Museum of Texas Tech University / History Division

To collect, preserve, document, and interpret the material culture of Lubbock and the South Plains, and its adjacent West Texas regions.

Museum of Texas Tech, History Division, News

JUST MISSED IT??? "Up from the Basement ... State-of-the-Art" was recently shown in MoTTU's Gallery 6. This exhibition showcased inventions from the past. The focus was to identify the social impact of "new" technologies beyond their inventiveness. Just in case you missed it, a revitalized version appears in in the Collections tab above, or just click here.

Other Past Goings On...
From the summer of 2010 to the present, the History Division has seen the exhibition of several of its collections. "Playtime Memories" showcased a part of the toy collection, "Arriving at the Chair: Shave and a Haircut?" highlighted the material world of barbering, and "I bought a writing desk..." brought to visitors the diary and desk of Plains Farmer William DeLoache.
How You Can Catch Up
Web Collections have expanded! Joining past web objects are the new "Spotlight on Collections" additions of "A Real Life Time Machine" and "All About Butter," plus a few others. In case you missed our exhibitions in the museum, check some of them out here.
Student Projects Update
The students of the History Division, led by the current Special Projects Student and former Team Leader, have revised and retro-fitted the large object storage wing of the History Division, a.k.a. the Collections Storage Wing. Vital to this process was the research, design, and creation of a new hands-on operating manual uniquely suited to the special requirements of large object museum storage. This manual required a thorough research understanding of complex object systems, i.e. automobiles, wagons, printing presses, etc. as they apply to collections management practice. The students plan to attend the Texas Association of Museum's Annual Conference in the spring of 2012 to present and discuss their experiences and findings.

Spotlight on Collections: A Real-Life Time Machine The Watch Master G-11, Watch-rate Recorder, is truly a time machine. Designed as a large box, full of capacitors and vacuum tubes, it was once considered a tireless master of measuring each and every tick-tock of a mechanical watch.
Spotlight on Collections: All About Butter These three butter churns represent the very height of home, butter churn technology, for their day.
Railroad Date Nails A 75+ year collection of railroad date nails.
Arriving at the Chair: Shave and a Haircut Barbershops are places of great mystery and intrique. As you sit getting your hair cut, a mystical world of tools and elixirs set to work. People come and go, stories are passed, and in the end you are given a whole new you. It all begins when you sit down into that chair and enter a craft that has been practiced for thousands of years!