This collection contains various typed and printed documents, including brochures, student essays, license records, county histories, inventories, and small local publications from various Texas counties. Items come from the North Texas Historical Museum that existed on the UNT campus in what is now Curry Hall from 1925 until its closure in 1986.

The museum was started by the university's history department and the E.D. Criddle Society, a historical society that Professor Criddle founded. Joseph Lyman Kingsbury, a North Texas history professor from 1925-1949, was the main person responsible for gathering the collection. In 1930, the museum was named the Texas State Historical Collection by the state legislature. It held over 250,000 items from all over the world by 1952, until the mid-1960s when Kingsbury's wife retired and the collection was left with no curator.

In 1971, Barbara Butler was named the director and sought to revitalize the collection through increased funding, sponsored lectures, and public outreach. Butler was succeeded by Linda Lavendar, who ran the museum until it closed in 1986. Items in the collection were then divided out among the UNT Archives and the Denton County Historical Museum.