Museum of Texas Tech University
The Museum was founded as the West Texas Museum in 1929, shortly after Texas Technological College was chartered in 1925. Dr. William Curry Holden served as its first director until 1969 when he retired. He oversaw the construction of the first building, which began as a basement only, through the completion of that facility, to the construction and occupation of the current buildings in 1970. Dr. Holden also identified the first Folsom projectile points from the Lubbock Lake area which became the Lubbock Lake Landmark, an internationally recognized center for studies of early man in the New World.
In the 1990s the site was jointly operated by TTU and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department as Lubbock Lake Landmark State Historical Park. During that time, several new buildings were constructed including the Robert A. "Bob" Nash Interpretive Center and the Quaternary Research Center. In 1999, the state historical park was fully transferred to Texas Tech University under the supervision and care of the Museum of TTU, and returned to the name Lubbock Lake Landmark.
The Museum of Texas Tech University, as an education resource for a diverse audience, collects, researches, and disseminates information about the natural and cultural heritage of local and related regions.
Established in 1929, the Museum is an educational, scientific, cultural, and research element of Texas Tech University. It is a not-for-profit institution by virtue of being a part of Texas Tech University. The Museum's purpose is to support the academic and intellectual mission of Texas Tech University through the collection, preservation, documentation, and research of scientific and cultural material and to disseminate information about those collections and their scientific and cultural topics through exhibition, interpretation, and publication for primary, secondary, and higher education students, the scholarly community, and the general public.
The Museum aspires to provide the highest standard of excellence in museological ethics and practices, while pursuing continuous improvement, stimulating the greatest quantity of quality research, conservation, interpretation, exhibition, and education, and providing support for faculty, staff, and students. The Museum is a multi-faceted institution that includes the main building, the Helen Devitt Jones Auditorium and Sculpture Court and Auditorium, Moody Planetarium, Natural Science Research Laboratory, Lubbock Lake Landmark, research acreage in Val Verde County, and the Center for Advanced Study of Museum Science and Heritage Management.
Explore Related Categories
