The materials cover local organizations and institutions (like churches and schools), non-period copies of land records for Seabrook parcels, and general history of community events and programs.
  • Friends of Freeman Library Records
    • The Friends of Freeman Library Records is composed of meeting minutes, reports, correspondence, financial records, fundraising records, volunteer information, photographs and negatives, a 16mm motion picture film, flyers, brochures, newsletters, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous materials, documenting the founding and operation of the non-profit organization Friends of Freeman Library. The Friends works to support what was the Freeman Memorial Library when the organization was first founded around 1966 in coastal Houston, Texas. Most of the records touch on the operation of the Friends of Freeman Library and the Freeman Library itself. The most significant organizational records are the board meeting minutes for Board of the Friends, financial records, newsletters, and membership information. There is also a large number of records related to the Friends’ fundraising efforts for the new Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch Library building in 2004.
  • Gloria Wells Papers
    • The Gloria Wells Papers is composed of NASA educational materials, community planning and visitor materials, photographs, newspaper articles, magazines, newsletters, posters, and artwork, documenting the history of the Clear Lake area of Houston Texas, and the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center). The materials cover the period of 1961 to 2008, though most of the items are dated between 1961 and 1969. The materials were originally stored in a closet, believed to be in a property that real estate appraiser Gloria Robb Wells of the Wells Company Houston had been working with at some point. The original owner of the materials is unknown.
  • League of Women Voters of the Bay Area Records
    • The League of Women Voters of the Bay Area Records is composed of board meeting minutes, annual reports, newsletters, member handbooks, flyers, correspondence, financial records, publications, newspaper articles, and miscellaneous materials, documenting the history and operations of the League of Women Voters of the Bay Area (LWVBA) in coastal Houston, Texas. The collection mostly documents their operations from 1966 to 2008. The largest set of materials are the LWVBA board meeting minutes from 1966 to 2002, which provide the operational and decision-making history for the organization during its first thirty-six years. The collection also includes two official League scrapbooks, compiled between 1979 and 1993 (with a gap in 1985), documenting the groups activities during this period.
  • Nassau Bay Garden Club Records
    • The Nassau Bay Garden Club Records is composed of the original records of the Nassau Bay Garden Club of the city of Nassau Bay, Texas. The records in the collection include club history records, budgets, correspondence, meetings minutes, membership lists, publications, club president’s notebooks, project files, fundraising records, reports, scrapbooks, and other materials. Such materials in the collection include project files detailing the operation of the Club’s Yard of the Month competition and fundraisers. The Club’s original newsletters “Bloomin’ Notes” and “Blossoming Notes” document the work done from 1994 to 2008.
    • The largest set of materials in the collection are the original Club scrapbooks, dating back to 1971 and running through 1999. The scrapbooks contain fliers, clippings, artwork, and photographs documenting the activities of the Nassau Bay Garden Club.
  • Seabrook History Collection
    • The Seabrook History Collection is composed of a selection of original and copied materials documenting the history of the city of Seabrook, Texas. The collection includes photographs, newspaper articles, interview transcripts, manuscripts, and magazine issues.
  • Timber Cove Collection
    • The Timber Cove Collection is composed of memoirs, oral history interviews, maps, brochures, event programs, a telephone directory, and miscellaneous materials, documenting the history of the Timber Cove neighborhood of Taylor Lake Village, Texas. The collection was created by Deborah Griffin, a resident of Timber Cove and director of operations at University of Houston-Clear Lake’s College of Human Sciences and Humanities, during efforts to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the neighborhood. Current and former residents of Timber Cove donated items about their lives in the neighborhood, and participated in oral history interviews related to the neighborhood’s history.
  • Timber Cove Garden Club Records
    • The Timber Cove Garden Club Records is composed of founding and historical documents, correspondence, programs and events, local publications, newspaper clippings, photographs (loose ones and ones taken from photo albums), and scrapbooks, documenting the development and operation of the Timber Cove Garden Club in the Timber Cove neighborhood of Taylor Lake Village, Texas. founding and historical documents, correspondence, programs and events, local publications, newspaper clippings, photographs (loose ones and ones taken from photo albums), and scrapbooks. The Garden Club was formed in 1963, with the first meetings being held in 1964. Officers were elected, policies and by-laws written, programs planned, and meetings held within the homes of its members. In 1990, membership was later opened to Lake Country residents. The objectives of the club were to foster friendships among neighbors, enhance community awareness, and provide educational and cultural opportunities to its members.
  • Timber Cove Recreation Association
    • The Timber Cove Recreation Association Records is composed of correspondence, organization meeting minutes, annual reports, membership records, financial records, construction records, and miscellaneous records, documenting the operation of the Timber Cove Civic Club and its successor Timber Cove Recreation Association in supporting the Timber Cove neighborhood of Taylor Lake Village, Texas. cThe bulk of the collection is composed of the organizational records for the Timber Cove Recreation Association, such as their annual reports and correspondence to members. There are the board meeting minutes from 1965 to 2006 (with gaps in dates).

 

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