Special Collections
The Special Collections Department at the University of Houston Libraries contains a vast array of important and influential materials that truly enrich our student's education and further enhance their research. Through generous donations of books, papers, and other articles of historical value, Special Collections is able to provide a vital resource for our students, community, faculty, staff and researchers.
Given the high cost of acquiring, processing, collecting and protecting these invaluable resources, Special Collections depends on the endowments and monetary gifts of our donors to make these resources available for research, study and exhibition.
Some of these areas include:
- The University Archives – Dedicated to preserving the history of the University of Houston.
- Houston History Archives – A collaborative effort between the Center for Public History and the University Libraries that collects materials related to the general growth and development of the Gulf Coast region, from the nineteenth century to the present.
- Rare Books – Book collections in the Libraries' Special Collections total approximately 66,500 volumes, including a number of named collections in various subject areas.
- Hispanic Collections – A gateway for the community to access the inventories of The Arte Publico Press Records, the archival collections accumulated through the efforts of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, and added Hispanic cultural documentary materials.
- Houston Hip Hop – This exhibition tells the story of DJ Screw and the loose collective of rappers and friends known as the Screwed Up Click (S.U.C.). But it also explores the larger context of a music scene that has been independent, entrepreneurial, and rough-edged from its beginnings in the 1980s in Houston.
- Carey C. Shuart Women's Archive & Research Collection – The Carey C. Shuart Women's Archive and Research Collection contains the records of women's organizations and the papers of prominent Texas women. This archive has been a joint collaboration with the Women's Studies Program and the Friends of Women's Studies board members of the University of Houston. These materials document the range of women's concerns, the ways in which women have come together to achieve their goals, and the impact they have had on the world around them. In fulfilling its mission to gather and preserve unique materials for research, the archive has amassed more than fifty collections and continues to grow.