Baylor’s Texas Collection named among world’s top 20 university special collections

A new list of “The 20 Most Impressive University Special Collections” includes some of the most prestigious institutions in the world: Cambridge. Oxford. Yale. Duke. And Baylor.

OEDb.org, which covers all aspects of higher education, compiled the list and recognized Baylor’s Texas Collection for its offerings related to our state’s history. “More than most states, Texas’ history definitely exists as a particularly colorful splotch on the American canvas,” explains the writer. “At Baylor University, this colorful splotch swells to an entire painting, with a collection of thousands of artifacts about how the Lone Star State eventually shaped itself.”

Established in 1923, the Texas Collection includes hundreds of thousands of books, periodicals, photographs and other documents and files, all dealing with Texas and Texans, making it the largest Texana collection at any private university. Except for a short span from 1939-55, the Texas Collection has been housed in historic Carroll Library in the heart of the Baylor campus since its inception. (Read an interesting history of the Texas Collection here.)

The write-up on Baylor also gives special mention the Armstrong Browning Library for its collection of manuscripts and other items related to Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.

Sic ’em, Baylor libraries!

You might also like:
* Armstrong Browning Library named one of the 50 most beautiful college libraries in the world (Jan. 2012)
* Texas Historical Commission honors Baylor’s part in preserving the state’s history (April 2011)
* KWBU-FM program shares Treasures of the Texas Collection (Feb. 2010)
* Historical markers to honor Texas Collection and Carroll Library (Oct. 2008)