The Witte Museum is celebrating its centennial with a new exhibition, The Steves Family: Building San Antonio, highlighting how the family’s lumber and millwork business shaped neighborhoods, civic projects, and parts of the museum. The exhibit features rare photographs, documents, and objects, including a carved family Bible and a child’s Fiesta page outfit, as well as interactive displays like a family tree. It will remain on display into next summer as part of the museum’s 100th-birthday programming.
Exhibit Details
The show runs November 22, 2025 through June 21, 2026 in the newly named Steves Family Gallery and is included with general admission. According to the Witte Museum, highlights range from a firefighter’s helmet used by early volunteer companies and Fiesta coronation garments to a recreated King William tablescape and an interactive display that maps historic homes linked to the family. The gallery blends items from the Witte’s own collections with select loans from the Steves family to follow how a local lumber and millwork operation grew alongside the city itself.
‘The Steves Family: Building San Antonio shows how everyday work and civic effort shaped the city,’ said Michelle Everidge, PhD, CEO and president of the Witte Museum. In a GlobeNewswire press release, museum leaders describe the exhibition as both a detailed family history and a perspective on San Antonio’s growth from the railroad era through wartime industrialization.
Steves Family And The City
The exhibition shows how the Steves family story is intertwined with San Antonio’s history. Visitors see German immigrant household items, like a carved pipe and a family Bible, alongside materials tracing the family’s lumber business, which supplied early neighborhoods. KENS5 reports that Steves & Sons lumber was used in the original 1926 Witte Memorial Museum building. The exhibit follows later generations as they expand from local mills and sash-and-door shops into broader civic roles through the 20th century.
Part Of The Witte's Centennial
The Steves exhibition is a key part of the Witte’s 2026 centennial programming and will be on view through much of the year. ‘This exhibition is about how people, work, and place come together over time,’ said Nalleli Guillen, PhD, vice president of interpretive strategy. The gallery honors Albert Steves Sr., whose 1920s donations helped form the Witte’s earliest collections.
Plan Your Visit
Visitors can find up-to-date ticketing information and hours on the Witte Museum website. The museum is located at 3801 Broadway in Brackenridge Park, and admission to the Steves Family Gallery is included with general admission. The exhibition remains on view through June 21, 2026, giving locals and out-of-town guests plenty of time to explore the objects and stories that helped shape modern San Antonio.
