Museum of Texas Tech University - updated image

The Museum of Texas Tech University is part of

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

. It is made up of the main museum building, the Moody Planetarium, the Natural Science Research Laboratory, the research and educational elements of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, and the

Val Verde County Val Verde County is a county located on the southern Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population is 47,586. Its county seat is Del Rio. The Del Rio micropolitan statistical area includes all of Val Verde County. Val ...

research site. It features collections in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, fine arts, clothing and textiles, history,

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

. The museum's galleries include the Diamond M Galleries with

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

ern artists and a second gallery that focuses on the works of

N.C. Wyeth Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was a student of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 ...

; the Davies Gallery of Southwest Indian Art that displays Southwest Native American pottery and textiles; the Talkington Gallery of Art with 20th and 21st Century art of the Southwestern United States; a gallery about dinosaurs and other Mesozoic fauna; a gallery focused on the southern High Plain's prehistoric

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

megafauna In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower en ...

; and a gallery focused on biodiversity of the

Llano Estacado The Llano Estacado (), sometimes translated into English as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North A ...

. The museum also includes four galleries that displays temporary exhibitions throughout the year.

History

The Museum of Texas Tech University was established as the West Texas Museum in 1929. It was created by the Plains Museum Society. Original plans called for a three-story building to be constructed. In the summer of 1935, 67

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

counties agreed to pool their Texas Centennial money for a regional museum and for 35 historical markers. However, this provided only enough funds to construct a basement, which was formally dedicated on March 5, 1937. The museum called the basement home until 1950, when the entire building was finally completed thanks to $184,381 allocated to the project from the veterans' program surplus in 1948. The museum's first director was Dr. William Curry Holden. He remained in the position until his retirement in 1969. Holden identified the first Folsom projectile points from the Lubbock Lake area at the location now known as the Lubbock Lake Landmark. For a time, the site was operated in conjunction with the

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) is a Texas state agency that oversees and protects wildlife and their habitat (ecology), habitats. In addition, the agency is responsible for managing the state park, state's parks and historical ar ...

. In 1999, it was fully transferred to Texas Tech under the supervision and care of the Museum of Texas Tech University. In 1969, the museum assumed its present name. The following year, it moved into a new $2.5 million facility on a seventy-six-acre tract, and its former building, Holden Hall, was converted into classrooms and office space. Shortly after this expansion, the Natural Science Research Laboratory (NSRL) was added. Additions to the museum since 1970 include the establishment of the National Ranching Heritage Center (1976), the construction of facilities at the Lubbock Lake Landmark (1990), the building of the Diamond M Wing to house the Diamond M Fine Art Collection (1995), the addition of the Helen Jones Auditorium and Sculpture Court Wing (2001), the building of the NSRL Addition (2004), and the construction of an educational space addition to the Nash Interpretive Center at the Landmark (2007). While the physical plant was growing, the museum continued to add objects and specimens. As of 2023, its collections contain nearly 9.5 million objects and specimens. In June 2023, the Museum of Texas Tech University expanded with the opening of the 18,000 ft² Dr. Robert Neff and Louise Willson Arnold Wing. The construction expansion project consisted of three floors: a ground floor that added nearly 4,000 square feet of new gallery space to exhibit the Arnold's art collection and temporary exhibitions of regional and national art, a second floor that provided offices and laboratories for Texas Tech's Heritage and Museum Sciences Graduate Program, and a basement area to house collection storage for the Arnold’s art collection and other fine art at the Museum.

Accreditation and certification

The Museum of Texas Tech University was first accredited by the

American Alliance of Museums The American Alliance of Museums (AAM), formerly the American Association of Museums, is a non-profit association whose goal is to bring museums together. Founded in 1906, the organization advocates for museums and provides "museum professionals w ...

(AAM) in 1990. In 1998, it received continuing accreditation. AAM accreditation was renewed again in 2008 and 2020 and is effective for ten years. Only 774 of the nation's 17,000 museums are AAM accredited and, of those, only 108 are university or college facilities. In May 2008, the

Texas Historical Commission The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the U.S. state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Histor ...

gave the museum exemplary certification through the Curatorial Facility Certification Program. The museum is the first to have no deficiencies and no disabling factors during its evaluation prior to certification.

References

External links

Museum of Texas Tech University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Texas Tech University Museum

Museum of Texas Tech University The Museum of Texas Tech University is part of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. It is made up of the main museum building, the Moody Planetarium, the Natural Science Research Laboratory, the research and educational elements of the Lubbo ...

Dinosaur museums in the United States Paleontology in Texas

History

Accreditation and certification

See also

References

External links