What would one day become the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library began soon after
Texas Technological College opened its doors for the first time on September 30, 1925.  In 1928, Elizabeth
Howard West, became the school’s first librarian. In 1929, Clifford B. Jones, Spur Ranch manager and
chairman of Texas Tech‘s Board of Directors, provided the new College with 26,000 pages of records from
the historic Espuela Land and Cattle Company. West enthusiastically made students aware of the records
and found them a home in the library, then located in the Administration Building.

Meanwhile, William Curry Holden joined the Tech history faculty and along with Jones, began advocating
the collection of primary materials for historical research. By April of 1930, the trio had persuaded the
superintendent of the Matador Land and Cattle Company to donate early records of the ranch. These
records became the genesis for an increasing number of ranching materials, the basis of the early Southwest
Collection. 

As the records continued to grow, Elizabeth West included in plans for the new library (now part of the
Mathematics and Statistics Building), a special section for archives, records, maps and rare books.  When
West retired in 1942, her immediate successors shared little of her enthusiasm for collecting dusty records,
all of which were now stacked away, neglected and largely unused in a corner of the library’s basement.  At
one point, the decision was made to send the material to the city dump. 

Fortunately, most of the records were saved, and in the spring of 1948, Jones and Holden, among others,
devised the name and concept of the modern Southwest Collection.  Still, the fledgling Collection limped
along until the spring of 1955 when the papers of historian Carl Coke Rister became available following his
death.  Texas Tech’s Board of Directors decided to purchase the papers, establish the Southwest Collection
as a separate department housed in the West Texas Museum (now part of Holden Hall), and hire a
full-time director. 

Since 1955, the Southwest Collection has experienced phenomenal growth culminating in the 1996 completion
of a new facility and broader collection and development responsibilities. Under the leadership of four directors
during its history, the Southwest Collection has evolved into the Southwest Collection/Special Collections
Library, widely recognized as a premier source of history on the Southwest and the Vietnam conflict.

With added emphasis on sports history, natural history and the performing arts, the Southwest Collection/
Special Collections Library is rapidly becoming one of the major research collections in the United States.