For Southeast Texas, the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center serves as more than a home to historical records and artifacts. The Center is trusted with the collective narrative of the people who have lived and worked in this remarkable region of piney woods and Gulf coastlines.
The Sam Houston Center opened in 1977 and serves as the regional historical resource depository for Chambers, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton, Orange, Polk, San Jacinto, and Tyler Counties. Part of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the campus encompasses 127 acres on Farm-to-Market Road 1011 in Liberty, Texas, and includes a main building housing a museum and research library, four historical structures, and the Jean and Price Daniel Home and Archives. The Center regularly hosts community events centered on exploring and celebrating the area’s rich heritage.

Visit the museum, featuring the exhibit Atascosito: The History of Southeast Texas, which chronicles the region’s past through dynamic displays of artifacts, photographs, maps, and historical documents. The exhibit showcases the development of the area, including its river economy, timber industry, rice agriculture, and expansive oil fields, while also sharing stories of the thousands of years of growth and movement of people through what has become the 10-county region. Highlights include artifacts from the first Spanish outpost in the area and the Civil War Battle of Sabine Pass, the private executive record of Sam Houston from his second term as president of the Republic of Texas, and even a lock of his hair. Some of the 10,000 arrowheads from the Center’s holdings can be seen, along with a steamboat anchor, a portion of a paddlewheel—and much more.
The library includes materials pertaining to the history of the region and related Texana and genealogy resources. The archives consist of both government and personal records. A few notable items are a letter from Andrew Jackson introducing Sam Houston to Thomas Jefferson (1823); an eighteenth-century map of Texas; the papers of Sallie and Nadine Woods (1940s-1970s), who started the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation; a diary purported to be that of Gulf Coast pirate Jean Lafitte; and a collection of photographs documenting the early twentieth century lumber industry. And that’s just a taste; the Sam Houston Center preserves more than 12,000 cubic feet of historical materials—if the boxes were set out next to each other, they would run the length of 55 football fields!
Left Price Daniel and family campaigning for U.S. Senate, 1952. Courtesy Sam Houston Center, TSLAC. Right One of the librarians working in “the stacks.”
The Center’s four historic buildings range in date from 1848 to circa 1930, and the Jean and Price Daniel Home and Archives, patterned after the Texas Governor’s Mansion, was constructed in 1983. It preserves the library, archives, furnishings, and mementos that document the lives and public service of Price Daniel, Sr., governor of Texas from 1957 to 1963, and his wife Jean Houston Baldwin Daniel, a great-great-granddaughter of the Center’s namesake, Sam Houston.
Guided tours of the Center’s buildings and grounds are provided to school, civic, and social groups, families, and interested individuals by appointment; we recommend booking your tour at least two weeks in advance.
Visitors are welcome to view exhibits in the museum and conduct research in the library Tuesday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Locals and tourists alike are invited to explore the Sam Houston Center and attend one of its popular public events. The Center hosts a quarterly book club, family history days, hands-on nature and astronomy gatherings, special guest lectures and historical re-enactor talks, and an annual holiday celebration.
