Ask Us Your QuestionsFour generations of photographers – all named Byrd Williams – documented more than 100 years of North Texas history with their work. Now, UNT Libraries has acquired their collection, consisting of over 10,000 prints and 300,000 negatives. The materials include commercial and studio photography, western landscapes, documentary studies, and fine art photography. Family correspondence, artifacts, and a collection of cameras were also donated by Byrd Williams IV.
UNT Libraries Special Collections: Our Collection Areas
Dorothy Howard, author on children's games and folklore, graduated from NTSTC in 1923 and taught in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Nebraska. She published extensively, including poetry, articles and books (Dorothy's World: Childhood in Sabine Bottom, 1902-1910, (1977), and Pedro of Tonalá (1989)).
Latino/a Collections
Latino and Mexican-American students have a long history of accomplishment at UNT. It is imperative that this history be collected, preserved, and made available to the current generation of scholars, activists, and historians. We seek to actively collect, preserve, and provide access to these historical materials that document the Latino/a community in North Texas and give face to Latino/a student history, leadership, and activism at UNT.
Latino and Latina Collections at the University of North Texas document the diverse cultural history of Texas, Mexico and Latin America. This major collection initiative seeks to develop rich primary source documentation of the artistic, political, economic and cultural history of our university and our region.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Archive aT UNT is a repository for records documenting the history and culture of the LGBT communities in the South and the Southwest. This major collecting initiative documents people, places, and events through primary source materials, including letters, photographs, newspapers and magazines, scrapbooks, diaries, audio-visual materials, organizational records, posters, flyers and objects.
Miniature books are defined as those books under 4" (3" in some places) in height. Books in small sizes have been produced since antiquity, and continue to be produced to this day. They are all "real" books, with pages, printing, illustrations, etc. —just very small.
UNT Libraries house the complete news archive of NBC 5/KXAS (formerly WBAP), the oldest television news station in Texas. The archive contains historic broadcast footage, scripts, advertisements, still photography and research files dating from 1950 through 2012. Film and video in the archive remain in its original physical format, such as 16mm film and obsolete video formats such as UMATIC tape, making it difficult to view and preserve.
Oral histories fill in the gaps in the written record by preserving the memories of individuals who have been eye-witnesses to, or participants in, historic events. The UNT collection consists of approximately 1,700 bound volumes of interviews. The transcripts were generated by the UNT Oral History Program in the university's History Department and the UNT College of Business Administration.
Pat Warde Memorial Collection of Southern Letters
Pat Warde was an integral part of the intellectual and political life of UNT and the entire Denton community. In memory of his wife's love of literature and her dedication to the best ideals incorporated in the great literature of the South, Bill Warde established the Pat Warde Memorial Collection of Southern Letters for the UNT Library in 1992.
Photography and Visual Materials Collections
Visual representation forms an important part of many academic disciplines including art, anthropology, history and cultural studies. The Photography and Visual Materials Collection documents the history of photography and visual representation through the works of both traditional and vernacular artists. The collection includes fine art photography, studio and commercial work, specimens of early photography and other types of visual art such as paintings, posters, illustrations, sculpture and folk art.
Early explorer accounts, the history of Dr. Pepper, signed documents by Sam Houston and Santa Anna, laws and decrees, biographies, memoirs, and archives of artists and authors are all part of the Texana Collections.
The Black Academy of Arts of Letters
The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) Collection comprises 247 boxes of archival documents, video and photographs documenting the history and activities of the Dallas-based arts organization. TBAAL was founded in 1977 by Curtis King as on outgrowth of the New York City based, Black Academy of Arts and Letters, with a mission to create and enhance an awareness and understanding of artistic, cultural and aesthetic differences utilizing the framework of African, African-American and Caribbean Arts and Letter
The TXSSAR Archives includes more than 105 linear feet of materials, including newsletters, official records, photographs and scrap books documenting the activities of the Texas Society, Sons of the American Revolution.
The University Archive is the home for the university’s historical documents, photos, collections and artifacts. Scholarly researchers, genealogists, historians, students, faculty and the public are all welcome to use the University Archive.
Special Collections has important holdings in Victorian Literature, 19th century British fiction, poetry and relevant periodicals. Much of the collection has been donated by Emeritus Professor J. Don Vann and his wife Dolores.
Highlights of the collection include a first edition of A Christmas Carol, the periodical All the Year Round which contains the first serialization of A Tale of Two Cities, and other serialized first editions including Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House and David Copperfield.
Victorian periodicals represented in the collection include Household Words, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Punch and Illustrated London News.
In the 1930's, Mrs. Gustine Courson Weaver (1873-1942) began donating to what was then the North Texas State Teachers College. By the time of her death in 1942, the university holdings had been enriched by a number of significant research collections, including nearly 2,000 volumes of important juvenile books that she donated in 1936. The main portion of the Weaver Collection is works of fiction - children's books from all ages. Mrs. Weaver's original collection concentrated on the 19th century, with examples from the 18th and early 20th century. In recent years, items ranging from the 1500's to the 21st century have been added to help create a more complete view of the history of children's literature