Collection Profiles
Special Collections: Special Collections support the teaching and learning objectives of the Trinity University community by collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary source materials that align with the curriculum. These materials include manuscript collections, ephemera, pamphlets, periodicals and newspapers, rare books, and noteworthy editions, as well as named collections of particular distinction. Special Collections also houses library materials that are particularly fragile.
Existing Collection Strengths: Special Collections has extensive holdings of Texana, particularly of San Antonio history. Other areas of strength include American literature, archaeology, art and art history, fine printing, history of the book, Latin American history, Mesoamerican history, space exploration, and travel literature. Collections of note include the Claude & ZerNona Black Papers, the C.W. Miller Collection of Early Books and Manuscripts, the Oettinger Collection of Mesoamerican Resources, and the Beretta Texana Collections.
Current Collecting Focuses: Special Collections seeks to support Trinity University’s mission as a transformational liberal arts and sciences university by collecting materials that can be used across the Pathways curriculum: through the Approaches to Creation and Analysis, Core Capacities, and the Majors. Special Collections actively seeks to increase its holdings of materials related to world cultures, women’s and gender studies, and twentieth-century history. As the curriculum evolves over time, Special Collections strives to identify new resources to support the demands of changing course offerings.
University Archives: The University Archives document the intellectual, cultural, and organizational history of the university since its founding in 1869. Through official and non-official administrative and departmental records, faculty and alumni papers, records of alumni and student organizations, and university publications, this archive seeks to preserve the evolution of the institution, from the Tehuacana, Waxahachie, and Woodlawn campuses to the present. Records determined for permanent retention due to historical, evidential, and informational value are housed in the University Archives. The University Archivist also manages the capture of web pages, websites, and social media associated with Trinity.
The types of materials the University Archives collects include, but are not limited to:
– Reports, surveys, committee records, and minutes
– University publications, promotional materials, and catalogs
– Photographs, negatives, and slides
– Audio and video recordings
– Oral histories – Documentation of student life, including student organizations
– Archival records of departments, offices, and centers
– Architectural drawings
– Papers of faculty and alumni
– Serials, newspapers, and newsletters
– Books published by Trinity University Press
– Scrapbooks
– University websites, blogs, e-newsletters, and social media
Existing Collecting Strengths: The University Archives has extensive records relating to the presidential tenures of Everett, Laurie, and Calgaard. The archives permanently retains Board of Trustee meeting minutes, official Course of Study Bulletins, and Trinity publications such as the Mirage yearbook(date range), the Trinitonian newspaper (date range), On Trinity Hill (date range), news releases, and the Trinity Magazine (date range). There is also a sizable amount of photo prints, negatives, and images from the university’s communications office. Records and papers of alumni and faculty include alumnus poet and playwright David Matias, alumnus and Board of Trustee member Walter Huntley, Professor Emeritus of Religion Dr. R. Douglas Brackenridge, Trinity University’s first tenured African American professor Dr. Earl M. Lewis, and Trinity’s Theater Department Director Paul Baker.
Current Collecting Focuses: The University Archives actively seeks to collect materials from under-documented student organizations. The archives is interested in alumni materials that show institutional impact through life and career experiences. The archives is also focused on collecting material related Trinity connections with the San Antonio community. With very few exceptions, the University Archives is not interested in collecting personnel or student academic files, large Greek chapter composites, art, large objects such as banners, alumni yearbooks and artifacts such as beanies, and material to which access is restricted in perpetuity or for a period of time deemed by the University Archivist to be beyond a reasonable limitation.
Our full Collection Development Policy is available online.
